Outline plans have been submitted for nine houses on the former Whittles coach depot on Fishmore Road. Few details are given in the outline application for the 0.4 hectare site other than an outline plan and a brief description (23/03716/OUT). The lack of information has led to an objection from the Environment Agency which is concerned about contamination on the site from previous uses and the potential for pollution of watercourses if contaminants are disturbed.
There is no mention of affordable housing in the outline proposal. However, an affordable housing contribution will need to be paid. It is however commonplace for developers of brownfield sites to argue that the costs for development are so high that affordable housing is unaffordable.
There can be no objection in principle to redevelopment of this site which is an eyesore but more information will be required before the application can be accepted. That may mean that Shropshire Council ask for it to be withdrawn until the application is sufficiently advanced to be decided.
Along with resolving the Environment Agency’s questions, the applicant will undoubtedly need an ecological survey to identify any bat roosts etc.
This new application has been submitted in the name of Mrs N Hawker. In 2019, planning officers rejected a scheme for 18 homes on the site due to poor design. Planning permission for an earlier scheme of 20 homes has expired.
Good Morning Councillor
Fishmore Road Proposed Development on Whittles site.
Some housing would help to reduce eyesore here. No knowing what is buried on such a site, but that can no doubt be overcome at a price.
Fishmore Road is usually severely obstructed up with parked cars. This is not just a local housing road as it is a through highway. Parking needs to be severely curtailed with gaps left for passing tractors. More housing will make it much worse. Highways must be involved in planning here. Hope you can do something.
I totally agree with the previous comment. I live on Fishmore Road. The traffic congestion because of the parking is a very real problem. I am fit, mobile and in my late 70s. I am also very deaf. The cars who will not wait to pass each other often mount the pavement. I have been passed within inches on the pavement several times. It is frightening, I don’t hear them coming. I have reported it to the police, but without photo evidence nothing can be done, even though it is a motoring offence. Perhaps, if planning goes ahead, as it probably will, we should make it part of the deal that we have parking restrictions or cameras to make a safer environment.
I have made the following objection to the application:
The proposed application includes the provision of two residential driveways onto Fishmore Road, opposite the existing driveway to Carrick Lodge. Not only is the proposal an unnecessary additional hazard to oncoming traffic, it will also reduce the already scarce off-road parking spaces available to existing residents of Fishmore Road and visiting service vehicles, etc., by a further two vehicle parking spaces. The residents of nos. 5-14 and 16-18 Fishmore Road (13 households in all) have no off-road parking and are therefore constrained to use the kerbside to park their vehicles. For any other, non-residential vehicles needing to park, there is frequently no available space at all along that stretch of Fishmore Road between the junctions of Bringewood Road and Raglan Place. The unneccessary removal of at least two such spaces as proposed by the current application will seriously disadvantage residents (particularly the elderly and disabled) and service vehicles alike, as well as exacerbating an already busy and dangerous traffic flow which is due to only one carriageway being usable by traffic due to the kerbside parking. The Planning Authority is hereby requested to refuse the application unless the applicant alters the plan to provide vehicle access for all the proposed dwellings via Raglan Place only, thereby making Raglan Place the sole access route onto Fishmore Road.