The town’s Priory Hall hosted a lively meeting on 12th July when local residents gathered to hear about progress of the review of the Much Wenlock Neighbourhood Plan. Members of the Steering Group outlined progress on the draft objectives based on previous feedback, and afterwards welcomed comments and questions on a range of topics.
Housing policies remain much the same because the original plan was sound. Small scale rural ‘exception’ sites for affordable homes will be limited to 20 dwellings, and market housing developments will include 20% affordable homes, both figures in line with Shropshire Council’s policy. Changes include no development on known flood zones, recognition of congested traffic corridors, and alignment of infrastructure growth.
There are changes to Sustainability which include all new developments being suitable for all ages and abilities and allowing safe and easy access to town facilities.
Draft Local Economy policies seek to support existing businesses and help to attract new ones. These include those wishing to work from home, commercial sites in the parish, farming and agriculture, and our town centre businesses. There has also been community feedback about the quarries and support for them as nature, wildlife and recreation sites, which we will pursue.
The Neighbourhood Plan will propose policies to limit serious local Flooding. These will encourage development located away from the worst affected areas. Nature-based steps to reduce flooding will also be supported. Ensuring that water quality is not compromised by undesirable development will require cooperation with landowners and the Environment Agency.
Draft policies for Transport & Getting Around include ensuring that any new residential development is within a sustainable distance of the main town facilities – this chimes with the national work being done to support ‘walkable towns and villages’, where shorter journeys should be feasible for those willing and able. We are mapping where improvements could be made to our walking (and cycling/equestrian) route network. We will lobby for increased public transport provision and for highways improvements where affected by development proposals.
A strong response to our survey about Community Wellbeing revealed a call for additional community meeting space to host a range of activities and informal meeting places, and more for teenagers to do locally and for somewhere safe, covered and accessible to ‘hang out’. Maintaining the leisure centre, improving the under-5s play area, and more green areas – community orchards and gardens – were also listed as important.
Good Quality Design is already supported by the Much Wenlock Design Statement, but the draft review takes this further by providing guidance to be used both by prospective developers and by homeowners considering work on their own properties. It will also provide key criteria for decision makers on planning applications. We also intend to identify ‘non-designated heritage assets’ – buildings that are historically or architecturally important at a local level but are not classed as officially listed.
Much Wenlock’s landscape setting is one of our most prominent assets and proposals in the draft plan acknowledge and safeguard this in the draft Green/Open Spaces and Landscape & Wildlife policies. Additional policies are intended to reduce the impact of light pollution, support for a minimum 20% tree canopy cover across the town and identify and protect those landscape views that are most valued. In addition, we want to protect those features of our natural environment that are intrinsic to our area, linking to the other policy areas.
While Climate Change is an international issue, we have a part to play at the local level. We want to replace the current policy on efficiency standards with a stronger one about encouraging development (new and existing) to improve their energy efficiency, insulation, reduce water consumption and so forth – this will also inform the Design section of the plan. We also intend to strengthen this policy by providing additional criteria whilst ensuring they are sympathetic to the landscape and bring community benefit.
This is necessarily a condensed and incomplete summary of the topics covered and the conversations between local residents at the 12th July meeting. Hopefully it provides a flavour of the progress of the Neighbourhood Plan Review. There will be a further opportunity to influence the final draft in the early autumn. In the meantime further detail of Your Plan – Your Future can be found on the Town Council’s website: www.bit.ly/4e7NKYu
