Shropshire Star

Shropshire Star comment: Green field and house in harmony

Disparate communities across the region object to a number of plans to create new homes in Shropshire.

Published
Plans to build homes on green space have sparked protests.

They are concerned that the rural nature of the county will be despoiled as green field sites make way for concrete, steel and glass.

Indeed, it is impossible not to have sympathy for the well-meaning folk who seek to preserve the county’s rural nature. Shropshire is one of the most special and unspoiled counties in the UK and it is unsurprising that so many rally to a common cause.

They seek to maintain the county’s green and pleasant lands, ensuring developers don’t turn the county into a vast, sprawling conurbation.

In recent years, those voices have held sway. However, the tide is turning as development becomes inevitable at a number of sites across the region. Houses are going to be built in areas that people might not want them – it’s just the way things are.

The need for new housing is pressing. The county has suffered from a shortage of affordable accommodation for more than 20 years and things have improved at a slow rate. There are still too many people unable to find affordable housing, still too many local children who have no prospect of finding a home in the county of their birth.

The county must adopt a far-reaching strategy to tackle the chronic housing shortage. For we are doomed to witness a continuing brain drain as youngsters move away from the county for the simple reason that there are no affordable housing.

And while it would be preferable for any new housing to be built on brownfield sites, the plain truth is there are too few of those in Shropshire. Some green field sites will have to be sacrificed if we are to build new homes.

There are those who have accepted that philosophical change. They are aware that maintaining the status quo is simply not possible. And there are many more who refuse to budge, who will not yield to the inevitable and who fight hard to preserve the county without realising or acknowledging the fact that their actions are to the detriment of a new generation.

A balance must be found. While working to protect the countryside as best we can, we must also provide new housing for those who will otherwise move away. There must be compromise. Something has to give, in the interests of a new generation.