Plan for 14 log cabins shelved

Councillors have ditched plans to build 14 log cabins in Ellesmere and advised the applicant to go back to the drawing board.

Businessman Paul Clifford put forward plans to build the holiday cabins and three disabled lodges at Sodyllt Bank Farm.

The plan also included a launderette and car parking on the site.

But members of North Shropshire District Council’s development control committee threw the plans out at a meeting yesterday.

They had been advised to reject the plans because of the scale and intensity of the development, the “unsustainable” location, which was not closely related to a settlement or existing tourist attraction where a range of facilities are available, and insufficient information.

Mr Clifford said “absolutely everything” visitors to the site did would be for the benefit of north Shropshire.

He told members: “North Shropshire has really only one main tourist attraction and that is the countryside itself, so I would dispute that it is not close to a tourist attraction.”

Councillor Stephen Davenport said: “I think they need to go away and come back because it is too squashed in.”

But not all members were opposed to the plans.

Councillor Dewi Davies said: “I’m really keen to support tourism in north Shropshire which there is a lack of and when I think that when we drove back from that site to Ellesmere it was less than 10 minutes, it’s very close to a facility that offers some wonderful opportunities for tourists.”