Councillors are being asked to slap two compulsory purchase orders on sites in Shrewsbury to free up land and help the town’s affordable housing crisis.

One of the compulsory purchase orders will clear the way for a housing scheme at Bromley House on Copthorne Road, where developers have recently submitted plans that include 18 affordable homes.

The other will provide a home for great crested newts currently living by Sundorne’s TA centre that will allow a development including around 20 homes to be built on the land once they have gone.

Both orders will be considered at a full council meeting on Thursday.

Councillor Malcolm Price, the portfolio holder for housing, said: “The problem with Bromley House is it has been empty for so many years that it is becoming an eyesore.

“The owner is, I now believe, in talks with a developer and to me the compulsory purchase order is having the necessary effect because it is getting the business done.

“The Sundorne one is to do with land behind the TA centre where we’ve got problems with great crested newts.

“80 per cent of great crested newts in Europe are based in Shropshire and Cheshire, which is why we keep run into problems.

“We have got to find a site for them and the most appropriate is on the other side of the river. I think we are going to be in satisfactory negotiations with those owners, but I will ask the council still to proceed with the compulsory purchase order.”

The two orders for Bromley House and Sundorne could become the latest in a series imposed by the council – including one place on the Arriva bus depot at Ditherington, which the bus company is contesting.

Councillor Price said: “It is trying to move things along.

“I am not trying to be heavy handed and neither is the council but when land is in private ownership, it is sometimes necessary.”

By Alys Cummings