Council defends its record on planning

Mark Pritchard, MP for The Wrekin, accused the council of turning Albrighton, Shifnal and Tong into a 'dumping ground' for the West Midlands' development needs.

During a Commons debate on Tuesday, he said plans for more than 6,000 homes in the area would have a devastating effect on those communities.

Proposals for a further 123 acres of employment land added insult to injury, he added.

He said he wanted to know more about the relationship between Shropshire Council and neighbouring Telford & Wrekin Council, and with the West Midlands Combined Authority.

"Shropshire Council wants to concrete over huge amounts of green belt in Shropshire," said Mr Pritchard.

"The council wants to build up to 3,00 houses on prime green-belt land near the historic and beautiful village of Tong, one of the most beautiful villages in the Diocese of Lichfield, and arguably the most beautiful church in Shropshire."

Ludlow MP Philip Dunne also took part in the debate, and voiced concerns about plans to develop land to the east of Bridgnorth.

Gemma Davies, head of economic growth with Shropshire Council, said the authority was in the process of reviewing its local plan.

She said this was to draw up a planning framework which would run until 2036, taking into account new information on the development needs within the county, and reflecting changes to both national and local policies.

"As part of the ongoing review, Shropshire Council recently consulted on ‘preferred sites’," said Mrs Davies.

"Within Bridgnorth, Shropshire Council identified a preferred location for development at Stanmore to the east of Bridgnorth in order to create a new community as a mixed use ‘garden settlement’."

She said a meeting of the council's cabinet on March 20 had approved, in principle, to explore the benefits of accepting a proportion of unmet development needs from neighbouring authorities in the Black Country.

Land near junction three of the M54 at Cosford had been identified as a possibility for this, said Mrs Davies.

"The next steps are to engage further with those authorities, local communities and other stakeholders to develop positive proposals to meet these development needs and provide local employment opportunities," she added.

This would involve looking at the needs for new infrastructure and facilities, which would later come back to the cabinet.

Mrs Davies said the public would also be allowed to have a say on the proposals.

“The council acknowledges that both of these locations are in the green belt and it will need to demonstrate robust ‘exceptional circumstances'," she said.

"The Local Plan examination is scheduled to take place in 2020.”