Campaigner says Shropshire countryside is under threat

Keith Ridland, vice chair of the Shropshire branch of the Campaign to Protect for Rural England, said that current national housing strategy is penalising Shropshire and other counties.

“Housing policy us making unrealistic demands on counties such as Shropshire to compensate for the significant under-build during the economic downturn,” said Mr Ridland.

“More homes are most certainly needed, but they must surely be sensibly located, well designed and built to excellent environmental standards.

“We believe that some of the housing applications in the pipeline, together with others for wind turbines, solar farms and electricity transmission pylons present a real danger to our landscape, wildlife and communities and hence the very soul of our beautiful county.

“There is no doubt in my mind that Shropshire is at a tipping point and it is very worrying.”

Mr Ridland was one of the organisers of the Shropshire ‘Countryside under Threat’ public meeting held jointly with Shropshire Wildlife Trust at the Lord Hill Hotel in Shrewsbury.

“The fact that more than 200 people packed into the meeting was a vivid indicator of the current strength of feeling in the county,” he said.

“It was clear that throughout the county people are now realising that our countryside, landscape and wildlife are under real and immediate threat.

“The Council’s inability, so far, to identify the five-year supply of housing sites required by national policy has produced a ‘double whammy’ situation.

“Not only is the vulnerability of many areas of the countryside that appear attractive to developers significantly increased, but the ability of local communities to make their views count is, at the same time, massively reduced.

“Under such circumstances, the concept of ‘localism’, as trumpeted by the Government, is being exposed as virtually meaningless.”