Public meeting called to discuss 96-home plans for Shropshire village
A public meeting is to be held next week to hear about plans to build nearly 100 homes in a village between Shrewsbury and Much Wenlock.
An outline planning application has been submitted for up to 96 properties on the edge of Cressage, a village next to the River Severn.
The scheme would cover 8.6 hectares of farmland off Shrewsbury Road and Shore Lane, and include new housing and a new country park.
The land is part of the Raby Estate, made up of more than 61,000 acres split between Shropshire and County Durham, which has been in the custodianship of the Vane family for hundreds of years.
Run by Lord Barnard, Henry Francis Cecil Vane, the Shropshire portion of the estate includes around 6,500 acres between Shrewsbury and Telford, mostly made up of let farmland and commercial woodlands.
If the plans are approved, the scheme will increase the population of the village by 50 per cent.
The proposal is in addition to another outline application submitted by Muller Property Group for up to 60 homes to the west of Harley Road.
A meeting will be held at Cressage Village Hall from 6.30pm on Monday (December 8) where Duncan Peake, Raby Estates’ chief executive, and Tom Whitehead, from the Brookhouse Group, Raby’s development partner, will be on hand to both present and answer questions.
A planning statement submitted within the application said: “The site at Shore Lane provides a unique opportunity to deliver a development of exceptional quality, that meets the needs of the community and is delivered by a landowner/developer that has a long-term interest and stewardship role in the local area, focused on legacy outcomes rather than short-term gain.
“This development will be sympathetic to the character of Cressage and help strengthen the community and sense of place.”
According to documents, the development has been shaped by more than five years of technical work and consultation.
Earlier versions of the proposal included employment units and higher-density housing, but these have been scaled back in response to community and council feedback.
The proposal sets out a mix of mainly three- and four-bed family homes, alongside some smaller units and a small apartment block closer to the village centre.
According to calculations by the developer, the scheme would likely house between 350 and 380 people – equivalent to half of the village’s current population (around 730).
A 1km pedestrian and cycle route would run from the development to Harley Road, through a newly created linear park.
The route is designed to provide accessible access to the village shop, school, medical centre and bus stops in a move that the developer claims will help address concerns about narrow pavements on Cressage’s main roads.
At the time of writing, 10 of the 12 members of the public who have lodged comments about the scheme have objected.
“The number of houses is excessive for a village of this current size and an increase on what was previously proposed several years ago,” said Lucy Blair.
“There are well outlined concerns about the stretched services locally, including GP, school (both already oversubscribed) and the pressure of traffic in an area that is already highly dangerous to pedestrians and this plan would add to those pressures without any offers to alleviate them.”
The consultation period for comments on the application (reference 25/04124/OUT on the council's planning portal) ends on Wednesday, December 10.
