Plans for 38 affordable homes near Oswestry are submitted

Wrekin Housing Group and Derwen College have unveiled new plans to develop a plot of land off Southlands Avenue.

The college secured outline permission for 27 houses on the site back in 2018.

Under the revised proposals, six two-bed bungalows will be built along with eight one-bed houses, four two-beds and 20 three-beds.

The site wraps around the Southlands Court bungalows development and includes a central area of public open space.

The land is allocated for up to 20 homes in the council’s current development plan.

A design and access statement submitted along with the application says the layout is constrained by a water main running through the site.

The statement concludes: “The principle of the development of this site has already been established and an approval given in November 2018.

“Our later pre-application consultation with Shropshire Council reinforces this decision with a mainly positive set of responses from the council. Many of these responses have now been incorporated into the proposals submitted.

“Since this consultation technical and design issues have been progressing.

“Some recent discoveries have changed the direction of design and some have reinforced it.

“We have now got to the stage where we are confident that a quality, deliverable scheme can be built, taking into consideration site restrictions, housing mix and good design.

“The process has taken longer than expected due to the unexpected services discovery, however we are grateful that this did not occur at a later stage.

“We hope that the council will continue to support our proposals so that we can deliver much needed new affordable homes in the village.”

Pre-application advice from the council to the applicants said: “As the site is an allocated development site and within the development boundary of Gobowen, officers are supportive of residential development.

“Officers are also supportive of the provision of affordable housing however the demand within the local area will need to be established with the affordable housing team prior to the applications submission in order to justify the number of units proposed, above the existing permission on site for 27 dwellings and the site allocation within the [development plan] of 20 dwellings.”

The application will now be decided by Shropshire Council.