Former village bowling green could be turned into religious building under plans

The Plymouth Brethren Christian Church (PBCC) wants to build a religious meeting hall and car park on the former bowling green site in Ford off the A458.

Also proposed for the site in a separate outline planning application is a house and reconfigured access.

Both plans will be considered by Shropshire Council’s planning committee at a meeting next week after Ford Parish Council objected to both proposals.

Planning permission has previously been granted for two homes to be built on the disused site. A Shropshire Council planning officer has recommended that both plans are approved at next week’s meeting.

The proposed religious meeting hall is also planned to include a ‘modest kitchen’ and toilet facilities.

The PBCC states that the hall would be for its sole use. It proposes to use the building for prayer and meetings for religious worship and bible readings.

In a planning statement PBCC states that the building would be used for two services per week (one early Sunday morning and one late evening on Mondays) with ‘occasional meetings’ between those times.

Services would be for between 25 and 35 people with occasional meetings attended by smaller groups of 10 to 20 people.

The proposals are for 18 on-site parking spaces with the applicant stating that lifts would be shared within family units.

A Shropshire Council planning officer stated that the site has not been used as bowling green ‘for several years’.

Shropshire Council’s highways, conservation, ecology and drainage departments have all raised no objection to either application.

Ford Parish Council objected to both proposals raising concern about the site being ‘open countryside’ which they wish to retain.

They also raised concerns that the housing application was for outline consent with limited details and not a full application.

Relating to the proposed religious building the parish council raised concern about safety issues with additional cars pulling out onto the A458.

It states that the main road ‘suffers from speeding traffic and dangerous driving e.g. dangerous overtaking’.

Two other objections raised concerns about the religious building being positioned opposite an established pub/restaurant and entertainment venue.

Shropshire Council’s highways department said that the access arrangements ‘are acceptable’ and that a ‘satisfactory level’ of parking is provided.

“In response to these concerns the applicant draws attention to the hours of use of the hall being generally outside the normal busy operating hours of a public house premises and that the prayer meetings are located internally within the building,” concluded the planning officer’s report.

“With respect to this it is acknowledged that planning decisions should ensure that new development can be effectively integrated with existing businesses, and they should not have unreasonable restrictions placed on them as a result of development permitted after they were established.”

The council’s planning officer added that an assessment of the existing facilities/halls was submitted with the application which concluded that there are no available properties/facilities to meet the religious group’s identified need.

“The applicant believes that church and meeting halls are a sacrosanct place where only religious activities should take place,” adds the planning officer.

“As such the use of third-party buildings, such as the existing village hall in Ford would not be suitable or appropriate for this type of religious.

“The site is not in an isolated or prominent location whereby its redevelopment as proposed would be a significant or unacceptable change.

“The proposed building would be modest in scale and have a simple traditional form which would not be inappropriate or appear overly strident in the street scene being set back from the highway junction behind an established boundary hedgerow.”

The plans will be considered by Shropshire Council’s southern planning committee next Thursday.