RED HOUSE PUBLIC MEETING

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" Like most local residents, I was very concerned when I heard about proposals to develop up to 800 homes in Albrighton. If given the green  light, the development would represent a 62 per cent increase in the footprint of the village. Indeed, I would like to thank everyone who has contacted me to comment on the development plans - or the ‘over-development’ plans as I call them.

Hundreds of Albrighton residents have already let me know their views  by email, by letter, and by responding to my recent ‘Listening to You’  survey.  I am pleased that more than 3,000 people have signed the local  petition, which calls for the development to be stopped.

Albrighton has already taken a lot of new homes in recent years.  The new Shropshire Local Plan makes provision for up to another 500 homes.  That is more than enough for this Local Plan cycle.

I am not against new housing, and neither are Albrighton residents,  many of whom live in a property which someone might have originally  objected to when it was first submitted as a planning application.  However, I am against large scale housing development which is both in the Green Belt and which has not been approved through a Local Plan consultative process. This is an issue I raised at Prime Minister’s Questions on 6th March.

Boningale Homes' proposal is for housing development which is in the Green Belt - and is not in the Local Plan. Therefore, it fails both of  these significant tests. Moreover, the scale as well as the siting are an affront to all those who support organic housing growth, but who rightly, like me, don’t support revolutionary growth. The site is wrong. The scale is wrong. The principle is wrong.

That is why I will object in the strongest terms to any planning  application eventually submitted which is based on these disproportionate proposals.

It is important to note that these development plans have not been proposed by the Government or by Shropshire Council, but by a private local developer. Whilst Shropshire Council's planning committee cannot  pre-judge any planning application before it is submitted, councillors I have already spoken with have made it clear that these proposals would ruin the Green Belt and character of the Albrighton village, potentially take away retail footfall from Albrighton High Street, and offer a school that is not needed.

That is why it is good news that Cllr Nigel Lumby, AVAG and I are all  working closely together to coordinate our efforts and stop these proposals succeeding. As someone who has lived in Shropshire for over  twenty two years, it is vital the county’s Green Belt  is protected - acting as the green lungs for today, and future generations.

Together, we can  stop these ill-thought through proposals succeeding."