Category: Housing

On 3rd January, I chaired a public meeting at Priory Hall for a presentation of Shropshire Council’s Local Plan Review. The room was packed with standing room (and not much of it) only. Adrian Cooper, Shropshire Council’s Planning Policy & Strategy Manager, set out the need for the Local Plan Review and the background to…

Shropshire Council’s Planning Policy team are now on the road conducting  public meetings around the county. For instance, public meetings are taking place to present proposals in Highley on 9th January, Ludlow on 14th January and Bridgnorth on 17th January. These are simply to provide information about sites and to answer questions. They are not being held…

Shropshire Council has a duty to maintain an up to date development plan. As I wrote a few weeks ago, and in April, the current stage is consulting on its “preferred sites”. Failure to maintain an up to date plan has a number of unattractive consequences, including having few grounds upon which to resist speculative development.…

I wrote on this topic in June. A paper being presented to Shropshire Council’s Cabinet next Wednesday covers consultation on the preferred sites across the county.  If agreed, the consultation period will be from 29th November to 31st January 2019 and will provide an opportunity for local councils, residents, landowners, developers and agents to comment…

On Thursday, Shropshire Council’s Leader, Cllr Peter Nutting, attended Much Wenlock Town Council’s monthly meeting. When Peter advised me of his invitation from the mayor, he said that the Town Council had told him it wanted “to talk about potential housing in the town”. This inevitably sparked my interest and I looked at the few…

I wrote a couple of weeks ago about early steps by the new owners, Harworth Group, to engage with the local community. With eight major projects in the north of England under their belts, they appear to be skilled not only in terms of demolition and remediation, but also in mixed development. I was pleased…

Last month I wrote that over 100 applicants applied for the ten new affordable homes for rent at Callaughtons Ash. 63 applicants returned “Local Connection” forms to South Shropshire Housing  Association, and 27 households were found to have a sufficiently strong connection with Much Wenlock to automatically qualify for one of these properties. Inevitably, 17 householders…

The latest news is that 102 bids were received for the ten properties for rent at Callaughtons Ash. “Local Connection” forms have been sent out to all applicants and returned, and South Shropshire Housing Association (SSHA) are now verifying them. The plan is that, by the end of March, offers will be made and pre-tenancy…

As part of its Local Plan Review, Shropshire Council is now consulting on the preferred scale and distribution of development – how many houses and where they might be built. “Local” in this context means Shropshire. I wrote in September and October on this topic. I’ll remind you that the County’s approach is that there should be a further 150…

The development off the Callaughton lane in Much Wenlock is proceeding apace and is on schedule for completion in the spring of 2018. There seems to be uncertainty in some quarters about the eligibility of local people for these new homes. The Much Wenlock Neighbourhood Plan 2013-26 provides for meeting the affordable housing needs of…