Homes plan for former primary school near Shrewsbury set to be approved

Proposals from Shropshire Council's own housing developer, Cornovii, for the development at Bayston Hill's closed Oakland Primary School, will be considered by the authority's planning committee next week.

The access to the site will be off Glebe Road.

As part of the application a '106 agreement' will see Cornovii required to provide two affordable bungalows in the development, as well as two affordable two-bedroom homes.

Cornovii will also be required to provide a payment to help improve local sports pitches, to compensate for the loss of the pitches at the site.

Sport England and the council's leisure officer have said that £75,000 is needed for the improvements, but that the developer has said it wants to pay less. Discussions will now take place to decide on the amount.

A final condition is the creation of areas of public open space.

The development will include two of the areas – one at the centre and the other to the northern side of the access road. As part of the plans, two smaller areas are stated to be additional open space, creating a total of 2,197sqm.

The school closed around ten years ago and the site was vacated when Oakland and Longmeadow schools merged to form Oakmeadow Primary School.

The report recommends councillors approve the plans – subject to the conditions being carried out.

It says the project would be a beneficial use of a brownfield site.

In his report, planning officer John Shaw, states: "The proposed development would be considered acceptable in principle and would constitute a sustainable form of development and enable the re-use of a brownfield site.

"The development would bolster the local housing stock, generate an over provision of much needed affordable housing for the village and create accessible public open space for residents.

"The layout is well-designed with open frontages and parking that would be well integrated and not predominant while the design of the dwellings provides visual interest.

"Most existing trees would be retained and submitted landscaping plans indicate significant additional planting throughout, however such landscaping would be conditioned to ensure a high-quality scheme is secured and retained.

"The development would be acceptable in terms of impacts on residential amenity, highway safety, drainage, and sustainability; open space provision would be policy compliant."

In its response to the application Bayston Hill Parish Council said it was pleased to see the site being brought back into use – but was disappointed long-standing plans for a community centre, which were part of previous plans for the wider site, have not yet proceeded.

In a statement it said: "Bayston Hill Parish Council continue to be disappointed that the Community Hub from the original site plans (that included an adjoining plot) are not now included in this smaller development.

"Many years of consultation and work towards having this facility have been swept away. Despite this disappointment, we are pleased to see movement on this long derelict school."

Councillors will take a decision on the plans on Tuesday.