Planning inspectors raise concerns over Shropshire Council's local plan for homes and businesses
Planning inspectors have raised major questions over parts of Shropshire Council's local plan.
The three inspectors examining the document have written to the authority laying out significant concerns over the council's plans as they stand.
They relate to the council's proposal for the location of 1,500 homes and 30 hectares of employment land – specifically required to help Black Country councils, due to a lack of their own space.
As part of the process, earlier this year the council was asked to specifically identify where the Black Country homes and employment land would be based within Shropshire.
It carried out a number of pieces of work, including a 'Sustainability Appraisal' (SA).
In its response, the authority listed a number of sites – Tasley Garden Village at Bridgnorth, the former Ironbridge Power Station, land between Mytton Oak Road and Hanwood Road in Shrewsbury, and land to the east of Shifnal Industrial Estate, at Upton Lane.
But, inspectors have raised concerns that the sites were already included in the council's ambitions to build 30,800 homes and provide 300 hectares of employment land in the county between 2016 and 2038.
They have said the authority needed to assess how to provide them on top of the target – which would require additional sites, and potentially open the door for controversial plans to build nearly 3,000 homes and a large employment site on green belt land owned by the Bradford Estates, to the north of Junction Three of the M54, and to the west of the village of Tong.
