Councillors clash over loss of Telford and Wrekin's farmland as leaders say it’s a ‘balance we need to strike’

Members of Telford & Wrekin Council clashed over a review of the vital local plan which is due to go to consultation later this month (March) before being sent to government inspectors for approval.

A member of the opposition Conservative group, Councillor Andrew Eade, said the plans amount to the “rape and pillage” of the borough’s countryside.

Liberal Democrat members also opposed the local plan on the grounds that there was “no plan for infrastructure”, although this was denied.

Councillor Carolyn Healy (Labour, Ironbridge Gorge) is the cabinet member leading the reviewed plan through the process.

The council leadership has decided that its strategy is to expand Telford to the north, in three extensions north of Bratton, Wappenshall and land northeast of Muxton.

Council leaders have decided to keep green spaces in urban areas while also “removing” development sites in some rural villages.

Councillor Healy told Thursday’s (February 27) full council meeting that it would involve the loss of 2.8 per cent of the borough’s farmland.

“It will involve 2.8 per cent of our farming land and that is a balance we need to strike to meet the needs that we have for our growing population,” she said.

Councillor Jenny Urey (Independent, Muxton) does not accept the council’s figures for housing need.

“I am fuming that this decision is being made,” she said, calling for the matter to be deferred to allow for councillors to get more data.

“The housing is not needed, I do not know where these needs are coming from,” she added.

Councillor Andrew Eade, (Conservative, Church Aston & Lilleshall) said Councillor Healy’s “ludicrous’ comments about the plan had been greeted with “laughter” at a recent parish council meeting.

He said the scale of the building amounts to the “rape and pillage” of the countryside.

“It is less about preserving wildlife than pickle a squirrel,” he added.

He also slammed the council co-operating with councils in the Black Country to take some of their housing need.

He also claimed that five in every seven homes would go to meet “uncontrolled immigration”. This is based on a comparison between national immigration figures and the Government’s 300,000-homes a year national target.

Councillor Eade said that with solar farms covering up land, plus housing and development in the pipeline, it amounted to a “stab in the back for farmers”.

Conservative group leader Tim Nelson called for a policy of “densification” in the towns to protect farming land for food production.

He said there are parts of the plan that he could agree with but it was a “take it or leave it package” and he was against it.

Liberal Democrat councillors said they could not support the local plan without seeing proposals for infrastructure at the same time.

Councillor Kim Tonks (Liberal Democrats, Admaston & Bratton) said she is “deeply concerned” about a lack of infrastructure.

And Councillor Bill Tomlinson, Lib Dem group leader, said he was against voting for a local plan without seeing the infrastructure proposals.

The meeting was told that the current review is an update to the local plan and there is already an infrastructure delivery plan, but that it is also being updated.

Councillor Healy said housing demand was being driven “from within our own population” as people grow older and need a different kind of housing.

She said: “When you go home tonight and you open your door and you step into your house, think about how old is your home, when was it built?

“I would imagine most of you are actually living in a home built in the last 50 years but you don’t want to allow someone else to have a home of their own.”

The local plan review was approved by 33 votes to 14 against with one abstention.

A public consultation on whether the local plan review is “sound” will start on Monday, March 17 when residents and stakeholders will have an opportunity to provide comments before it is submitted to the Planning Inspectorate for examination.

The Bratton area has been earmarked to take about 2,100 dwellings and two hectares of employment land.

Muxton will see a “new sustainable community” of approximately 2,700 dwellings with 2,305 of those to be delivered in the plan period up to 2040.

Land within the strategic allocation at north of the A442 Wheat Leasowes will be developed to deliver a new sustainable community of approximately 3,100 dwellings with 2,190 of those to be delivered in the plan period. The site will also provide approximately 68 hectares of employment land.