Council accused of concealing planning documents regarding Shropshire housing development

Shropshire Council has been accused of removing and concealing planning documents regarding a housing development in north Shropshire.

Buttercup View in Mile Bank, on the outskirts of Whitchurch, has already received planning permission for 70 homes to be built there.

The latest application, submitted by Wain Homes, is for 57 dwellings, along with access, parking, landscaping and associated works.

However, Phil Winwood, who lives near the site, said he has encountered a whole wave of problems over the years, including criminal damage. 

He also alleges that various documents on Shropshire Council’s planning portal in relation to the development have either been removed or altered.

Shropshire Council says it cannot comment on current planning applications.

One incident Mr Winwood said occurred was in May 2019 when criminal damage allegedly took place.

“We got into doing some barn conversions, retaining some of the old farm,” said Mr Winwood.

“To get the planning permission through, we had to move a hedgerow back for supposedly a visibility splay. When all of this kicked off, we looked at the plans and, because of my background in being an ex-design and technology teacher, I looked at the drawings and said something was wrong.

“We went to Shropshire Council, and within 48 hours, we had criminal damage along this boundary.

“The planning permission was then approved, which basically had a visibility splay from the development straight across the front of our land.

“Somebody did a topography survey across our land without permission, concealed it, altered it, and presented it to OS Mastermap.

“In late 2018/early 2019, Shropshire Council concealed all the information. The row of trees is not where it shows – it’s behind the fence.

“When we realised what had happened, somebody came and broke this fence down, so we couldn’t take measurements. They moved our boundary back.

“Shropshire Council gave the land to Homes England and said it was owned and maintained by Shropshire Council, and concealed it from us.

“We had criminal damage for five years. The police say they can’t do anything with Shropshire Council giving them the land.

“To stop us going through a judicial review process, they withheld the documents so we didn’t know what was there, and secondly, they put planning conditions in which meant if we went to a review, they would say that conditions say they can’t build until they’ve got that.

“Therefore there could be no legal challenge what they approved. We’ve got do get a surveyor in and get it re-boundaried to the road and get those maps uploaded to OS and do the whole thing again at tens of thousands pounds.”

Mr Winwood also alleges that various documents have been removed. This includes ones relating to visibility splay, letters he had written, and documents relating to drainage that had been written by his barrister.

“I screenshot the planning portal regularly,” said Mr Winwood.

“In the downloads, you get the document ID number. Beginning of October, no issues. I went on October 20, some documents had gone.”

Mr Winwood obtained a full digital planning audit, which said that no documents had been deleted.

“Most were still in the audit but had been removed from public view,” he said.

“We had been talking to Action Fraud and the economic crime unit at West Mercia Police, who said we had to a Local Government Ombudsman.

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“But they said Shropshire Council had provided information that was sufficient and they can’t be expected to review documents three to five years years old, despite the fact we had only been made aware they had been deleted in December last year.”

Mr Winwood also believes there are discrepancies regarding transport technical notes. While one was published in the planning portal, the digital audit, according to Mr Winwood, shows there were two others which he thinks were drawn against his old boundary in 2020.

Responding to the accusations, a Shropshire Council spokesperson said: “There is a live planning application which seeks to amend a previous consent.

“All planning applications are considered on their merits, taking into account the appropriate local and national planning policies, comments raised as part of the statutory consultation, and other material considerations.

“We can’t comment on land ownership issues or the movement of boundaries as these are private matters and it is for the land owner to assert their rights in such cases.

“The water authority, the drainage authority and the local planning authority have different and distinct functions and some of these matters are private in nature.”

The site, which was an old creamery, was bought by Ainscough Strategic Land in 2012. According to Mr Winwood, the firm told Shropshire Council that the factory drained to a ditch at a rate 200 times greater than the capacity of the culvert, which, amongst other things, allowed them to discharge unrestricted.

Mr Winwood believes that 13 houses built at the front of the site have no lawful foul drainage.

He also claims that, in order for Wain Homes to apply to discharge treated effluent, there has to be a base flow of water in the ditch all year round.

An ecological Biodiversity Net Gain survey on the site reportedly shows there is 50cm in the ditch, which Mr Winwood disputes.

“If anything, there was a millimetre – the water was just trickling out of the sill,” he said.

“Wain Homes submitted a bespoke discharge permit to discharge foul effluent into this ditch in January 2026. They then subsequently pulled it.

“We’ve reported to to the Environment Agency as fraud because they were claiming there was 50cm of water in it all year round.

“They’ve applied to build houses right up to the edge of the ditch.”

The Environment Agency (EA) has not commented at the time of writing. However, Shropshire Council’s planning portal shows an email from EA planning officer Emma Millband, in which she says the authority does not need to be consulted due to Wain Homes confirming that foul drainage will connect to the mains rather than the private treatment plant.

A Wain Homes spokesperson said: “It is important to distinguish between wastewater and surface water drainage.

“Surface water runoff from roofs, roads and other impermeable areas within the development will discharge to the ditch via a drainage network that incorporates attenuation storage and flow control measures.

“The discharge rate was agreed through the planning process and approved by the Lead Local Flood Authority.

“The approved rate is substantially lower than that associated with the site’s previous use, in addition to this year, the UK experienced record temperatures in the summer and extended periods without rainfall.

“We can also confirm that the ditch is proposed to receive surface water only and not treated effluent.”

Currently Severn Trent and Welsh Water are the respective water and sewerage companies for the site.

However, ESP Water has submitted an application to Ofwat to supply both services to the development. A consultation is currently ongoing, with Ofwat needing responses by September 24.

“Where drainage assets have not been adopted by Welsh Water, responsibility would typically remain with the developer or the relevant asset owner unless and until they are lawfully connected and/or adopted through the appropriate process,” said a Welsh Water spokesperson.

“We are aware of an ongoing Ofwat consultation regarding an application by ESP Water for a NAV licence for the Mile Bank Road development in Whitchurch.”

The Wain Homes spokesperson said no final wastewater connection arrangements will be brought into operation until all necessary legal agreements, licences and approvals are in place with the relevant authorities.

“We have obtained technical approval from ESP Water and are progressing the required adoption arrangements,” said the spokesperson.