Especially the ones at Oswestry!
A warning: if you want to see one of Britain’s finest hillforts at it’s optimum get up to Oswestry TODAY. It’s hard to believe it but there are some elected Councillors on Shropshire Council that have in mind to damage its setting, so this view may well be different next Easter…..
View from the Hillfort, including land the delusional NIMBYs want to protect. One of them, Shaun Spiers, Chief Executive of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, said: “Countryside across England is being lost as a result of the Government’s planning policies, but the proposal to build over a hundred houses in the setting of Old Oswestry Hillfort is notably philistine and short-sighted. It is bad enough that the developer thinks this is an appropriate place to build; the fact that the Council is supporting the scheme beggars belief. Of course we need to build more houses, particularly affordable houses, but it is not necessary to trample on our history and despoil beautiful places to do so.”
“Notably philistine” and “not necessary“! Any Councillor who votes to allow the development is going to have to convince themselves and others that neither of those accusations is true. Good luck with that!
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IMAGE: (C) Bill Boaden and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons License
The Heritage Journal 
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21/04/2014 at 09:06
Diana Baur
AND, any Councillor who votes to allow the development won’t be voted for next time – said 99% of over 100 Oswestrians randomly questioned recently. Democracy could just triumph!
Amazingly in the SAMDEV plans the area of land in question, ie 0SW004, part of the Hillfort setting, and destined to be covered with houses, it states, and I quote:
“Development subject to the access, layout, landscaping and design of the site having APPROPRIATE REGARD TO THE SETTING OF THE HILL FORT, AND FOLLOWING FULL ASSESSMENT OF THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE HERITAGE ASSETS, INCLUDING ASSESSMENT OF THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL INTEREST OF THE SITE.”
ALL, but ALL or these “subject to’s” have ALREADY been fully assessed and reported on by eminently qualified professional bodies, showing that the plans, indeed any plans, have a MAJOR IMPACT on the Hillfort setting, but Shropshire Councillors have made no response whatsover to them and prefer the “dodgy dossier approach”, ie they prefer to use the landlord’s report, obviously biased and of the “self-interest” variety, showing, you guessed it, minor impact to the setting.
Please go to the Shropshire Council website and make your own representation against this lunacy.
At the bottom of the form you will be asked why you object. That’s where you can explain that on page 164, Provision 117, Land off Whittington Road needs to be removed from the plan as it has ALREADY BEEN SHOWN TO BE TOTALLY INAPPROPRIATE AND DAMAGING.
Huge thanks to anyone reading this and taking action. It takes some time getting to grips with the bureaucratic nature of the form, but please hang in there. Deadline is April 28th.
http://new.shropshire.gov.uk/get-involved/site-allocations-and-management-of-development-samdev-plan/