Shrewsbury residents raise concerns over 1,400 homes planned on greenbelt land near A5

Shrewsbury residents have raised concerns about plans for a huge housing development near the A5.

Commercial Estates Projects (CEP) wants to build up to 1,400 homes on fields to the southwest of Shrewsbury, between Mytton Oak Road and the A488 Hanwood Road to the east of the A5.

It is another of Shrewsbury’s sustainable urban extensions (SUE) that has already been created to the south of Oteley Road.

The SUE is a scheme made up of three separate parcels of land from different developers. CEP has previously said its part of the site could accommodate between 1,200 and 1,400 homes.

Around 350 of the homes will be submitted in detail as part of a hybrid planning application later this year. The rest of the site will be submitted in outline form.

CEP say that a local centre will be provided that will cater for shops, healthcare, places to eat and drink and wider community facilities, while new green spaces will be spread across at least a third of the site.

There will also active travel routes designed to encourage walking and cycling, with a biodiversity net gain of over 10 per cent.

People were able to hear about the scheme at a public consultation event held at Bowbrook Primary School, while feedback can also be left via the shrewsburysouthwest.co.uk website.

Jayne Houston said that traffic is already bad, and is worried about where the extra cars will go.

"You try and get out of Crowmeole Lane onto the main road, I can't get out half the time," she said.

"And there's no help. You never hear from the council. All you see is more houses popping out. We struggle to see a doctor now. Are we going to have another surgery?"

Jan Meredith added: "There's also the hospital parking problem. And what about the youth? When we were young, you had youth clubs, now they have nothing. So what are they going to do? Roam the streets."

Geoff Heywood, who campaigns "for a better Shrewsbury" studied urban development. However, he is worried about what the developers will bring to the town.

"Derby is one of the worst urban expansions in the country, and that's what these people are trying to do in Shrewsbury," he said.

"They find a town with a weak council and then they run and go and take no responsibility. We have not got an effective planning department."

However, Councillor Chris Lemon (Greens, Radbrook) said CEP has a lot of experience delivering big developments.

"They have done a huge amount of consultation from what I can see," he said.

"To tell you the truth, I've been quite impressed with the effort they've put in.

"I know they have been in pre-application mode with Shropshire Council. We had a meeting with most of the representatives from CEP and Shropshire Council officers, where they went through things with us.

"We like the idea that there is quite a lot of green space. It all seems to connect as well. There are viable, wildlife corridors.

"The things we are concerned about are the road safety considerations for Hanwood Road, which at the moment is an accident hotspot with 60mph limits, when every other road this side of Shrewsbury has 40mph ones.

"There is the potential for this development to bring road safety. improvements. I am also concerned about public transport.

"CEP has been told by Shropshire Council that their bus provision is centred on the DRT - the on-demand service. That doesn't really work for us - we want to see public transport with a regular time-tabled service, because that's the kind of thing that will encourage people not to get into their cars."

Matthew Rhodes, senior planning manager at CEP, said the developer will take on board people's feedback, including anything it may have missed. And the full application will include transport, highways, drainage, ecology, heritage, and ground assessments.

"This has to go through a very robust process that will take months," said Mr Rhodes.

"The target is to submit the full application by the end of the year.

"It gives us a couple of months to take on board what people have said and if there's something we've missed.

"Part of it will be detailed - the first phase of about 350 homes. The rest of the site will be in outline.

"The main reason is that it helps us deliver the homes quicker. We'll have another consultation in September time which will focus more on the detailed elements."