CONSERVATIONISTS in Wem have launched a battle to prevent an area of green space in the town being built upon.

The 12 acres of Mill Fields, off Mill Street, are up for auction on Wednesday, March 10 and are being promoted as suitable for ‘residential and mixed use’ in spite of numerous planning applications which have been rejected in the past.

As recently as September 2019, an application for a 50-room residential home was rejected by Shropshire Council on the grounds of the unsuitability of the site, which is in the Wem Conservation Area.

Malcolm Adkins, chairman of the Wem Climate Emergency Group, says preserving the site as an asset of community value would prevent another period of plans for development being submitted and rejected.

Wem Town Council recently held an extraordinary meeting to apply for Mill Fields to be designated an Asset of Community Value (ACV), which would give the area additional protection from development.

The application has now been submitted to Shropshire Council, with the process taking up to eight weeks.

“It’s the land over which the old mill had its ground works,” Mr Adkins said. “There was a lake there that was a balancing lake for the River Roden.

“They actually had Dutch engineers in the 1600s that developed the waterworks and a lot of the Roden was canalised out to Loppington.

“There’s an enormous amount of groundworks there under the bracken.

“It’s obviously gone wild so it’s got a high ecology value there and I think there is the possibility of great crested newts being present.

“The thing we’re worried about is that someone from London say, says ‘we’ll take it’, not realising what the land is like.”

Wem Area Climate Forum, a community group initiated by the town and rural councils in 2019 as part of its climate change policy initiative, is concerned that what it believes is a valuable area of natural biodiversity could be lost forever.

As well as mature woodland and water meadow full of wild flowers, the area is gradually being colonised by young trees and scrub which are invaluable habitat for wildlife.

The climate forum is working to establish green corridors connecting this area to others pockets of natural ecology in the countryside.

Mr Adkins also says preserving the site as an area of greenfield is essential for the town to lower its carbon footprint.

“We’re trying to do what we can for Wem to lower its carbon footprint,” added Malcolm. “We’re regarding this as land for Wem.

“It’s an area that is highly used and if it was filled in by a developer it would be a loss for Wem.

“My view is the land is worthless, if we’re making it an ACV, that’s the value of it.

“That would be a good development for the community.”