Shropshire planning officers have approved the application for 213 houses wedged between the A49, Bromfield Road and the railway line. This comes after the Environment Agency and Shropshire Highways withdrew their objections to a footpath from Bromfield Road under the railway bridge over the Corve. This will be the only pedestrian access to the site. A further six homes are to be added to the site in plans to be submitted next year.
The housing will be accessed by vehicle from a new roundabout on the A49. This obviously must be installed before construction on the site itself begins. Construction of the roundabout is bound to lead to long delays and occasional closure of the A49, increasing traffic through Ludlow and on Squirrel Lane, though official diversions will be via Bridgnorth.
History
This housing scheme has been in the planning system for 10 years 3 months (13/03862/OUT; 18/05461/REM; 21/06007/FUL). I don’t know of any other scheme in Shropshire that has taken so long for approval. Even the application for detailed planning permission (reserved matters) has taken five years from submission to approval. The footpath scheme has taken two and half years. These lengthy delays in part reflect the difficulty of securing a route for pedestrian access to this site. There also seems to have been little priority given to getting the scheme approved, either by Shropshire Council or the developers, Tesni Homes and Signature Homes.
The scheme is for 213 homes of which 28 will affordable (13%).
The housing proposals were twice rejected by the South Planning Committee in 2014. However, a planning inspector approved the scheme in 2015 after Shropshire Council refused to defend the committee’s decision at the public inquiry.
The approved scheme includes a footbridge railway over the railway. Network Rail has refused permission for this footbridge due to “deliverability problems”. The approved scheme also includes a retail unit on Bromfield Road. This was intended to be a convenience store serving the new estate and existing housing at the north end of Bromfield Road. This will not now go ahead because Applegreen has opened and, without the railway footbridge, the estate will have no connection to the shop.
A new planning application removing the railway footbridge and replacing the retail unit with six homes will be submitted next year.
The current plan includes 28 affordable homes, four homes fewer than the minimum required under planning policy. These additional homes are to be included in the plans to be submitted next year.
The affordable housing will be squeezed in the north east corner of the site and will experience noise and air pollution from the A49, Bromfield Road and the rail line. The noise in the gardens for the affordable housing cannot be louder than 50dB, a level officially regarded as “quiet”. This is a poor location for housing.
After local campaigning, the developer agreed in 2017 to the removal of a controversial footbridge that would have linked the development with Fishmore View. This left a footbridge over the railway to join Bromfield Road opposite the leisure centre as the only pedestrian link to the rest of Ludlow. That was blocked by Network Rail.
With no other pedestrian access to this difficult to access site, Tesni proposed a footpath and cycleway from Bromfield Road under the Corve railway bridge. This will be between 2 metres and 3 metres wide with streetlights. It will be raised above existing ground levels by between 0.5m and 1.9m to ensure that it remains flood free during most flood events. The route will be lined by a mix of post and rail and closeboard fencing. When floods are exceptionally high, the only access to the site will be by vehicle from the new roundabout on the A49.
It is unlikely this scheme would have got off the starting blocks if Shropshire Council had not been in breach of planning rules a decade ago by not identifying sufficient land for housing development. Shropshire now has enough land to meet housing supply requirements but the planning decisions have been made and this scheme will go ahead.
The developers have three years to begin the development before the planning permission expires.
Total absence of any investment in infrastructure to cater for the additional population. No more schools, no more doctors’ surgeries etc etc. All these properties would be entirely dependent on cars for shopping and daily living. No joined up thinking. Also the bare minimum of social housing, for which there is a huge demand locally. Still, mustn’t let anything stand in the way of the developer’s profit!
Too many properties, no additional infrastructure, school places, Medical Services, et al. Money making scheme.
Why would you divert via Squirrel Lane when the closure of the A49 will be on the Shrewsbury side of the Rock Green island?
No. The closure will be between Rocks Green and Sheet Road.
Sorry Andy, perhaps my map reading skills aren’t as good as I thought… but still, why close the A49 between the islands when the development is by the School?
The housing is accessed from the A49 as the plans show. There is no vehicle access from Bromfield Road
Noted, but the new island is north of the Rock Green roundabout, so why close the A49 at Sheet Road?
I think you have your map upside down! It is south of the Rock Green roundabout.
Many apologies, I thought the development referred to was opposite the School, with a new island on the A49 north of Rock Green roundabout (ie northwards towards Shrewsbury).
The bare minimum done by the developers to incorporate such a development into the town with as others have already said, diddly squat thinking about the provision or expanding of existing infrastructure to support it apart from here’s a random isolated cycle and foot path and Shropshire Council allows it through! Though they say it will be lit, that path already looks a place no vulnerable people will want to be walking along in the dark, so isolated with what look to be a number of blind spots where walkers or indeed cyclists will be out of sight if accosted. You hate to think that this sort of thing could happen in Ludlow but when developers are allowed to create such an environment for criminals to take advantage of, they will come. Of course if our local police were out on the beat more and patrolling such areas….but that’s another story!!
What contribution will the developer make to the infrastructure of Ludlow – viz schools, healthcare etc?
So to get into Ludlow you are going to have to drive down the A49 and add to the traffic on Henley Road and Gravel Hill and then find a car parking space.
What’s happened to Shrophire Council’s sustainability policy here – you can’t go anywhere from here without a car – even an evening stroll is only going to be round the estate.
The footpath/cyclepath doesn’t look very inviting and it doesn’t really bring you out to anywhere useful.
It is hard to see how anyone living there will be able to feel part of Ludlow’s community. This is using a few more Ludlow fields to allow developers to build houses that do absolutely nothing to address the severe lack of housing for those whose families and jobs are in the town. More council tax going to Shropshire Council and nothing to help the town.
This is a terrible location for new housing.
I am horrified, but not surprised. We should never have amalgamated. I could not see any benefits and what I thought would happen has. They take our money and give us nothing but problems. More traffic and Ludlow roads, or some of them are a menace. They talk about the environment and then allow all this building. Where will the council members be when all the you know what hits the ….