Telford landowners ‘complaining’ that their sites are not in local plan, meeting heard
Landowners in Telford & Wrekin have been complaining that their sites have not been included as possible land for housebuilding in the all important local plan, a meeting heard.
Councillors were debating the creation of new local nature reserves in the borough when the Conservative opposition leader compared that to the local plan “concreting over swathes of the countryside.”
Councillor Andrew Eade (Church Aston and Lilleshall) said at the cabinet meeting on Thursday that he would “oppose it every way I can. The effect that is going to have on the borough is absolutely immense.”
Councillor Carolyn Healy (Labour, Ironbridge) countered that with the phrase “ecological deserts” which she uses to describe industrial farmland that is devoid of biodiversity.
She told the meeting that she used to work measuring invertebrate life on farmland where it would be found near hedges compared to none in the middle of fields because of the way land is managed. The council has policies to increase biodiversity in development sites.
Councillor Healy, the cabinet member for neighbourhoods, planning and sustainability, said: “Sites for housing come about because we have a call for sites. Landowners then approach us and we assess those sites for suitability.
“We’ve currently got some landowners complaining that we have not included their sites within the local plan.
“We do make careful assessment of where is most appropriate and we don’t take forward sites that are not.”
She added that polices in the local plan work to increase biodiversity in developed areas.
The Liberal Democrats group leader, Bill Tomlinson, looked to the future and having to provide for continuing “very large housing needs” over the next 50 years.
Councillor Tomlinson (Shawbirch & Dothill) asked for the local plan to find ways of locating new nature reserves.
Councillor Healy said that green areas are included in various masterplans for development. She said Telford & Wrekin is “one of the greenest boroughs in the country.”
Thursday’s cabinet meeting approved the designation of new and expanded Local Nature Reserves.
The proposals include plans to declare two new LNRs, one in central Newport and the other at Hurley Brook. The plans also include boundary changes to other proposed LNRs to create five additional sites at Priorslee Flash, Redhill Ecology Park, Snedshill and Albion Hill, Holmer Lake & Madebrook Pools, and Kemberton Meadows.
The proposals will see the number of Local Nature Reserves across the borough increase to 27 sites over the next two years, covering 748 hectares of protected natural space.
