Plans for 200 Ludlow homes in doubt over roads

Pickstock Homes has applied to Shropshire Council for permission to build the homes on land in Rocks Green.

The site was earmarked for development within Shropshire Council’s Site Allocations and Management of Development (SAMDev) plan in 2016. The plan is a hybrid application. It is applying for full planning permission for 68 homes and outline planning permission for a further 132. The houses will be a mix of two to five bedrooms, all with two storeys.

Now Shropshire Council’s highways department has joined the authority’s conservation team, the biodiversity team, and Highways England in objecting to the plans.

The highways department said the plans have not shown that the new highway infrastructure would cater for the scale of the development.

The report says: “The application has failed to demonstrate that the new highway infrastructure, including simple priority junction and pedestrian/cycle routes, is acceptable for the scale of development proposed.

“Also that the impact of this proposed development can be appropriately mitigated within the existing highway network.”

The report adds that the junction proposed for the A4177 is not appropriate for the location and size of development, especially as there will be future expansion of the site, and the junction is not wide enough and this will lead to clashes between vehicles entering and leaving the site.

It also says that a “ghost island”, or area of central cross hatching that separates traffic, should be considered, and the developer should pay £10,000 to the council so that the 40mph speed limit so that the A4117 passing the site can be reduced to 30mph.

Ludford Parish Council said Shropshire Council should request a footbridge over the A49 and that a roundabout should be completed before the first phase of the works begins to alleviate traffic flow in and around the site.

The parish council also wants further information on the public open spaces and the balancing pond, and more affordable housing.

Meanwhile, Highways England has ordered that the scheme is not approved for at least three months while its concerns over analysis of traffic impacts are addressed.

Shropshire Council’s conservation team has described the plans as “disappointing”. The council’s ecologists have recommended that the development is refused unless more information on the impact on protected species is provided, and the council’s biodiversity team has recommended that the development does not go ahead as the developer has not submitted sufficient information on bats, great crested newts, badgers and the impact on the environmental network.

Shropshire councillor for Ludlow, Andy Boddington said the plans might need to be “radically revised”.

He said: “At the moment it is looking like the submitted plans might not get approval.

“The developers might have to radically revise them or withdraw the application and submit a new set of plans.”