1960s planning decision causes headache over Telford care home application
Town councillors have objected to plans to build a care home next to a Telford nature reserve, and asked local authority lawyers to review an earlier decision underpinning the bid.
Bryant Services Inc has applied for outline planning permission to built the three-storey facility on the west side of Severn Drive, Dothill.
Planning permission for a pub on the half-acre site was granted in 1964, and legal notices issued by Telford & Wrekin Council in 2001 and 2019 confirmed this is still valid.
A statement, submitted by Bryant Services’ planning agent, says this means the authority “has now accepted that the site can be lawfully developed” in principle.
Wellington Town Council’s planning committee agreed to oppose the bid after Dothill councillors Karen Tomlinson and Lisa Jinks said the half-acre site was a “valuable open space” that should be protected.
Councillor Tomlinson told the committee that, since 1960, other applications have been submitted to develop the area either as a public house or a children’s nursery and been either refused or withdrawn.
In 2001, a planning design company acting for the site’s then-owners asked Telford & Wrekin Council to confirm the 1964 approval was still valid.
Council solicitor Ian Ross replied that he had studied documents from the time and was “unable to disagree with your client’s view” that it was.
Eighteen years later Kembertons applied for and were granted a “certificate of existing lawful use or development”.
Councillor Tomlinson told the committee she asked the council to use its power, under the 1990 Town and Country Planning Act, to revoke the permission outright.
“Sadly, due to the expense, this was not possible,” she said.
Damage
Councillor Tomlinson added that, when the nursery application was refused, the council’s statement of reasons noted that “the area is designated as Green Network on the previous Wrekin Local Plan, and is adjacent to Dothill Nature Reserve”.
“These comments still stand,” she said.
“This application will damage the visual quality and integrity of the wildlife habitat and result in the loss of a valuable open space buffer between existing residential development and the wildlife site.”
Councillor Jinks agreed, saying: “The original planning application is older than I am, and I don’t see why the people of Dothill should be held to task by it.”
She added that the area has been “completely revamped” since then.
“We should go back to the council, again, and ask them to revoke that planning permission,” she said, calling the land a “very precious commodity”.
Committee vice-chairman Giles Luter said: “I think it’s fairly obvious what the feeling of the committee is regarding this issue. We will strongly oppose this planning application as it stands.”
The statement, submitted by Bryant Services’ Madeley-based planning agent Clive Roberts, of Kembertons, says the planned home would be able to accommodate 64 residents in a mix of single and double rooms.
“Nationally and locally there is a recognition that provision of care facilities, and, in particular, for dementia suffered, is significantly lacking, and greater provision is urgently needed,” Mr Roberts adds.
“The situation is set to get worse in the immediate future as the ‘baby-boomers’ of the late 1940s reach old age.”
The consultation period on the proposal is due to end on Wednesday, November 18, and Telford & Wrekin Council will make its decision at a later date.
