Shropshire Magazine

Shropshire may be considered one of the country’s last rural retreats but Ben Bentley considers whether we have a green future

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From the top of the Long Mynd, out over the Shropshire Hills and beyond, time disappears: this is how England used to be, the countryside that goes on forever.

Except it’s an illusion. Or, as is the way with illusions, so it would seem. Startling new “intrusion” maps published by the Campaign to Protect Rural England show that our green and pleasant land does not go on forever; indeed, many parts of it are fiercely under attack from new developments such as out-of-town retail parks, roads, homes, rail links and general urban sprawl. Nationally, the England of two generations ago could disappear within decades unless new developments are kept in check.

Those are the fears at least. Rural Shropshire remains one of the last counties in Britain to resist the “doughnut” effect, of being encroached upon by ever-expanding cityscapes and urban industrialisation.

Yet there are indications, visible not least through the maps which compare the landscape of post-war England with how it looks today, that change is creeping up on us. This change is subtle and inevitable in the wake of the construction of road networks such as the M54 and associated routes. With changes to the rural economy, these have encouraged the proliferation of warehouses and businesses that have given rise along such networks as the so-called technology corridor as well as industrial and business parks like those at Harlescott and around Telford and Bridgnorth.

The view from the Titterstone Clee Hill. Photograph by Mike Hayward

There is a general acceptance among countryside campaigners such as Alwyn Lewis, chairman of the CPRE in Shropshire, that change, once it happens, is virtually irreversible, that there is no turning back the clock when it comes to new developments which themselves become part of the new man-made landscape.

Which is why he and fellow members of the campaign group are so jealously protective about the future, and why plans for three million new homes nationwide – including more than 50,000 in Shropshire over the next 20 years – are raising concerns.

The fear? That parts of Shropshire will eventually become little more than a suburb of Birmingham and the West Midlands. With the trend for people fleeing the city for the countryside, there are genuine worries that the county will become full of commuters who travel to jobs outside the county.

“We don’t want the countryside to become a desert for city people to live in,” says Alwyn. “We want a live, vibrant rural community where young people can find meaningful jobs and buy houses that they can afford, and people feel that living in a village find it gives them a sense of community.

“There is a danger that people use the rural hinterland of the cities as pure commuter belt. They have nothing to do with the village they live in, they don’t shop locally, they just drive back and forth.

“We are not simply about stopping development – rather about directing development in particular ways.”

Of course, with the construction of the M54 and an adjoining network of roads linking east with west and north with south, the infrastructure for urban creep is facilitated.

The CPRE wants to ensure that brownfield sites are used first for developments, at a time when a government group which goes by the name of Natural England is considering the use of sacrosanct but poorer-quality greenbelt land, which would effectively be easier to develop.

But Alwyn fears that south-eastern parts of the county around Bridgnorth could be hit worst by new housing developments.

“A lot of younger people continue to live with their parents because they cannot get onto the housing ladder, but this plan does not really look at affordable housing,” he says. “Although some affordable housing is being built, they are only required to be affordable at first sale.

“CPRE has fought very hard to keep this number down to what we believe is sustainable. We do not believe that the current figure is sustainable using brownfield sites and in-fill sites.”

Which means that greenfield land, designated in the post-war years to protect rural England from urban sprawl, may have to be used.

Of course it’s not just houses. With houses must come jobs.

Intrusion maps issued by CPRE show how noise and visual intrusion are on the increase

Alwyn explains: “On top of this there will be land taken for industrial purposes to give people jobs. There will be infrastructure – where will the water come from?

“If we are going to build another 50,000 houses, the current water supplies, the current electricity supplies, the current sewerage supplies have to be improved. There are a lot of issues with infrastructure.”

The CPRE is working hard to ensure that the new houses will have workplaces close by, and that services such as bus transport are improved.

Says Alwyn: “If you are going to keep the countryside in a form that people who are living in the towns and cities can visit and get some peace and quiet and enjoyment, then more power lines, more roads, more people. . . it’s going to have an impact.

“As you can see from the intrusion maps, we are concerned that Shropshire will lose its integral personality if it is swamped by industry and new road building. There is already a dispute in Shropshire over a power line running from Wrexham down to Oswestry to provide extra power needed, and this is going to increase.”

Wind farms are controversial new developments that also raise some concerns.

“There is planning for a windfarm near Woore, which we believe is going to visible right from the Cheshire Plain and from the Potteries, because they are very high-up turbines,” continues Alwyn. “Anyone who goes up the Long Mynd and looks west will see the lines of turbines of Mid Wales, and there is pressure from developers all the time for these.”

CPRE is not against sustainable power generation, however; it merely lobbies to ensure the most sustainable form, which they believe is not always wind, since it is not 100 per cent reliable.

Other forms of development are generated by our domestic habits. Alwyn believes that half of all traffic is connected with the food industry, taking food to distribution depots and then delivering food from the depots to the supermarkets.

“So the more we use the big supermarkets the more traffic we will generate,” he says. “That creates jobs, which increases demand for housing, which in turn puts more people on the roads.”

And another form of increasing development – out-of-town retail parks – makes Alwyn visibly bristle. Shropshire might not be in danger of losing its rural personality at rates being experienced in other parts of the country, but it has changed.

“Anybody who has lived in Shropshire for some time will tell you that it has changed,” says Alwyn. “It has not changed in the way some areas have, but it has changed.

“In my own village in north Shropshire we’ve gone from 10 working farms to two working farms. The industry that supports farming has changed, so there is pressure to develop other kinds of employment in the countryside.”

The CPRE is realistic in calling for a balance of economics, sustainability and care for the environment. And it is the job of the CPRE and people like Alwyn to remind people of these core values.

Yes, the eastern side of the county aside, large swathes of Shropshire have been less burdened by development – so far.

“Not yet,” he says, “but we have to ensure the developments are the kind that Shropshire people want and that keep the kind of Shropshire that we live in. It doesn’t mean no development, it doesn’t mean no change, but it means people-friendly change and at people-manageable rates in a way that are sustainable into the future.”

Referring again to the intrusion maps, Alwyn adds: “The issue for the CPRE is not just about what it was like then and what it’s like now, it’s about what it’s going to be like in 20 and 30 years’ time.”