The four Shropshire councillors for Ludlow and Clee have launched a community survey to find out just what matters to people who live in Ludlow and the surrounding area. The survey is online at: teamludlow.uk
This is the second of my articles on the more technical aspects of SAMDev, the plans that sets out development sites for Ludlow and the rest of the county. The first explained that a consultation has been held on the final draft of SAMDev. Among the responses to that consultation is an attack on planning rules designed to protect Ludlow’s heritage. Historic England has asked for these rules to be strengthened.
We are in the final weeks of getting our local plan SAMDev in place. I am unhappy with proposed changes to wording that, in my view, will encourage development outside settlement boundaries and invite developers to submit greenfield developments. As I type this, a planning inspector is busy scrutinising comments on the final modifications to the local plan for Shropshire known as SAMDev. Her decision on the final wording of this long and tedious document will be vital to the future of this county. If she accepts the final wording proposed by Shropshire Council, it will be much more difficult to defend green fields from development and prevent housing being built beyond settlement limits.
After weeks of concern over cutbacks at Ludlow Hospital, Andy Boddington and Tracey Huffer ask whether the hospital has a future under Future Fit. There have been two announcements about Future Fit recently. The Future Fit team scrapped the option of building a £500 million plus A&E hospital on a greenfield site between Shrewsbury and Telford. Now, it has delayed a decision on where Rural Urgent Care Centres will go in the county. As it does so, we fear that Ludlow Hospital services are being reduced by stealth. Its future may be a hospital without beds run by overstretched GPs.
Update: 14 August 2015 The formal reason for refusal of the scheme has now been published: The proposal constitutes large scale industrial development and is inappropriate in terms of location, fails to protect and enhance the natural and historic environment and the character and high quality of the local countryside and setting of Ludlow, and would have an adverse impact on leisure and tourism. The renewable energy benefits of the proposal are significantly and demonstrably outweighed by the adverse impacts and as such would be contrary to Core Strategy Policies CS5, CS6, CS13, CS16 and CS17 and paragraphs 14, 17, 28 and 109, of the National Planning Policy Framework. Main Article: 11 August 2015 The application from Kronos Solar to build a solar farm off Squirrel at Little Ledwyche was today rejected by Shropshire Council’s South Planning Committee by a majority vote after a short debate.