Bridgnorth Civic Society calls for planning clarity over Innage Lea site
Bridgnorth Civic Society chiefs have called for bosses of a retirement company to come clean after a fourth application to bulldoze a 19th century building has been thrown out by senior planners after a third was already accepted.
Planning permission has been granted to Churchill Retirement Living to raze Innage Lea to the ground and build 50 retirement flats following an appeal to the Planning Inspectorate.
But since then, another application has been submitted for 52 homes, and Shropshire Council said the most recent plans did not suit the area.
This is the third time the Hampshire-based firm has had an application to demolish the former William William's builder's merchants refused out of four submitted in total.
The fight to develop the site has been ongoing since 2016.
Bridgnorth Civic Society has been vocal against the plans, insisting that destroying the buildings would take away part of the town's heritage.
Councillor David Cooper, part of the society, said residents need to be kept up to date with changing proposals.
"It's about time we know what their actual plans are," he said.
"Obviously as a civic society we don't want to lose the heritage of the building, but there's also been major issues with the design.
"The very first application was too tall, with its frontages onto the main road, so it's been through a process where they've altered the design to try and make it acceptable and reduce the scale of it – even now it's still to my mind simply too much building to put on that site."
Councillor Cooper said work on the site, off Innage Lane, has already begun.
Preparatory work
He added: "There are some workers already there on the site so I assume its preparatory work.
"I'd assume the developers would want to implement the third application but in any event the broad principle has been accepted in the planning appeal so whether they implement that exactly as was planned or come up with another tweak is something we can only ponder."
Councillor Cooper has previously said Innage Lea can be traced back to between 1830 and 1880, and it was originally the Apley Estate.
He has also said that a barn on the site dated back to 1800 and could potentially be medieval.
Following a 'devastating' arson attack on the site in 2016, two applications by Churchill Retirement Living to build on the premises were refused in 2017 before a third was submitted in 2018, which was passed following an appeal to the Planning Inspectorate.
In November 2017, three teenagers were sentenced for the parts they played in the arson attack on the historic building.
Telford Magistrates Court heard that Innage Lea, which was set alight on December 4, 2016, had been used as a meeting place for youths and was known locally as the “crackhouse”.
The blaze caused £100,000 worth of damage.
It ravaged the building in Innage Lane and was “extremely upsetting” for residents living nearby, the court was told.
Two 14-year-old boys and a 16-year-old boy, who could not be named for legal reasons, each pleaded guilty to arson.
Magistrates gave each of the three teenagers, all from Bridgnorth, a nine-month referral order, meaning they had to work with the young offending team.
Churchill Retirement Living has been contacted for comment.
