Council urged to drop huge Shrewsbury homes plan
An eleventh-hour attempt to block plans for a huge extension to the western edge of Shrewsbury is being made by residents who say there have been major changes in the proposed future of the town since it was first mooted.
Members of the Shrewsbury West Residents Association have written to Clive Wright, chief executive of Shropshire Council, as councillors prepare to debate the plans.
The proposals to build hundreds of homes in the area by 2026 are likely to get the final seal of approval from councillors tomorrow.
The Shrewsbury West master plan is being discussed by a full meeting of Shropshire Council after being given the backing of the authority's cabinet in October.
If given the go-ahead, the master plan will pave the way for the development of about 750 homes, up to 29 acres of land for employment and a new Oxon Link Road between the A5 bypass and the Holyhead Road.
The draft master plan, drawn up for the Shrewsbury West Sustainable Urban Extension, which is intended to be used as guidance for developers, is going to the meeting of full council for adoption.
In the letter to Mr Wright, David Kilby on behalf of the residents association says that the extension is no longer sustainable.
He said: "We believe the master plan should not be put forward for adoption because in our opinion the plan is not a sustainable plan given the considerable state of flux and change that is occurring in the local and national environment at the moment.
"The plan is a Shropshire Council-led plan not a community-led plan which in our opinion means Shropshire Council has been unable to demonstrate a clear separation between its role as planning and highways authority and its interests as landowner.
"The plan is not sufficiently viable or deliverable in its current format to benefit any of those concerned, including the local community with regard to social infrastructure, developers, landowners and the local councils."
Mr Kilby said that the closure of the Wakeman school, the scrapping of the northern relief road and uncertainty over the future of the Shirehall are just some of the changes in the make up of Shrewsbury.
He also criticises the refusal of the council to a request for residents to create a neighbourhood plan and the refusal to extend a public consultation from nine weeks to 16 weeks despite more than 1,000 residents signing a petition asking it to do so.
