New industrial unit will be built on Telford estate despite row over parking fears

The scheme for Gower Street Trading Estate in St Georges in Telford will see the existing units at numbers 7-9 extended towards Gower Street with the addition of a new 150 square metre building to create separate extra workshop space, next door to three units currently occupied by motor vehicle businesses.

Earlier in 2024, a scheme which would have seen another two new units squeezed onto the site was thrown out by planning officers on the grounds that there was insufficient parking provision in the plans, and that the proposals would lead to visitors to businesses based at the site parking on nearby Gower Street and Walker Crescent.

The new proposals reduced new development at the site to one unit, but the scheme still attracted objections from other businesses on the site, who described a plan to extend the building as "ridiculous and laughable" due to the amount of vehicles they said were already parked outside.

"There has already been mass objections regarding the excessive parking of cars, mobile homes, vans, minibuses etc. by units 7, 8 and 9," wrote Mr Marc Illman, in an objection lodged on behalf of IC International Limited, who are based on the opposite side of the trading estate.

"We, [ the other businesses on the site ] continue to experience problems with the amount of vehicles being illegally parked, abandoned and left blocking the road. We as a company have 40ft vehicles attending our site and anything which adds to more vehicles will have a detrimental effect on our businesses. 

"I would think that if one of the planners were to come down and have a look at the site on any weekday they would find the application to put another unit (with the extra vehicles/traffic this would create) on this already overflowing site to be quite ridiculous and laughable," he added.

An objection was also added by St Georges and Priorslee Parish Council on similar grounds, adding that the new application would deepen existing problems with visitors to the trading estate parking in residential areas.

However a response from the council's highways department said the new application had reduced the demand for parking compared to the previous application, adding that council officers were now happy that parking provision provided by the new proposals was "in line with standards set out in the local plan".

The scheme was approved without a condition proposed by the highways officer that car parking areas included in the plans were hard surfaced and line-marked prior to the start of development work at the site.