Protestors against 'destructive' Muxton housing development asked developers to withdraw application

Campaigners and Telford & Wrekin Council are fighting plans for 78 homes in Muxton Lane after rejecting it as not being appropriate.

Developers have taken it to a planning inquiry, declaring it as being “real homes for real people”.

Philip Loughlin, lead campaigner against the development, told the inquiry: "A dismissal of the appeal should be a right and proper decision.

"As a community we are the only people in this room that are going to be affected by the decision made as a consequence of this hearing.

"Developers show no interest in the needs of the communities, which is evidenced by the number of developers that target rural areas, agricultural land, green spaces, as opposed to focusing on lands already in local plans or on brown field sites.

"Our needs have been lost in legal ping pong and absolute nonsense.

"It's an important field, it's enjoyed by the entire community. The footpath would be absolutely destroyed if it was allowed.

"School trips are made to the site, the most recent was on March 31.

"Points raised by the applicant appear to be opinions and don't reflect the needs of the community."

Mr Loughlin said that a child was injured on a road in the area last week, and the risk would worsen with an increase in traffic.

He said: "Last week an accident occurred on the Wellington Road, a young boy was injured by a travelling car. We must not allow any increase in traffic that this development will cause along this road to be raising the risk of another accident.

"We must all take responsibility to avoid this happening again in the future.

"We ask the developers to withdraw your application with immediate affect.

"Failing to do so will send a message that financial profit is more important than the safety of the community.

"90,000 is the increase of traffic every year that will go up and down the road should this be allowed. This is a destructive proposal."

Jonathan Easton, barrister for Gladman Developments, asked if Mr Loughlin's own house nearby had been built on green land, and he said he did not know.

He said: "There's no such application as part of this scheme that destroys the footpath, the footpath will remain.

"Also, another conservation area will be opened up for people to enjoy as part of it.

“It will provide much-needed housing and will bring forward a significant amount of affordable housing."

Brian Taylor, another campaigner against the development, said: "Our houses around the area were built about 22 years ago and it was on green fields as was most of Telford, it was developed massively in the last 50 years that I have lived here.

"It's a very successful new town but it has planning problems, we have to regulate where these houses are going to be in the future.

"Telford & Wrekin has identified 900 brown field sites in the borough and national government policy is quite clear- development on green field sites should only take place in very special circumstances and brown field sites should take priority.

"These are real objections from real people, we've had more than 1,000 signatures collected against it."

The inquiry was continuing today.