D-day looms for homes bid at Telford beauty spot

In December, Telford & Wrekin Council lost a High Court appeal which opened the door for house building on Haygate Fields in Wellington.

Detailed plans to build 289 homes on the site to the north of Haygate Road have now been lodged with the council by Bovis Homes.

The plans, detailing the design and layout of the planned estate, have already attracted a number of objections on the council's online planning portal.

Mike White, of Haygate View, Wellington, wrote: "So it begins... A speculative development with still no identified need."

Brian Sankey, of Trench Road, Trench, also wrote: "I absolutely object to these plans as I did to the previous plans.

"We have too many housing developments being built in any spare spaces in the towns.

"Provided these plans get blocked, they can then just go and build on the beet factory site as this is land that is waiting to be developed."

According to the plans, a quarter of the development will be affordable homes and there would be a mix of one to five-bedroom properties.

A report, submitted alongside the planning application, says the scheme promises to provide "good quality aspirational housing".

In April 2016 planning inspector David Wildsmith upheld an appeal by Gladman Developments against the council’s decision to refuse planning permission for the homes on Haygate Fields.

Outline planning permission was initially granted by the council but planning chiefs ordered it to be looked at again, claiming Telford already had enough housing either already built or in the pipeline for the next five years.

The developer lodged an appeal with the government, claiming the council had taken too long to make a decision.

The council embarked on a legal fight to overturn the planning inspector’s decision to permit a new estate on Haygate Fields.

But at a hearing in December, the authority found it had not been successful and building could now go ahead on the land by Wellington Cricket Club, off Haygate Road.

Diane Treherne, from the Haygate Fields Group, which campaigned against the development, said even though the appeal had been upheld it was still important for people to have a say on the design of the proposals.

She said: "It's the last chance for the public to have their say. "We are not happy about it but there isn't anything we can do to stop it now. This application is to sort out the details. We can try to have an input into what they are going to build."

Hundreds of people had signed petitions to try to stop the development going ahead at the site, which is near to the town’s cricket club and known to locals as Haygate Fields.