Housing scheme approved for village despite locals' 'very strong negative reaction'

Plans for 19 affordable homes for a grass field off Merrington Road were given the go-ahead by councillors despite local opposition to the scheme, with 13 affordable rental and six shared-ownership properties now set to be built.

The scheme was originally for 20 houses, containing a mix of properties for rental and part-ownership, but was reworked and scaled down in response to local concerns.

Although the site is outside the development boundary of the village, national planning policy says councils can approve sites for affordable housing where open-market developments would not be considered, provided there is clear local need – known as rural exception sites.

Chair of Bomere Heath and District Parish Council, Dan Harmer, said a “lack of engagement” from the developer on the proposal had led to a “fractious” response from local residents – and he said the parish council could not support the application in its current form.

“The residents by way of 68 objections have displayed a very strong negative reaction to this proposal and the feeling from locals in Bomere Heath is that our development boundaries seem not to be worth the red ink they’re marked up in,” he said.

“In my personal opinion the lack of engagement from this quite controversial proposal has led to a very fractious response from the community and engagement would have answered some of those questions.”

In their response, the parish council had said the proposal was for “more affordable homes than the community require” when taking into account 12 affordable homes set to be included in a proposed development elsewhere in the village which is still under consideration – but a report by Shropshire Council’s affordable housing team said a survey completed last year had identified sufficient local need.

“The affordable housing team has confirmed that in November there was a need for 31 households in the parish of Bomere Heath and of those 19 households met the criteria for a dwelling in Bomere Heath itself and that the mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom properties is a suitable mix to meet the demand,” they said.

“Other sites have been reviewed by the applicant and none are available to them that would be suitable. Sites that are already identified for open market housing within the adopted and draft local plan would not come forward for 100 per cent affordable housing.”

The scheme was approved unanimously by Shropshire Council’s Northern Planning Committee.