A furious row has broken out over an application for a 245-unit care home – with developers branding some borough councillors rude.
Bryn Hopkinson, commercial director of Maximus, the company which wants to build the care village on Pulley Lane, is angry that the home, which would create up to 100 jobs, looks likely to be turned down for a second time.
He said that the West-Midlands-based firm had written to all borough councillors and offered a tour of a care village similar to the one it is proposing, but only eight of the 39 councillors in Shrewsbury replied, despite being provided with freepost envelopes.
He has also criticised what he calls the ‘contradictory’ approach of the local planning authority, saying: “How can the authority throw various policy objections at a care village that it chose to overlook for a football stadium?”
A report by planning officers recommends the scheme should be refused because it was outside the development boundary for Shrewsbury, and that the countryside between the town and Bayston Hill ‘should remain open to protect the rural character of the area’.
Mr Hopkinson said: “This is a serious application about providing care and accommodation for frail older people.”
“I don’t care if people disagree with our proposals but it is absolutely disgraceful, not to mention rude, that councillors can’t even be bothered to fill in a form saying ‘no thank you’ at no cost to themselves.”
The proposals have split opinion, with support from medical professionals and Shropshire County Primary Care Trust, but opposition from Bayston Hill Parish Council and Bayston Hill Action Group.
The development control committee will make a decision on the plan next Tuesday.