A PLANNING application has been resubmitted for 50 houses on an area of Whitchurch known as the 'the sponge'.

The patch of land is located to the north of Edgeley Road and owes its informal name to the wetness of the site and a previous application for 70 houses was withdrawn in October 2019 following concerns from residents over potential for flooding and the impact on local wildlife.

The application has been submitted again, this time with a reduced number of houses from 70 to up to 50, although the site plan largely follows the same boundaries as the previous application.

Many of the previous concerns remain though, as many of you have explained on Shropshire Council's planning portal.

Evelyn Jones was one of those to air their concerns over the plans.

She said: "The junction turning off Sedgeford onto Edgeley Road is already busy and quite dangerous, especially for school children crossing the road.

"There has already been a number of incidents of children walking out and also cars pulling out and being hit.

"Increasing the amount of traffic is only going to make this worse.

"Also, our drive entrance is onto Edgeley road and already some of the speeds people drive at makes it really difficult and unsafe to put out onto.

"The ground is also not fit to build houses on with water voles currently residing there. The ground is like marshland."

Fears over an increase in traffic and flooding are the main concerns for most, including Terence Connolly.

"Access, down Edgeley road which in effect is a cul-de-sac is very limited with vehicles parked on both sides of the road, construction traffic would cause chaos for years, then the additional residents vehicles and service vehicles would be an ongoing problem," said Mr Connolly.

"The site itself is extremely wet and sloping down to a stream flooding would seem inevitable in some areas.

"A care home is very close to the proposed site, emergency and service vehicles would be at risk of not gaining access when required.

"How many times is the council going to consider this application the site together with access is unsuitable for development."

The impact on local wildlife is a concern for many as well, as local vole expert Kate Long explains.

"It's no good saying you will protect the water voles on that site if you're then going to allow flooding along the length of the brook," said Ms Long. "This will wipe out not just the Edgeley Road colony, but the voles all along the length down to Edward German Drive and perhaps beyond.

"Water voles cannot deal with sudden surges, they drown. They are a protected species, and something which Whitchurch is nationally famous for.

"These Whitchurch water voles have appeared on Springwatch and on Midlands Today, as well as in The Telegraph, BBC Wildlife magazine and the Daily Mail.

"Many, many people are watching the progress of this development."