Villagers furious over proposed housing plans recommendation
Villagers in West Felton near Oswestry are furious at having two more proposed housing developments recommended to go ahead at next week’s meeting of the North Area Planning Committee.
Both developments are being put forward outside of any plan led process and assessment of local need and are on top of a speculative development of 35 houses and 4 commercial units, recently granted permission in the village.
Shropshire Council now has declared 5+ year land supply and a local plan (SAMDev) at an advanced stage of preparation. This should mean that any speculative developments should be refused as local planning policies should take precedence over national policies; the latter giving a presumption in favour of sustainable development.
The Parish Council promoted the parish as Open countryside, reflecting the wishes of parishioners who have seen substantial development in recent years, especially in the villages of West Felton and Queens Head. Recently this categorisation, already formally accepted by Shropshire Council, has been given democratic validity through opinions expressed in West Felton’s Parish Plan.
Steve Haworth Chair of the Parish Plan Steering Group says that villagers are furious. He said:
"Both of these applications are on the best of agricultural land, a resource needed to feed future generations. In addition, to facilitate the developments the proposal is to reduce the carriageway width of the already busy old A5 to accommodate a sub-standard narrow footpath. The combination of narrow carriageways and narrow pavements will bring pedestrians in close contact with the many large agricultural vehicles, HGVs and buses which frequent the road in this area. It is an accident waiting to happen, that Shropshire Council seem keen to promote.
"Both applications, up until a few weeks ago, were going to be refused by Shropshire Council who stated that they were outside of a plan led process, affected pedestrian safety, created visual harm to the character of the village and community cohesion and the loss valuable, high-quality agricultural land. The only issue addressed since then has been the installation of a substandard footway. Yet now Shropshire Council planners are recommending both to be approved.
"Both the Parish Council and the Parish Plan Steering Group have highlighted to Shropshire Council’s Planners that there is no defined knowledge of what planning guidance the proposals are to be judged against, as both the national and local policies should indicate refusal, now that Shropshire council can demonstrate a 5 year land supply and has its local development, (SAMDev) plan at the examination stage. Furthermore the planning reports for both applications are biased towards economic (for Shropshire Council) factors, with no recent evidence to back up their sustainability within West Felton, especially on environmental grounds, which is an essential requirement for a proper, balanced decision.
"Any decision made by a planning committee should be based on a properly evidenced report from planning officers. This is the basic planning process. The needed evidence is simply not there. Instead in the case of West Felton and elsewhere in the County, biased, incorrect and inadequately evidenced reports are going forward for decisions. This really harms the public’s faith and perception of the planning process within Shropshire Council. The local community is very unhappy and demand these applications be deferred until a decision can be based on facts and on the basis of the local development plan they have all been consulted on."
