Fresh plans for major housing project
Plans for 345 homes in Shrewsbury have been submitted for approval after a previous scheme for 296 houses was re-drawn.
The proposals are for the first phase of the Shrewsbury West sustainable urban extension (SUE) which will see a total of 750 homes built in Bicton Heath, near Churncote Island, alongside expansion of the Oxon Business Park, a new health business campus, local centre, road improvements and open space.
As part of the plans the developers, Barratt and David Wilson Homes, will make a contribution of around £3 million towards the construction of the Oxon Link Road, which forms part of the North West Relief Road.
The plans for the first phase of housebuilding have been re-visited since an outline application for 296 houses on land off Welshpool Road was approved in September last year.
While an extra 49 houses have been added in total, the 27 planned five-bed properties have been removed and the number of four-bed homes has been reduced from 107 to 80. Meanwhile the number of one, two, and three-bedroom properties have all been increased.
A planning statement submitted by development consultants Urbanissta, agents to the applicants, said: “The number of dwellings has increased since the outline approval due to changes in the market and the requirement for smaller dwellings to be provided.
“Despite the increase in the number of dwellings the total area covered by housing on site has been reduced from 347,133 square feet to 325,076 square feet .
“The accommodation mix now proposed demonstrates a focus around the delivery of smaller house types on site in accordance with the prevailing housing market conditions.
“The number of accesses from the surrounding roads to the site have been significantly reduced. There is no vehicular access now proposed from Shepherds Lane as the access to driveways have been removed, this will result in a significant reduction in traffic on Shepherds Lane.
“A number of accesses previously proposed to driveways from Calcott Lane have also been removed which will benefit highway safety.”
The outline permission granted last year also included employment land to the south east of the residential site, but that has not been included in the new full application.
The development will include 52 affordable homes, an increase from 45 under the outline plans, and 20,060 square metres of open space – though the amount of open space required for a scheme of this size under planning policy would be 31,380 square metres.
The application will be decided by Shropshire Council.
