Fresh application lodged for homes near Old Oswestry Hillfort
Heritage campaigners are calling for a "fair and transparent" process after an application was made to build dozens of houses near a historic Shropshire landmark.
Galliers Homes is behind proposals for a residential development to deliver two phases of 50-to-60 homes on land off Whittington Road in Oswestry.
No site plans have been published, however campaigners seeking to protect Oswestry’s Hillfort have called for a “robust and even” planning application.
They believe the development will “decimate” the cultural value of the hillfort and that noise and light pollution will negatively impact the landmark.
A statement from Hands Off Old Oswestry Hillfort said: “In addition to decimating an Iron Age landscape of incalculable cultural value, the scheme would squander high grade agricultural land belonging to a registered historic farmstead for housing that should be built elsewhere.
“Urban sprawl in this spot will add to noise, air and light pollution, detracting from a heritage asset and tourist attraction with global appeal.
“It will also exacerbate traffic congestion on Shropshire’s busiest trunk road lying just metres away, as well as adding to the gridlock on routes to the Marches School on the other side of town.
“Of all the places to target housing in this vast county, this enigmatic hillfort and landscape lauded by experts as the Stonehenge of the Iron Age should not be one of them.”
The campaign group has insisted the development bid will be closely scrutinised by national environmental and heritage organisations.
HOOOH added: “The development would clearly change the setting of two scheduled monuments – Old Oswestry and Wat’s Dyke – while lying within one of the most visually and archaeologically significant zones of the hillfort’s ancient landscape."
