’100 extra homes a year’ call
Thursday 26th March 2009, 7:00PM GMT.
An extra 100 homes a year may have to be built on greenfield sites in the Shrewsbury area over the next 20 years, it emerged today.
And there will need to be “substantial” new employment sites, new roads and a growth in retail and services to support the new homes, according to the Shropshire Core Strategy, which lists a number of choices for development in the county.
It says evidence shows that about 1,000 to 2,000 homes need to be built on greenfield sites in and around Shrewsbury in the next 15 to 20 years.
But countryside and heritage groups today raised strong concerns about some of the options for the town in the document and the damage that they believe could be done if green space is lost.
The document includes a draft spatial strategy for Shropshire up until 2026 in which it says Shrewsbury “will continue to develop as a strong sub-regional centre within the West Midlands and as the main commercial, cultural and administrate centre for Shropshire”.
The strategy says brownfield sites in urban areas will continue to be a “priority” for regeneration, and any large scale releases of greenfield sites would be in addition to this, adding that the proposed North West Relief Road would be one way of improving infrastructure.
The document lists a number of options for achieving the levels of homes needed and asks for comments on them.
These include the possibility of medium-sized developments around the edge of Shrewsbury, a major development to the south, or large extensions to the north, south west or west.
Karen Lloyd, secretary of Shrewsbury Civic Society, said it was concerned about the “gradual creeping” of urban developments into the countryside.
She said: “The town already struggles to cope with increased levels of transport. By destroying this attractive environment there is a danger of destroying its tourism potential.”
She said the society believed brownfield sites should be looked at first.
And the Campaign to Protect Rural England in Shropshire said it disagreed with the town being a sub-regional centre and said “care must be taken to ensure that new housing development is integrated within the town”.
By John Kirk
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Good idea and it should make the cost of housing cheaper as there is no cleam up costs.
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PLEASE NO for god sake will people not listen to the public, we live in shropshire for the tranqulity, the environment, the fields, the old buildings, we dont want these ugly modern houses all over the place, i accept the need for housing but it must be a) low carbon b) timber framed c) clad in local material eg. grinshill stone or lime mortar, c) on brownfield sites (99% of the time) – there is plenty of old idle land in Ditherington, harlescott, and of course in telford
we must fight this folly
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I think build on land near radbrook up to the bypass, and battlefield area, shawbury road area etc and up to bayston hill . They are building in the ditherington area when market forces allow .
They need to build homes with gardens of at least 40ft in length to the rear as this will allow children to play in their own back yards and not on the streets etc . we do not want homes like we see at gains park which are modern day slums learn from this.
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Good to see such far forward thinking, when we can’t even sort out the recessionary mess we are in at the moment, when it’s nigh on impossible to buy a house at the moment for the average person!!
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What is happening on the site in Ditherington, 3 years ago they were starting to build property, but still there is no brickwork in sight!
GG Telford is not Shrewsbury, it may only be 15 miles away but that’s a long way if you don’t drive.
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Will the new houses be for the British people or for new immigrants ?
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It seems The SHROPSHIRE COUNCIL has employed INTERLOPERS or CARPET BAGGERS in the last 20 to 30 years.
They are probably from CITIES and should NOT be allowed to change THE GARDEN OF EDEN!
It is time to CONTROL POPULATION GROWTH by restricting immigration to Britain. For the sake of WORLD POLLUTION, restrict CHILD financial assistance by GOVERNMENT to TWO CHILDREN per family.
Every Person born on Earth requires FACTORIES to be built. I.E POLLUTION.
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The Office for National Statistics reported that the immigrant population in Britain rose by twenty one percent, or more than one million, between 2004 and 2007.
This is what’s driving the need to build so many new homes.
The only political party that will stop any further immigration is the BNP. They’re the real ‘green’ party.
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womble to much daily mail reading???? The homes would be for people who can buy them and so many to people on a social houseing waiting list.Then when the torys return to power all the people in HA houses will be able to buy at discount BARGAIN GET ON THAT LIST.
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Oh God please no.
“An extra 100 homes a year may HAVE to be built on greenfield sites”
Why ? Is an inrease in local employment drawing people in to the area ? Apparently not as “.. there will need to be “substantial” new employment sites, new roads and a growth in retail and services to support the new homes”
Utter madness. So if the employment doesn’t exist whay the need to build in the first place ?
Enough is enough. Check out the CPRE and join or donate (as I have done) We have to stop this vandalism before Shropshire is destroyed.
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not on our watch, this is a diktat from brown in london designed for the poor, we wont have it, we dont want them here, keep shrewsbury for the salopians, with historic building, green fields and nice middle class people,
telford has spare land if they must build more
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We are full
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womble, based on the number of immigrants already in provided housing, you can be assured that many, many of these will be for new immigrants. I was under the belief that 3 million new houses had to be built within the next 20 years, I was wrong, according to the TV News a few days ago that number are required to be completed within the next 10 years.
The financial mess we are in and due to the problems of the building trade, this disgrace of a Government are already 15 years behind their ten year target.
Totally agree GG, only idiots would go along with this or advocate wholesale building on greenfield sites.
The only thing some people think of is the profit aspect, hidden under a cunningly expressed and false motive of having a social conscience and concern for their fellow man.
The environment is the last thing on their minds – still they will be satisfied when there is no more green land to build on and we then have to reclaim land from the sea.
I don’t read it myself, being a Telegraph man, but I gather the Mail prints the truth, not like the Sun or the Mirror which generally cater for the less concerned and less informed.
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Patrick we need homes becouse nothing to do with jobs etc etc but families have children on average 2 they grow up and get married and want a home of their own and they do not want to or need to move away from the area they were brought up in hence we need new homes built villages etc are not the retirement homes for the old retired interlopers and children have to leave home sooner or later get with the programme objecyors are interlopers or oldies .
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These homes are not going to primarily go to people born locally – majority of housing projects are to deal with ‘urban overspill’ from industrial W Mids and beyond. That’s the Government plan. Have a look at UK population projections and be afraid…
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We should all be afraid Patrick – the concerned, intelligent, sensible ones that is. We are heading for an environmental nightmare brought about by an “out of control” population explosian which in turn has been brought about by this Government who are to foolhardy to see the inevitable consequences of their irresponsible and “party/political motivated” actions or lack of actions in stopping the tidal wave of immigration.
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Do not need to im alright thanks .How ever patrik stop reading daily mail rubbish
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I don’t read the Daily Mail, I read the Guardian.
The housing plans for the W.Mids /Shropshire are well documented – you’ll be able to find the government reports on the web if you have a look.
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http://www.cpreshropshire.org.uk/campaigns/planning/unitary/planning/topic_papers/housing.htm
From the CPRE Shropshire site –
“…para. 44 predicts a growth rate for the number of households in the West Midlands of 13.6% between 2006 and 2026. Over the same period Shropshire is predicted to have a growth rate of 20.8%. How can this be reconciled with the key aim of the RSS which seeks to concentrate the majority of development in the Major Urban Areas to encourage their regeneration.”
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