Calls to delay Shrewsbury's Dana Prison redevelopment decision
A residents' group has pleaded with members of Shropshire Council's planning committee to stall on making a decision about the redevelopment of Shrewsbury's Dana Prison.
Castlefields Action Team wants a decision on plans to regenerate the former prison – which would see flats, student accommodation, business space and a gym built there – to be deferred when councillors meet on Thursday.
The group says there have been no significant changes made to the application since the central planning committee deferred a decision in October over fears the development would result in an unacceptable impact on highways and parking.
Planning officers had recommended the plans were rejected then, but have now earmarked the proposals for approval after a report from Mouchel said there were no longer any issues which could result in an objection from a highways point of view.
The report also said Shropshire Council could lose any planning appeal should they reject the application. Today, Michael Nixon, chairman of CAT, said a further delay should be imposed in a bid to further improve the proposals.
He said: "Mouchel are an engineering consultant and their role is to provide technical evidence to the planning committee.
"It would have been worthwhile for Mouchel to have obtained a legal view as to the likely outcome of an appeal before going ahead.
"The council wish to impose section 106 conditions on the development, so that the developer will have to make contributions to alleviate traffic problems and improve other forms of access, but these must obviously be agreed before the outline planning is approved.
"To rush this decision now without full consideration and discussion is wrong and the decision should be deferred to give the public an opportunity to find out more about why Mouchel have taken this view."
