Traffic ‘nightmare’ fear over Telford flat block proposal
Plans to demolish and replace a nine-storey tower block with low-rise flats may worsen “substantial rush-hour delays”, a town councillor has warned.
The Wrekin Housing Group (WHG) has applied to build 81 one and two-bedroom extra care apartments on the site of Apley Court and Haughmond Court, in Dothill, Telford.
Haughmond Court was demolished five years ago, and the plans would see Apley Court knocked down and replaced as well.
Dothill ward representative Councillor Lisa Jinks, told Wellington Town Council's planning committee that the one-and-a-half-acre site was “metres away” from the former Charlton school grounds, in Severn Drive, that now had outline consent for “up to 200” homes.
She also said that Whitchurch Road, which leads to both sites, was already “an absolute nightmare” in the mornings.
The town council planning committee agreed to support the application, but raised traffic concerns and offered a suggestion to mitigate congestions.
Councillor Jinks said: “The egress point of all traffic from that area is onto the old Whitchurch Road and then up onto North Road.
“Already, prior to the lockdown, we have substantial delays in people commuting to work and taking their children to school.”
She said the Wrekin Housing Group project, which would see two buildings constructed to replace Apley Court and Haughmond Court, with added community facilities, would add to the problem.
She said a mini-roundabout at the junction of Whitchurch Road and North Road would relieve the congestion.
“Often people driving from St Pauls Drive, only a matter of metres up to North Road, may take up to half an hour,” Councillor Jinks said.
Councillor Dorothy Roberts argued that the extra care facility would create less extra traffic than mainstream homes.
“Not too many people living there are going to be driving cars, and they won’t have a large staff there,” she said.
Councillor Jinks said: "They might have carers coming to visit perhaps four times a day, so that will be my issue.”
The committee agreed to support the application, but note the suggestion about the mini-roundabout.
Vice-chairman Giles Luter said it was “quite an exciting development” and Councillor Roberts said the area was “absolutely crying out for this sort of facility”.
Telford and Wrekin Council’s planning department will make its decision at a later date.
Charlton School was relocated to Apley Avenue in 2017 to the site of the former Blessed Robert Johnson Catholic College, which in turn closed in 2015 and is now based at the new Holy Trinity Academy in Priorslee.
The changes were part of Telford & Wrekin's Building Schools for the Future programme.
