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Scheme for 3,300 Telford homes before planners tonight
Wednesday 24th August 2011, 3:01PM BST.
NEW PLANS for a multi-million pound housing development in Telford will see more than 300 fewer affordable homes than originally intended, it was revealed today.
The revised blueprint for Lawley Village, the biggest new development in the town with 3,300 homes, shops, leisure facilities and a school, has sparked anger as more than 11,000 people wait for a council home.
Developers English Partnerships will ask Telford & Wrekin Council’s plans board for permission to revise the scheme at a meeting tonight.
It includes a request that only 495, or 15 per cent, of the homes should be classed as affordable. The figure was originally 825, one quarter.
Lawley and Overdale ward councillor Roy Picken criticised the developer’s bid to reduce the number of affordable homes.
“It’s disappointing that people have been let down again,” said Councillor Picken.
“We are in desperate need for affordable homes and rented accommodation.”
Councillor Charles Smith, cabinet member for housing regeneration and economic development, added: “It is disappointing we could be cutting the number of affordable homes, but it’s a worldwide recession that’s causing it.”
A report to the plans board says the application should be considered “acceptable in the current economic climate” and calls for the continued development of Lawley to be supported.
It claims the developer says the scheme is “unviable” in its current format.
Another application related to the same site will also go before the plans board tonight.
The application for 434 homes by Ironstone Developer Group, at Lawley Village, Lawley Drive, Telford, could be given the go-ahead.
Planning officers have recommended the decision is delegated to the head of housing and planning and that it is granted, subject to conditions.
No objections have been submitted.
By Paul Mannion
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I am all for the area moving forward but have we not got to the point where the area is starting to get and will continue to get over populated, we have more unemployed and looking for work and we are making more homes in a area that does not have the employment level to match.
Leave the fields as fields and find jobs for the people of Telford first then grow.
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If memory serves me correct, those ‘fields’ were once of mining spoil, is that not what the eco-warriors want, brown field sites?
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Do you propose building all the way to the Wrekin once the new Huntingdon mine has closed? It is clear that our towns and villages in East Shropshire must expand but that must be sustainable and not purely to fill the pockets of already rich development agencies and home builders. How can Lawley expand once every field has been built on? Many of the fields in Lawley Common were used to graze sheep and were in fact green (brownfield technically). The greater point is that we need to prioritise the order in which we develop our land. I can think of many sites in Telford and Wrekin which are much worthier candidates.
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Lucky breeders
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English Partnerships ceased to exist several years ago.
Good to see some common sense to get building jobs back on the ground, even if only a small number.
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Deferring payments, make the scheme more (cheap).
Here we go ! Why not leave the fields as they are until the market improves then, rather than build another Brookside ?
And please give them somewhere to park their cars, as I’ve said elsewhere, in the near future these houses will have 3 or even 4 cars each because their kids will be priced out of the housing market (especially if they’ve been to University).
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This is the best news for locals since the whole sorry Ironstone development mess kicked off.
Too many houses going to rental and ‘affordable’ status in the Lawley area already. The local atmosphere is already changing, chavs and prams everywhere – damaging the value of existing, privately owned, property.
Happy to be leaving after 12 years here.
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11,000 Telford people wait for a home.What a joke build some tower blocks and stick them in there the inbreds.Building new homes is not the answer the place will be wrecked in 5 years.
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Totally agree with Dan Bayer and Matthew riley; Some people work hard to get a mortgage and buy into a new development, yet others just have them handed to them on a plate. 11,000 people waiting for a home? the majority of those will already have a home but want to move to somewhere else for free. Its brilliant news and more developers should adopt the same approach.
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