Luxury houses near Shrewsbury approved after ‘exceptional’ row
A pair of futuristic homes earmarked for a former railway siding in the Shropshire countryside will go ahead – despite council officers saying they were not “innovative” enough.
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The two large residences earmarked for land at Redhill, near Bayston Hill, had been recommended for refusal by council planners on the grounds that they were not sufficiently “outstanding or innovative” to justify being built on land classed as open countryside.
Under Government planning rules, residential development should not be built in the open countryside unless certain exceptional circumstances apply – one of which is that the scheme is of sufficient quality to “raise the standard” of rural home design.
Shropshire Council planning officers were not convinced by the proposal put forward by applicant Jack and John Gwilliam, but the council's planning committee disagreed, and approved the scheme.
“[National planning policy] is clear that planning decisions should avoid the development of isolated homes in the countryside unless certain circumstances apply, one of which is that the design is of exceptional quality, truly outstanding, reflecting the highest standards in architecture and would help to raise standards of design more generally in rural areas,” said a report by the council’s planning team.
