Plans for retirement flats at former Telford pub site empty for 15 years approved for the fifth time

The Dun Cow in Dawley town centre closed in 2008 and was swiftly demolished, leaving a large vacant site opposite the Lord Hill Car Park.

But now, after five planning applications and 15 years of standing vacant, the site could become home to 51 retirement apartments.

In 2009, planning permission was granted for a 72-bedroom care home on the site close to The Telford Langley School. In 2013, an application to extend the time limit on the original plan was approved.

Eight years later, another application for a 77-bedroom care home was approved. Then in 2023, a further application was granted for the construction of 39 retirement apartments.

Then, developer McCarthy Stone put forward plans for the building of 51 retirement apartments on the corner of Duce Drive and New Street back in May.

If these plans finally see the complex built, it will be made up of 15 two-bed apartments and 36 one-bed apartments, as well as a communal residents' lounge, mobility scooter store and communal garden.

And according to the decision notice, the developers intend to start building swiftly.

Approving the plans, a spokesperson for Telford & Wrekin Council's planning department said: "The site has previously been granted a number of planning consents for development of the site as an extra-care living facility and most recently, affordable retirement living but these proposals have failed to materialise due to viability constraints with the site.

"The site is now one which the Council have actively become engaged with, in order to find an end-user and bring forward this stalled site.

"McCarthy & Stone (the applicants) have submitted this application with the intention of an early commencement on-site."

The developers will have three years from the approval date to begin construction.

The full application is available to view online on the Telford & Wrekin planning portal using the reference number TWC/2024/0384.