Warning over Church Stretton housing plans
Friday 18th June 2010, 6:00AM BST.
Too many homes in one of Shropshire’s most picturesque market towns could spoil its tourism industry, civic leaders have claimed.
Members of the Strettons Civic Society claim plans to build more than 200 homes in Church Stretton by 2026 would also affect the character of the area – especially as it is the only town in the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
The group has made the claims in response to Shropshire Council’s site allocations and management of development plan.
Under the proposals between 200 and 500 homes could be built in the town.
John Sumner, chairman of the Strettons Civic Society, said: “Church Stretton, as the only town in the Shropshire Hills AONB with its fragile infrastructure, should not be expected to accommodate any more homes than those in the pipeline.
Character
“It must be allowed to retain its character and limit the negative impacts of development. Over-development of the town would have a serious negative impact on tourism, the town’s key industry.
“All development proposals for this town, set within a nationally protected hill landscape, must be considered in the light of constraints that are imposed by this setting.”
Residents and interested organisations have until June 25 to make their views known as part of a consultation period.
More than 160 people turned out at a recent public meeting in the town organised by the civic society to discuss the housing plans.
Other south Shropshire market towns including Craven Arms, Bishop’s Castle and Cleobury Mortimer, have been earmarked for between 200 and 500 homes while Ludlow could see between 500 and 1,000 homes built.
By Peter Kitchen and Sophie Bignall
UK News
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absolutely i couldnt agree more same in shrewsbury and elsewhere our precious markets towns are being ruined by the wrong kind of development, we need houses but they must be period homes, not barrat homes or some fake pastiche of low quality brings and plastic windows, its going to cost more to build but as they point out it will make more money by keeping the area pretty
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Forget about building period homes Dave, just concentrate on well designed houses. We don’t have the British Empire anymore incase you didn’t notice. This enabled builders, usually at other countries expense, and very cheap labour available then to build the ‘period’ houses you see today. Those that were better built,have survived though are inefficient for todays standards and usually need reconfiguring internally to work for us. (there were many poor quality buildings built then too)
I agree we don’t need more noddy houses with plastic windows, joinery and chimneys but if they look at first glance traditional then people think they are getting a certain quality, they think always existed in the past when in reality it did not.
Why can’t we have honest design like houses built in the rest of Europe where they equally have ancient and period dwellings but don’t see the need to ape them.
Bring back the decent standards of size that Mrs Thatcher got rid of in the 1980s too.
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