Days before the deadline, final plans for 213 homes between Bromfield Road and the A49 were submitted to Shropshire Council. The site will be accessed from a new roundabout on the A49 and a pedestrian footbridge over the railway line. All housing will be above the floodplain. A retail store will be built on Bromfield Road.
The principle of housing development on this site is accepted. It is now a question of making it as good as possible. It must boost its affordable housing to meet Shropshire Council’s requirement of 15% affordable housing in Ludlow. A suggestion from planning officers that the footbridge to Fishmore View should be reinstated in the plans is unacceptable.
In 2013, an outline planning application was submitted for a proposal for up to 215 dwellings on the site. This was rejected by the South Planning Committee but approved on appeal in 2015. In 2016, after we succeeded in getting a controversial footbridge over the Corve to Fishmore View removed from the plans. The developer, Tesni Properties, was given three years to submitted final details of the plans (reserved matters). That application was submitted by Signature New Homes, Tesni Properties and Susan Jones to Shropshire Council on Monday, five days before the deadline (18/05461/REM).
The plans closely follow those approved at the planning appeal.
There will be 185 homes sold on the open market and 28 affordable homes (13%). This is contrary to Shropshire’s housing policies which require 15% affordable housing in Ludlow. That would deliver another four affordable homes on the site. The affordable housing is clustered by the railway and Bromfield Road.
The development will have 18 homes a hectare, a higher density than the Shropshire average of 15 homes a hectare.
Further street scenes (1). Further street scenes (2).
The development will be built in four phases. We don’t yet know the indicative timescale.
This is a car dominated development with 473 car parking spaces, with an additional 21 spaces for the retail unit.
All the development will be above the area that regularly floods. The area by the Corve will be a riverside park. The veteran oak in the middle of the site will become a feature of the development adjacent to a pocket park.
This application has only just been published and it will take some time to study. My main concern is the shortage of affordable housing in the scheme. I have concerns about loss of trees along the A49 and adequate noise screening for properties alongside the railway and Bromfield Road and adjacent to the retail unit car park.
I am also worried that the preapplication advice from Shropshire Council planners suggested reinstating the footbridge to Fishmore View. That would be unacceptable. I have discussed an alternative route with the developer in the past. This would go along the west bank of the Corve under the railway to Corve Bridge. This route could not be used in flood events. I think the residents will need to form a flood warden scheme anyway to ensure that children do not stray close to flood waters.
This is a big scheme and there are lot of discussions to be had over the details. I am not expecting the plans to be approved for some months because there are many details to be resolved and several specialists to be consulted.
I will be asking to meet the developers and planners to discuss the details of their plans in the next few weeks.
I will be provisionally calling the application into the South Planning Committee for decision. But I hope we can resolve concerns without a committee reference.
Will a bus service be established for residents without cars?
Initially, the residents will have to catch the 435 Ludlow Shrewsbury Service or the 738-740 Ludlow Knighton Service.
It will be some years before the development is complete. 137 homes are also due to be built on Foldgate Lane and 200 at Rocks Green. A retail area is to be built at Rocks Green.
The logic at that point is to run three town routes. One direct P&R service. A second serving the north of the town. The third would serve the south of the town. Other models are available.
Why is the footbridge so unacceptable? I expect that teenagers will soon create an entertainingly dangerous path between the two estates to save a half hour walk past Corve Bridge Garage or would we prefer they cut through on the edge of the A49? The more routes that are quicker to walk or cycle than drive the better in my view as they will help to cut congestion. We will never eliminate cars from Ludlow as they are essential for the residents of the nearby villages but we should do what we can to encourage people living in town to walk and making a path through this new estate could save 10 minutes of walking for kids walking to school from Fishmoor Road as well as keeping them further from main roads.
Sorry to see hat Shropshire Planners are still hankering after “the Bridge to Nowhere”. As discussed in the previous proposals for this development, it would have to be a massive structure in order to clear the potential flood areas, and would not lead to any of the major amenities or routes into the town. Very expensive and equally pointless, and would in ay case leave kids going to the Bromfield Road school having to cross that road as they do now, as well as taking them near the potentially dangerous River Corve.
I hope the developers resist the siren voices of the planners!