Meetings coming up for housing and employment land plans
More meetings are taking place for people to have their say on preferred sites for thousands of new homes, and employment land, across Shropshire.
Shropshire Council has been talking to town and parish councils over the past couple of years about which sites in their area may be suitable for development, and the proposals are now being discussed.
It’s all part of the Site Allocations and Management of Development (SAMDev) policy, which will set out the guidelines for the future development of Shropshire.
The Preferred Options document sets out the potential sites for about 8,000 homes which could be built by 2026, and it’s important that people have a look at the plans to see what’s proposed for their area. Shropshire as a whole needs about 16,000 new homes by 2026, and these proposals allocate potential sites for around half of that.
The consultation started in early March 2012 and was due to finish in early June, but that has now been extended to 20 July 2012.
The proposals are organised into 18 ‘Place Plan’ areas which cover the whole of the Shropshire Council area, and public meetings are being held in each one.
The next events are as follows:
Monday 11 June at Bishop’s Castle Town Hall. Public meeting from 7pm to 9pm.
Thursday 14 June at Craven Arms Community Centre. Drop-in session from 5.30pm to 7pm. Public meeting from 7pm to 9pm.
Wednesday 20 June at Westgate, Bridgnorth council offices. Drop-in session from 6pm to 7pm. Public meeting from 7pm to 9pm.
All the plans can be viewed at shropshire.gov.uk/samdev where there is a questionnaire for each area which forms the official response to the consultation.
You can also get involved by joining the ‘Plan My Shropshire’ Facebook page or calling the council’s customer service centre on 0345 678 9000. If you don’t have access to a computer or the Internet, you can view the plans at your local library or Broadplace.
Mal Price, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member responsible for planning, said:
“These are really important proposals for the future of Shropshire and are the culmination of a lot of discussions with town and parish councils about how much development they would like to see in their area. There are lots of ways to get involved, and I would urge everyone to look at the preferred sites in their community so they can make their views known.”
