The dreaded drip, drip, drip of uniformity and blandness is knocking at the county’s doors and under the new unitary authority the drips seem set become a flood. One of the greatest assets of our county is its varied townscapes and landscapes, but much of this is under threat from the accelerating creep of uniformity and blandness.
The new unitary authority will be created at the beginning of April. It will not have any elected councillors until June, and even then many of the best local councillors are not standing. Shame! Already officers from the doomed councils have been busy planning for the future of the county. They have set out their vision for the future of the Shropshire, including suggestions on where 25,700 new houses will go. Perhaps because they have had such a free reign, the planners’ vision is bleak and deeply flawed.
They have presented us a series of options (“choices”). Perhaps we should overwhelm Shrewsbury with sprawling housing estates: “Welcome to Splodgebury” future signs will proclaim. Or should we instead expand the towns along the A5 and A49: “Shropshire: The Eddie Stobart Friendly County”. Maybe sharing the misery is better, spreading development like Marmite across the market towns pro rata to their size. “Shropshire: You Love it or You Hate It”. “Rural rebalance” will put more of the housing in villages and hamlets, but will these be occupied by commuters, holidaymakers, retirees or local workers? “Shropshire Homes: Executive, Exclusive, Everywhere.”
None of these is the right option for Shropshire because it is not — yet — a uniform county. We need different solutions for different areas. South Shropshire desperately needs affordable housing, live/work units and small employment spaces tucked away into the folds of its hills. Oswestry needs its town centre bringing back to life. Shrewsbury needs some tender loving care to nurture its natural and historic environment. Indeed, according to the planners, the natural and historic environment is the county’s “greatest asset”, such a great asset that they relegate it to the very last lines of their “Strategic Vision” for the county.
It is time to champion a living, working countryside, one that is equally comfortable with its roles in employment and leisure. This requires affordable housing near to where people work. It requires opportunities for enterprises to form and prosper. It requires developments that are carefully nestled within the rural and urban landscapes, sympathetic with local building styles and in scale with the surroundings. It requires treating the natural and historic environment as a contribution to the economy, not a constraint on it. Above all, we need local solutions to local needs, not the imposition of a countywide uniformity
The planning juggernaut is picking up speed and consultation on the options closes on 9 March. You will find a summary and commentary on the Campaign to Protect Rural England website (www.cpreshropshire.org.uk/plan).
What then is the future for England, Shropshire in particular? Villages denuded of shops, pubs and community life? Bland faceless towns with the same shops as any high street? Market towns without markets? A countryside in which only the wealthy can afford to live? If these questions interest you, why not join countryside campaigner Paul Kingsnorth in a discussion of “Real England, Real Shropshire”. BBC Radio Shropshire’s Jim Hawkins will chair the debate. It is at Church Stretton, 6.30 for 7.00pm, 13 March. Tickets 01694 724581 or on the door.
Andy Boddington
Published in the Clun Chronicle, March 2009