Developers make concessions over housing plans

Taylor Wimpey and Persimmon Homes are currently in the process of applying for full planning permission to build 600 homes at Weir Hill, off Preston Street in Shrewsbury.

Residents and local councillors have raised their objections to the scheme saying that the number of houses proposed will lead to an unprecedented level of traffic which will place strains on the surrounding roads.

Under outline plans submitted to Shropshire Council in April, the two house builders had suggested that a new access road feeding on to London Road would only be built when 365 houses were occupied.

Objectors, including Shrewsbury Civic Society, had said that a new road was needed to take traffic away from nearby schools and established houses in the Preston Street area.

Now, the developers have offered a concession and plan to build the road once 250 homes are occupied.

But Hannah Fraser, Shropshire councillor for the Abbey ward, said she still has concerns.

"It could be at a minimum, two and a half years before the road is built," she said. "This means construction traffic will be going along Preston Street. In the worse case scenario, the house builders could decide to stop work before the trigger number is reached due to market forces, and this could mean that the estate is there with no access road on to London Road.

"The developers are not going to be able to control their contractors using Preston Street. All this will impact on the people who already live in the area, who go to the nearby schools, such as St Giles', Prestfelde and even Belvidere and with their parents.

"I am still concerned there is going to be a long period when parents and residents are having to contend with construction traffic."

Mike Carter, planning chairman for the civic society said: "The objections that we had to the scheme do not appear to have been overcome by this announcement.

"Shrewsbury Civic Society has two objections. The first is access and the second is community facilities. It would be sensible for the road to be in place before the work starts. The civic society does not object to the site being built on it is the details that concern us."