AN OVERWHELMING majority of residents living on Wrexham Road and Chemistry have signed petitions opposing plans to build houses on adjacent land.
When the plans emerged, residents organised petitions and finished collecting signatures at the weekend, prior to a deadline for submission of comments on the proposed sites in the SAMdev (site allocations and management of development) scheme of Friday, July 20.
A total of 450 residents signed the Wrexham Road petition against J Ross Developers’ plans to build houses, and 256 people on Chemistry signed to oppose plans put forward by A.F. Macdonald Developers.
One of the petition organisers, Simon Lyon said: “Literally a handful of people did not want to sign, making these petitions a resounding success and a clear show to the council and the developers that these plans are unacceptable.
“We now want the council to throw them out and look at other more suitable sites around the town including brown sites.”
Protestors are also making other points to Shropshire Council with the submitted petition.
They say major road improvements would be needed to allow Wrexham Road to cater for more traffic.
Protestors have not seen developer’s detailed highway report on how they propose to do this, but understand the public will have access to this when it has been deposited with Shropshire Council. At this stage, protestors want to submit a holding response based on the information displayed by the developers at their exhibition held at Whitchurch Civic Centre in June, and reserve the right to comment further.
They say proposals to create a series of approximately eight chicanes with six containing parking areas for four cars and two areas for two cars, are totally unacceptable.
Protestors feel there is not enough room for street parking for the 50 cars which already park on the road, and the chicanes will only accommodate 28 cars. No provision is being made for the balance of 22 vehicles, and there are fears properties will reduce in value as a result.
They also believe motorists will use an alternative parallel road, namely Chemistry/Smallbrook Road as a rabbit run.
Other concerns include a loss of wildlife, and increased flooding.
Mr Lyon added that surface water and sewage drainage has been an ongoing problem along Wrexham Road, and the main sewer underneath the road has already experienced problems recently and more houses would overload the system.
He feels that the fields soak up a lot of water with many parts remaining marsh-like all year, and building on the land would inevitably lead to more problems with water run off.