112 homes planned for former railway land in Shrewsbury
Monday 18th April 2011, 7:46PM BST.
MORE THAN 100 new homes could soon be built on former railway land in Shrewsbury after a developer announced its plans for the site.
A section of the Coton Hill Sidings has already been used by Barratt Mercia to create over 100 homes at its development called Ellesmere Grange.
But under new plans, redundant land on the opposite side of the railway bridge, between Coton Hill and Greenfields, is set to be turned into 112 new homes by developer Lovell.
David Farmer, Shrewsbury Town Council ward member for Bagley, today claimed the development would cause “chaos” on a main route into the town centre.
He said Ellesmere Road was already past saturation point and the building of more new homes would lead to major traffic congestion.
Councillor Farmer said: “I am not happy.
“There are more houses being built in my ward than in any other area in the town and considering the congestion that’s already there it’s going to make it 10 times worse.
“I feel that no thought has been given by the planners at the unitary council about this situation of traffic flow and overpopulation of the area.
“It’s a bottleneck and traffic already backs up to Ellesmere Drive at the moment. There are too many properties being built in the Bagley ward.”
Nicola Colley, who works in business development at Lovell, today said: “We are looking to build about 112 units. We purchased the site about 18 months ago but because of the way the market has been we have just held on to it a bit.
“We have got outline planning permission for residential development on there. We haven’t got detailed plans yet and we don’t yet know when we will start building on there.”
Councillor Malcolm Price, Shropshire Council cabinet member for housing, said the site was allocated for housing but said there would be consultation with residents and interested parties when full planning permission was sought.
He said that if detailed plans were submitted in the next few months Lovell would only have to provide 13 per cent of the homes as affordable units under new laws. The minimum was 35 per cent previously.
The Office of Rail Regulation gave approval to Network Rail to dispose of the entire 8.85 acre site at Coton Hill Sidings in 2007.
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Let’s hope the standard will be higher.
Do we want Shrewsbury to be the town of Noddy Houses?
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Quite. Let me use my psychic abilities here..aaaahhhh..I can see them..all of them..undersize mock Georgian legoland toyboxes..
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More carbon copy shoeboxes. Shrewsbury needs to halt this over development before our quality of life and surroundings starts to suffer.
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More environment gone and another lump of my childhood under concrete. Wonderful area about to sink under the weight of 112 bland anonymous rabbit hutches. As stated quite sensibly the Ellesmere Road can’t support this number of new dwellings.
The quality of life for everyone in Greenfields is about to deteriorate badly.
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What Councillor Farmer should be fighting for is quality houses with innovative design so that Shrewsbury can really pride itself on being a town of architecture.
Fighting development altogether tends to get everyone nowhere but demanding good and interesting design is forward looking and way more intelligent.
The millenium village in Ketley has new houses that are varied in design, more interesting and most importantly look as though they would be nice places to live in.
Conservation Areas are able to demand a higher standard but this tends to result in a bit more attention to exterior detail on the same old period copies. When looking around inside the spaces do not flow, stairs are narrow and steep, there is little natural light, kitchens and bathrooms often have no window, all designed so that the house can look a certain way.
Without these constraints this development could be award winning, we don’t get many housing awards yet we claim to be an innovative town. Darwin , Telford, Bage all introduced new thinking and forward looking concepts.
Shrewsbury today still merits the label standing Stillsbury or even looking backbury as long as we can still drive cars, use electricity and wistfully watch programmes of the apparently much better with our giant satellite dishes.
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Are they living in a dream world, i live in that area and walk to work everyday because of the traffic problems along Coton Hill that the traffic lights have made worse. Building more homes there is stupid and will cause mayhem for months for road users and pedestrians. The other factor is selling them… who will be able to afford them in a few months time when interest rates go up? Not many people will. Who ever is responsible for giving the go ahead for this needs to think again and consult the residents in that area first.
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This is insane!! Ellesmere road is virtually a no-go area already. This could mean another 224 cars adding to the chaos in peak periods. The new roundabout at the entrance to Ellesmere Grange is so tight that buses can’t get round it without bumping over the kerb. At the very least the council should demand a Section 106 agreement requiring the developers to pay for a by-pass.
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totally agree , there is no room left in shrewsbury for more estates, we are surrounded by a river, town centre is gridlocked now. I keep saying, where are all these people comming from to fill all these new houses. there are no new industries setting up buisness here, we dont have the room. Build them in telford. Shrewsbury is being ruined by extensive building projects. People like to live here because it is a small picturesque market town.
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Sounds a good idea to me and will bring down the cost of buying a new house in the area, people should stop moaning about it being in their back yard!
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“A good idea”…
Sounds rich coming from someone who lives in Telford. Look what happened to that place. I work in finance and i can tell you now it will not bring down the cost of a house at all in this area.
A section 106 requirement is an excellent idea and many residents have already spoken about that being put in place.
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Darren,
Other than the shopping parks, have you actually visited any of Telford?
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I work in finance!!!! Wow, you sound well qualified to understand the economic effect of new housing! What do you do dazzler? Chief Cashier at the Bank of England?
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Face it Darren, Shrewsbury is becoming more and more like Telford on a daily basis. Only with less jobs and more congestion..
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they have just cut from 25% to 13% affordable housing quota so this is a cash cow for developer not a social justice building homes for local people
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You’re not going to get a new bypass as a S106 from 112 houses. The best you could hope for is a contribution to one.
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Very True Grey.
The North West Relief Road (the by-pass) was to cost £102m, that would mean £910,000 from each house to pay for it, about 5 times the asking price for each house!
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As populations expand, people require housing hence new homes. Well done the Developers this will boost the building trade, and with 110 new “familys” boost the local ecomony.
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what happens when were full!!!! Where do you park in town, where do you park at the hospital, I tell you good idea, build another hospital to accomadate all the new people that live in all the new houses.(sorry I forgot, they are cutting our services) Fill the river in so new roads can be built in the town, so we dont have to queue for 20 mins in and out. Sometimes progress has negative effects!
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We in coton hill have rubbish bus services no facilities for our young and all we need now is more shoe boxes we don’t like chickens in cages but our people well that dosen,t matter 13% affordable well that has dropped from before Tory Boy half the houses won’t be sold as your government is sacking staff and cutting housing benefit so the developers and buy to rent won’t be into this in any way at all sad really this part of town was lovely a few years back
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@ red ed, should we carry on letting people who don’t WANT to work live in houses for free then just to fill the houses..
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@ spencer, no, but we should also accept that a lot of working people cannot afford to buy homes of their own. We also need to to admit that this country is full, hasn’t got enough jobs or housing for the people who are already here, and stop mass immigration.
This morning I read an article about Thames Water’s new desalination plant – there’s such a shortage of water in the south east that they’re having to desalinate seawater at vast expense.
What’s wrong with accepting that the country is full?
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Spencer where is the work before the minimum wage there were jobs advertised at 2,50 a hour yet rents wers upward of 70 pounds a week so housing benefit also pays for those who are in low paid jobs if you want to see bone idle look to the house of lords 200 pounds plus just to turn up plus travelling expenses anyone can see that shrewsbury is turning in to telford which is sad as when i moved here it was a really lovely place to live.
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One thing amazes me about all the new housing developments in Shrewsbury and that is, why are there no gardens to the houses,where do the children play?
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In front of their TV on F-Box.
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112 new homes equates to 224 cars in the neighbourhood. Discuss.
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Where are all the children who will live in these houses go to school?
The council have just agreed to close The Wakaman ?
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fine ok, brownfield site, needs the housing etc, but this is one of the most congested bits of roads in the midlands, arguably in the whole Uk and they just stopped the coton hill bus!!! How about they say OK but on condition you put in cycle lanes, a new bus route and probably pay for a new road out over the frankwell field to cut off that journey, also link it to castlefields (as they failed to do with the housing on the other side) for god sake please or it will just be grid lock here
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