'This is not the way forward': Telford politicians tangle over housebuilding as local plan hearings loom

Telford & Wrekin Council’s Conservative opposition leader committed to “reopening the local plan straight away” if his party takes over the council at the local elections in 2027.

But the council’s Labour leadership, and the Liberal Democrat chief, said this would leave the council open to “speculative development” as they pointed to the situation across the border in Shropshire where inspectors have rejected the council’s local plan.

Councillors were discussing the council’s housing strategy at the cabinet meeting on Thursday (December 4) and found much they could agree on.

But with sides gearing up to put their arguments to planning inspectors at local plan hearings in February next year, Tory leader Andrew Eade took issue with policies on the natural environment.

Councillor Eade said the council’s policies were “laudable but not supported by actions”.

He slammed the draft local plan's proposal to build “2,700 homes northeast of Muxton, 3,000 at Wappenshall and 2,100 at Bratton”.

He took aim at the council’s biodiversity targets as “no substitute for building over swathes of countryside”.

He told the meeting that when he had been leader of the council he had told Labour bigwig John Prescott that he would not accept the then Labour Government’s housebuilding targets.

“Any new administration here in 18 months, if I am part of it, will reopen the local plan straight away and see what we can save and do for the future because this is not the way forward,” he said.

Councillor Carolyn Healy (Labour, Ironbridge Gorge) the council’s cabinet member who steered the local plan through to submission to the Planning Inspectorate, rejected the Tory approach.

Councillor Healy said: “What we do not want to do is end up in a situation where we just throw out and decide we are not going to play ball and we are not going to have a local plan.

“That is exactly what is happening across the border in our neighbouring authority.

“We want to ensure we have plan-led development that meets the needs of our communities.”

Councillor Healy has a background in ecology and added that the council has been recognised for “green best practice”.

She claimed that there is “much more biodiversity” in well-designed urban areas “than in the middle of a farmed field”.

She said such areas considered to be open countryside by some are sites of “industrial agriculture” which can be “ecological deserts”.

Liberal Democrat group leader Councillor Bill Tomlinson (Shawbirch and Dothill) also warned against not having a local plan.

He said neighbouring Shropshire is in an “absolute mess where developers can run roughshod because they do not have a local plan”.

But Councillor Tomlinson also agreed with some of Councillor Eade’s comments about identified development sites. His area is one of those earmarked for housebuilding.

He claimed that there are “not enough” plans for infrastructure, including roads.

“It is going to be a nightmare for some of the people who move into those areas,” he said.

But Councillor Healy “repeated for the hard of understanding” that there “is an infrastructure plan” for schools, highways and health that sits alongside the draft local plan.

The cabinet approved the council’s housing strategy.