Planners back proposals for 58 home development

The proposal to build 58 houses and six bungalows at land off Shaw Lane in Albrighton is recommended for consent – but councillors will have the final say on whether the project goes ahead.

The application, from Jessups, will be considered at Shropshire Council's south planning committee on Tuesday.

A previous proposal, which also included 74 extra care apartments, was rejected by the committee.

The application recommended for approval next week was resubmitted without the extra care element of the plans.

A report prepared by planning officer Richard Fortune explains that a number of houses will be affordable and managed by a housing trust.

Those remaining will be sold on the open market.

The report states: "The six bungalows would be for people over the age of 55, and 30 of the dwellings would be for general needs housing at affordable rents. The 30 general needs two and three bed houses would be let and managed by The Wrekin Housing Trust, with the balance (a mix of 28 two, three and four bed houses) being open market properties."

The development will be made up of 36 two bedroomed, 16 three bedroomed and six four bedroomed homes.

Access to the development will be from Shaw Lane and the report states: "The land which currently contains the school access drive and the adjacent field access, along with part of the garden to the dwelling on the northern side of the present access arrangement, would be combined to form a 5.5 metre wide access road with 2 metre wide footway on the northern side and a 2.2 metre wide footway on the southern side."

One of the conditions of planning approval will be providing restrictions on people parking on the development, which will also be required to provide 12 parking spaces for people using the railway station.

Albrighton Parish Council has objected to the plans and has called on the committee to reject them.

A submission from the council said: "One of the key problems identified by members is the issue of access to the site. The proposal would see a large number of extra vehicles in the area of Shaw Lane/Station Road that is already heavily congested as residents make use of the primary school and the medical centre and people travelling from the railway station use local streets to park their cars.

"The station car park which was included in the original proposal for this area of the village, to remove on street parking by commuters, appears to have been lost and this is a major concern for the council and makes the application difficult to support. The local Footpath Group have requested that if this application is considered that a bridleway or footpath is provided across the development to encourage locals to access this area on foot."