New affordable homes plan for Whitchurch submitted

Shropshire Council and the Mercian Group have pooled resources to prepare land in Whitchurch to be used for 10 new affordable housing units to be built, it has been announced.

The application, submitted by local developer Saxonby Group, would see the land on Bridgewater Street be converted into six two-bedroom homes and four apartment flats – all designed to be much needed affordable housing.

Currently, the land central to the proposals from Saxonby is comprised of two adjacent plots owned by Shropshire Council and Mercian respectively. It has been agreed to prepare the land for use and pool resources to create a space large enough for potential use to benefit the community.

Mal Price, Shropshire Council Cabinet member for the built environment, said:

“I’m hugely proud of the initiative behind the joint venture between ourselves and Mercian to make our land primed and available for use to meet the needs of the community in Whitchurch. The prospective proposal from Saxonby will be decided in due course, but it’s reassuring to see local businesses keen to work with us to meet the needs of communities around Shropshire.”

Chris Towers, Managing Director at Mercian Group, said:

“We are aware of the need to provide additional affordable homes in Whitchurch so we approached Shropshire Council to share in an initiative to combine our land holding at White Lion Meadow to be able to regenerate an area and create this much needed housing in for key area of the town.”

James Wood, Co-Founder of Saxonby, said:

“Partnership working is key to delivering Affordable Housing and we hope that our Land & Planning service will deliver a successful planning permission that Saxonby will Design & Build for a local Housing Association ”

The application submitted by Saxonby (14/05685/FUL) is pending consideration