Ironbridge power station site plans: Concerns over new homes and transport

The Gorge Parish Council sent a questionnaire to every home in its area and received 156 replies.

The poll shows residents are worried about the impact new homes will have on roads and services in nearby Coalbrookdale and Ironbridge.

Councillors admitted they were surprised by some of the results, but added they won’t take an official position on the development options yet.

Councillor Carolyn Healy, who represents Coalbrookdale and Ironbridge, told a meeting of The Gorge Parish Council: “We had 156 responses to the power station survey, and it has been quite challenging to summarise them.

“We have got some questions that are just tick boxes, and these are easy to demonstrate as a graph, but others are not so easy, and there are some interesting results I wouldn’t have expected.

“Many people are concerned about housing density and housing numbers.

“A significant proportion want it to just go to nature, but more people want sensitive development, keeping the density low.”

The first question asked what residents would like to happen to the site “in an ideal world, if there were no financial constraints”.

Significant

The report reads: “The majority of responses wanted the area to be as green as possible. Forty-three responses would like to see all or most of the site becoming a wildlife area or nature reserve, and 42 responses specifically suggested recreational open space including a country park, walks and bridleways and cycle trails.”

The survey then asked what respondents’ concerns were about the development.

“The issue of most concern was the impact of the development on local roads and services,” the report reads, adding that 89 of the 156 respondents mentioned this.

“Too high a density of housing and poor design of housing were also significant concerns.”

Nearly 60 per cent of the respondents said they wanted the housing to be affordable to first-time buyers, and two-thirds or more requested amenities including a play area, GP practice, riverside footpaths and a stable 4G mobile signal.

Councillor Healy said: “I wondered if we should draw some sort of conclusion in this report - ‘This is what people have said so this is what we think should be done’ - but that wouldn’t be appropriate at this stage.”

The Harworth Group owns the site, and announced earlier this week that work would begin on demolishing the power station from the spring.

The majority of the power station will be demolished as part of the work, including the iconic cooling towers, which Harworth said were not structurally sound.

Report by Alex Moore, local democracy reporter