Henry Carver: Why pressing on with Bridgnorth homes plan would be a ‘terrible mistake’
Henry Carver, owner of Carvers Building Supplies, grew up in Bridgnorth and explains why he is against the plans to build homes.
Proposals to build 2,000 homes and increase the size of Bridgnorth by 40 per cent will only create landowner wealth and balance Shropshire Council’s books.
The evidence against the scheme is compelling and would do more harm than good to this beautiful corner of Shropshire.
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I believe pressing ahead would be a terrible mistake. Here’s why. Public opinion is overwhelmingly against large development, especially in the green belt. Three widespread surveys carried out by Shropshire Council, Save Bridgnorth Greenbelt and Bridgnorth Town Council all showed that over 90 per cent of residents do not want development on this scale. Permission has already been granted for 567 new houses in Tasley and the town has grown by 15 per cent over the last 12 years, with 745 houses built to the north west. If you talk to people what they want is affordable homes. If you crunch the numbers and study the evidence, there’s demand for about another one or two hundred homes.
Shropshire Council, even now, has not supplied a shred of evidence to explain how they will achieve their one job to one house policy to be environmentally sustainable. Despite hundreds of new-builds the sad fact is over the last few years Bridgnorth has lost jobs, not created them. You might be surprised to know that Bridgnorth already has over 40 acres of approved industrial land and only four acres have been taken up over the last 15 years, the rest of it is sitting empty. To me, that’s a sign of lack of demand and a lack of confidence in demand.
A third of the local economy relies on tourism, not manufacturing. We should be promoting what the town needs; visitors and businesses to support them.
In addition, the simple truth is that employers like me prefer Telford and Wolverhampton, which both have motorway logistics and train links. The poor roads to and from Bridgnorth are already at capacity.
Air pollution in the town is already at dangerous levels. Imagine what a 40 per cent increase in traffic would do. So, who wins? There are winners, notably the landowners.
I am an industrialist; my conclusions are not sentimental.
I am sceptical of the business case for massive development anywhere in Bridgnorth.
There simply is no case for development in the green belt at Stanmore. If they continue to promote it, I am quite willing to take Shropshire Council to Judicial Review.
I am confident they would lose.
