Campaigners take fight against building on Caradoc to Shirehall

A final draft of Shropshire Council's blueprint for building in the county – known as SAMDev – has now been released and it includes plans for houses and businesses on the side of Caer Caradoc hill, near Church Stretton.

Opponents put forward an alternative site at Laundry Bank, next to existing businesses on the A49 trunk road, but this has not been included.

Shropshire Council is expected to rubber-stamp the SAMDev final plan on Wednesday.

But Church Stretton Town Council, along with Shropshire councillors David Evans and Lee Chapman, are planning to attend the meeting to implore Shropshire Council's Cabinet to kick out the Caradoc site, at New House Farm.

Councillor Evans plans to attend despite still recuperating from an eye operation.

If approved the New House Farm development would be an act of "vandalism" Church Stretton Mayor Michael Braid has said. He has warned Shropshire Council to expect protests.

"We will be asking do they want to urbanise Church Stretton, or do they want to preserve it?" he said, "Because that's what they will be voting on.

"Cabinet need to be very clear they will be against the whole of Church Stretton and the two unitary councillors (Chapman and Evans) for the sake of siding with a developer. I will be asking why that is on the 19th, and I won't be holding back."

Included in the draft are three sites for Church Stretton – 30 houses at Church Stretton School playing fields, 85 houses at New House Farm and two hectares of "employment land" at New House Farm West.

Shropshire Council planning officers say the New House Farm development meets all the criteria for development with no major planning barriers to it going ahead. Morris Property, developers behind the proposal, say it will create much-needed housing and business space and will bring new lakeside accommodation and tourism infrastructure to the eastern side of the valley.

But Mayor Braid said residents had plans to picket a full Shropshire Council meeting on February 27 if the New House Farm site was passed and there had also been talk of protesting on the A49.

"We did a survey of residents and over 1,000 said they preferred Laundry Bank compared to 41 who favoured New House Farm. We are all of one mind. We don't want Shropshire Council and Church Stretton to be on opposing sides, we want a joint agreement that they will get their numbers, but on our preferred sites. It would be a completely needless act of state vandalism if the cabinet were to endorse the planning officers' recommendation in preference to the town council's alternative recommendation.

"If they do, this community will fight the proposal every step of the way," he said.