Homes plan on site of former pub near Shrewsbury set to be refused by council
A scheme to build ten houses on the site of a former pub near Shrewsbury is set to be thrown out by council planners next week.
Council planning officers say the proposal for the site of the former Hare and Hounds, near Cruckton, is not suitable for an ‘open countryside’ location – and have recommended it for refusal.
Under the plans, six affordable houses and four larger open market properties would be built on land adjacent to the former pub, which closed following a large fire in 2011.
The former pub building is in the process of being redeveloped into a further four dwellings under plans approved in 2021.
“The site is not located within Cruckton and the development would be in open countryside where new open market housing is usually resisted,” said council planning case officer Sara Jones.
“The public benefits of boosting of the supply of housing, the provision of discounted open market dwellings and the employment associated with the construction phase, would be modest and insufficient to outweigh the adverse impact of the development on the undeveloped character and appearance of the area.
“The site is not an allocated site for residential development and is contrary to the policies of the Core Strategy and the Council’s SAMDev Plan as a whole.”
The six affordable properties would be offered at a 20 per cent discount on normal market rates, enforced with a Section 106 agreement.
The proposals have received an expression of support from Pontesbury Parish Council, which says affordable homes are badly needed for the Cruckton area – and that the planning authority failed to understand the relationship of the site to the village of Cruckton.
Shropshire Council’s affordable housing team had said the site“fails to meet the spatial policy requirements, given its isolation and lack of relationship with a settlement".
Deputy parish clerk Nicola Young wrote: “The Parish Council has been involved in the evolution of this application and gives its support to it.
“Whatever the proposed site may be it is not isolated nor remote, as stated in the [ pre-application ] report, nor is it not a part of Cruckton settlement.
“The narrow and incorrect definition of Cruckton settlement by the Planning Department has been contested by both local inhabitants and the Parish Council, and the view of this Parish Council has been agreed by Southern Planning Committee on three occasions,” she added.
A final decision on the scheme will be made at a meeting of the authority’s Southern Planning Committee on Tuesday, January 16.
