Eric Pickles to visit Shropshire over hill fort homes bid

Eric Pickles has agreed to visit Shropshire over controversial plans to build homes and holiday chalets next to a beauty spot in Church Stretton.

The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government has said he will contact campaigners this week about arranging a site visit to Church Stretton and Caer Caradoc hill fort, next to which 85 houses and 16 holiday cabins are planned to the outrage of nearby residents.

The news was announced at a public meeting called by the Campaign to Protect Rural England at which more than 150 people gathered to talk about fighting the proposal by developer Morris Property. Church Stretton resident Martha Tryers, a 66-year-old retired paralegal researcher, said she had been in touch with Mr Pickles over intervening in plans to build Coventry Airport on greenbelt land, which she had successfully convinced him to do.

Now she had raised the matter of the houses at New House Farm, by Caer Caradoc, with him and only the night before the meeting he had told her: If only to get rid of you, Martha, I will come, she said.

The meeting heard Shropshire Council was convinced to remove the proposal last year, but a new planning application had been made which moved the site a little down the hill. The applications accompanying landscape strategy claims to assimilate the development into the surrounding area and the AONB it does nothing of the sort, said George Chancellor, chair of the Shropshire Hill Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) partnership.

He said the planners did not seem to understand that it was not simply about the look of the site, but about the wider impact such a large amount of houses could not fail to have on the surrounding countryside.

David Wilkes, of Strettons Civic Society, himself a former planning inspector, said the application would not go before Shropshire Councils south planning committee now until May at the earliest.

It was expected to be decided on March 10, but has been put on hold as the Highways Agency has requested more detail on access to the New House Farm site.

He said if approved the estate could set an unfortunate precedent opening the way to hundreds of houses on the greenbelt land around Caer Caradoc to the east of the A49.

John Woolmer, of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, who called the public meeting, said campaigners would be protesting at Shirehall and called for people to get involved.

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Eric Pickles to visit Shropshire over hill fort homes bid