Home builders attack Telford & Wrekin local plan at first day of hearings

Government inspectors have been tasked with deciding whether the local development plan for thousands of new homes, green spaces, and land for jobs should be approved.

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Representatives of Boningale Developments see holes in the way the ‘north of Telford’ strategy has developed. And the Home Builders Federation called for more housing to be built in the borough for the needs of the Black Country.

Boningale’s barrister Thea Osmund-Smith claimed at Tuesday’s (February 24) opening session of the local plan review hearings there was no clear assessment of how the proposals for three big new communities was arrived at.

But a plan supporter said this conclusion was “confusing the outcome with the process”.

Thea Osmund-Smith said: “A more dispersed strategy has not been considered. There is very little difference between the options.

“It seems to be an all-or-nothing approach,” she added.

“How about smaller sites in the south of Telford. This is not a plan that benefits all of the communities across Telford.”

But council barrister Freddie Humphreys said the planning process had considered “various growth scenarios” and that they had assessed “genuine alternatives”.

The council has presented developing 8,000 homes in three new communities to the north of Telford as a part of its strategy to find space for 20,000 new homes up to 2041.

Other at the hearing said that having a ‘north of Telford’ strategy was not “pre-determined.”

And Satnam Choongh, of the Wappenshall Consortium, said: “That is confusing the outcome with the process.

“Sites put forward were assessed, that is the outcome but that is not the strategy.”

Council officials told inspectors Mike Worden and Catherine Carpenter that development sites to the south of Telford were ‘constrained’ by, for one thing, the World Heritage Site at Ironbridge.

Mr Humphreys said sites that were put forward to be developed had been assessed as a part of the process.

The Boningale Developments barrister accepted that there are ‘constraints’ in the south of Telford but there could be “smaller growth” sites in the south of the borough.

Council officials were also challenged on whether there was enough housing in the plan to meet the needs of the Black Country. The council has included a contribution of 153 homes per year to the Black Country.

Rachel Danemann, of the Home Builders Federation, said: “We welcome the fact that Telford is giving something and wish they could do more.”

The HBF representative spoke of ‘frustration’ across the region that not enough is being done to meet a backlog of unmet needs.

Thea Osmund-Smith, of Boningale Developments, told inspectors that the council had not provided an assessment of how it had come to its housing figures.

This, she pointed out, had been an issue in neighbouring Shropshire which has withdrawn its local plan.

Council representatives insist that their proposal is ‘sound’ as far as this plan goes and that inspectors should accept it on that basis.

And the council was supported by a spokesperson for councils in the Black Country who told the hearing on Tuesday that they were happy with how Telford & Wrekin Council had worked with them.

Michele Ross, of Wolverhampton Council was happy that Telford & Wrekin Council had met its obligations to engage.

But she urged her colleagues to bring forward its next local plan review by two years so that this could be reassessed after three years rather than the usual five.

She spoke of the trigger point of local plans in the Black Country being early 2028 which would be ‘appropriate’ for the next plan review in Telford and Wrekin.

Mr Humphreys said the council’s position is that the plan is “sound” as it is and an early review is “unnecessary”.