Couple call for more homes to be built in Shropshire's rural villages
A couple have called for more housing to be built in Telford’s rural villages to help them survive and thrive.
Charles and Amanda Bathurst spoke out at hearings examining the soundness of the local plan when they slammed the lack of small housing developments in smaller villages.
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The couple have spoken out on two days of the hearings, during the first day last week and again on Wednesday (March 4) when they appealed for Telford & Wrekin to change its approach.
Mr Bathurst told inspectors Mike Worden and Catherine Carpenter that the council’s approach had been to concentrate rural housing on former industrial sites at Allscott and Crudgington, which he disagrees with.
The council has already allowed more than 1,313 homes in ‘rural areas’ with plans for about 100 more by 2040.
Mr Bathurst told the hearings that the council’s approach to restricting building in smaller villages “reduces sustainability”.
Mrs Bathurst called for a “little bit of housing rather than young people moving on to estates.”
The council’s strategy lists seven ‘key rural settlements” at Edgmond, High Ercall, Lilleshall; Tibberton, Waters Upton, Crudgington and Allscott where some developments will be allowed.
But the list does not include places like Little Wenlock, Charlton and Wrockwardine.
The couple want the council to use more “redundant, derelict, sites” in other villages too.
Mrs Bathurst said: “Where are the plans for 10 homes on redundant, derelict sites?
“We need smaller developments in villages that can’t just be for older people, we need to keep the young families too.
“I don’t understand why the policy needs to be so restrictive, why not deal with it on a case by case basis?
“For the next 16 years you are saying ‘nope’ to redundant sites. Why are you being so terribly restrictive?”
Mrs Bathurst had earlier in the hearings called for more homes to be provided for younger people so that high prices did not force them out of the places where they grew up.
“Having an even more older population is not the answer,” she said.
“We need to look to the future.
“I am thinking of my children and grandchildren and not just about me.”
Council officials told the inspectors that there are policies which would allow some homes to be built in rural areas.
But during consultations on suggested rural sites, there had been a “backlash” against development, officials had said.
Mrs Bathurst had told inspectors that the ‘backlash’ had been against major developments of hundreds of homes.
She added that she is calling for redundant land in villages to be used for “five, 10, 15 or fewer” homes.
