Plans lodged to turn village pub near Shrewsbury into children's nursery

An application has been submitted to Shropshire Council to turn the Four Crosses Inn in Bicton, near Shrewsbury, into a childcare facility.

The pub has been closed since the first Covid-19 lockdown in March last year and has been on the market for £550,000.

Rachel Moelwyn-Williams is in the process of purchasing it, and is aiming to turn it into a Canopy Children's Nursery.

She said: "The plan is for the conversion to start as soon as possible. We've been in talks with the early years department at Shropshire Council and they said they are in support of it.

"A few nurseries have sadly gone by the wayside during the pandemic so people are needing somewhere to send their children."

A couple of comments have been made on the application online.

Neville Ward, on behalf of the early years service at Shropshire Council, said: "I would like to support this application to agree additional childcare provision. We feel that there is a need for more provision and will be working with the applicant to help ensure the best quality provision to meet the needs of families."

Another commenter, Rebecca Lennon, also supported the application, but raised concerns over the proximity of the location to a road rife with speeding problems.

"It would also provide valuable educational, employment and economic benefits at the site and for the wider community," she said.

"Speeding is already a major safety issue at the site because; many vehicles use excessive speed along the straight stretch of road, the proximity of the 60mph zone causes excessive speeding in both directions as vehicles accelerate into the 60mph zone and many vehicles exiting the 60mph zone fail to reduce speed.

"For the proposed nursery to operate safely, the speed limit at the site should be reduced to no more than 30mph and the 60mph zone should be eradicated or moved further away from the site to enable speed to be reduced well away from the site and crossroad. The changes to speed limit must be underpinned by clear signage, speeding mitigation infrastructure and physical policing.

"It is important to appreciate that average speed surveys at the site would be distorted by local traffic entering and leaving Shepherd's Lane, Isle Lane and the retail garage at low speed.

"The significant safety risks that are required to be mitigated for the nursery to operate safely for children, staff and parents are caused by the excessive speed of many individual vehicles passing the site and crossroad and not average speed."

To view the application and comment visit the Shropshire Council planning portal and search using reference 21/02204/P3KPA.