Developers go head-to-head in sleepy Shropshire village
Rural Shropshire is set to provide an unlikely battleground for two developers in a race to build almost 100 homes, as the fallout from Shropshire’s collapsed local plan continues.
The quiet riverside settlement of Cressage had a population of 730 souls at the last count, surviving largely unchanged since it’s last major expansion, fuelled by the arrival of the railways in the mid 19th century.
But that is almost certainly about to change after proposals to expand the village were lodged with Shropshire Council in September, triggering a rival submission which also landed on the desk of the planning department this month.
The most recent outline plans, put forward at the beginning of November by Raby Estates, would see 96 homes built on a 21-acre site off Shore Lane in the West of the village, with a new 7.4-acre public park also included in the proposals.
The application comes around a month after Muller Property Group submitted proposals for 60 homes on a six-acre plot immediately to the south of the Raby site on Harley Road, a site which was earmarked for residential development in the now abandoned draft Shropshire Local Plan.
In 2020, Shropshire Council identified Cressage as a “local hub” settlement, suitable for 80 new homes, as it began drawing up its new draft local plan for the county.
The local plan was thrown on the scrap-heap in March, when government planning inspectors deemed it potentially unsound – triggering a race for development prior to work beginning on a new local plan in 2026.
Muller Property Group say their proposals, which are still under consideration by planners, will play an important role in contributing to Shropshire’s housing needs, with the local authority currently operating without a local plan and with a shortfall in it’s five-year land supply.
The Muller scheme is a resubmission of proposals which were turned down in 2023, as the council did not – at the time – have a land shortage.
Rival developer Raby Estates, owners of around 6,500 acres of land in Shropshire, fired the starting gun on a potential tussle for the village, with a 36-page objection to the Muller application.
In their objection, Raby says “no weight” should be given to the now-withdrawn local plan – arguing that their own proposals offers a “sustainable and deliverable alternative to deliver the growth that Cressage needs”.
They unveiled their own proposals shortly afterwards.
Both applications will be now decided by Shropshire Council, with the outside chance that both could go-ahead, meaning an extra 156 new homes being built.
If that comes to pass, it would result in an uplift of almost 50% on the existing 336 properties in the village, whose residents will almost certainly be getting new neighbours in one form or another.
Plans and documentation relating to both schemes can be found on the authority’s planning portal using the following references:
- Muller Property Group proposals: 25/03043/OUT
- Raby Estates proposals: 25/04124/OUT
