Ludlow riverside homes 'will not block country view'
Artists impressions have been released to show that homes planned for the last piece of green space along a Ludlow's riverside would not hide views of the countryside.
Developer McCartneys has claimed the pictures show two the large houses planned on the Linney, near Ludlow town centre, would not block out views of the Shropshire Hills.
But a councillor has claimed the homes are being proposed in the wrong place and the outside the town's official development boundary.
The plans were first submitted in 2014 but have not yet been discussed by members of Shropshire Council's south planning committee.
A statement from McCartneys accompanying the pictures said the impact of the new buildings will be "negligible".
It said the houses will be separated by a wide central open space "to protect rural views through the site of floodplain pasture and wooded hillside of Bringewood Chase."
The open space will be made up of grass lawns flanked low shrubbery no more than 90cm high, it said, with a "see through frontage" of railings mounted on low brick walls, with a rear garden boundary of post and rail fencing.
McCartneys said it wants the new buildings to make a "positive contribution" to the appearance and character of the area.
But Councillor Andy Boddington, Shropshire councillor for Ludlow North said the plans were still likely to be thrown out due to where they are.
He said: "These are quite reasonable looking buildings. They have been designed by local architect Trevor Hewitt, who has a sensitive eye for our historic context.
"If these houses were anywhere else in Ludlow, I would probably welcome them – even though they are not the sort of housing we need, we need affordable housing for young people and workers, not large houses for the relatively wealthy."
But he said the new designs did not change his view that "the only option under planning rules is to reject this scheme".
"A critical point is that this site is outside the development boundary as defined in our local plan, SAMDev," he said.
An appeal to build a cutting-edge "hobbit house" eco-home into a steep bank at the other end of the Linney was refused by Shropshire Council in September last year, and an appeal dismissed by the Planning Inspectorate for similar reasons, he said.
"The inspector made it clear that there have to be exceptional reasons to breach local plan policies that set out where housing should be built," he said.
"There are none here."
