Old Oswestry Hillfort and the Local Plan review – an update

Local campaigners have expressed concerns about the prospect of development close to Old Oswestry Hillfort under Shropshire Council’s Local Plan review. However, these concerns appear to be based on a misinterpretation of the proposals.

Adrian Cooper, Shropshire Council’s planning policy and strategy manager, said:

“We acknowledge campaigners’ concerns about the current Galliers application for the development of a site which is already allocated in the SAMDev* Plan. These views are consistent with the position they adopted during the preparation of SAMDev, and will doubtless be expressed as objections to the planning application.

“However, their concerns about further northward expansion in the setting of the hillfort seem to be based on a misinterpretation of the background evidence which has been published in support of the current Local Plan Review.

“No additional development sites are proposed near the hillfort. Indeed, the recent consultation document explicitly recognised that:

‘Additional development opportunities adjacent to the existing Development Boundary for Oswestry are now extremely restricted by the presence of physical, heritage and environmental constraints such as the setting of the Old Oswestry Hillfort; sensitive landscapes to the north and west; the Oswestry bypass to the east; and flood risk and accessibility issues to the south.’

“Campaigners seem to have confused the land which we were asked to consider by landowners – shown here  – with the preferred sites which we are actually proposing to allocate – one small site on the west of Oswestry, plus land at Park Hall – which can be seen here, on page 137.”

For more information about the Local Plan review, click here.

*SAMDev is the Site Allocations and Management of Development document.