A Market Drayton town councillor has expressed surprise at a decision to approve controversial plans for a new town centre development.
Former mayor Councillor Roy Aldcroft said plans to turn the Lazy Days caravan and motorhome dealership in Towers Lawn into a block of 32 apartments, up to three and a half storeys high, were unsuitable for the area.
Shropshire Council approved outline plans for the development at a meeting in Oswestry on Tuesday, despite dozens of objections from residents. The plans were opposed by Market Drayton town councillors in October over fears that would the apartments would overlook neighbouring properties in the Burgage.
Councillor Aldcroft said: “Shropshire Council is the planning authority but I am still of a view, as are quite a few other councillors, that the proposed apartments are too tall.
“There is a former cinema nearby that has been there for a number of years, whereas this is a new build.
“If the apartments were up to three storeys high, this would work because they would be far enough away from neighbouring homes and gardens not to intrude on residents.
“But there needs to be a limit and anything higher than three storeys would be intrusive.”
Lester Stacey, owner of Lazy Days, applied for outline planning permission for the scheme which involves bulldozing his existing site in the town.
Initial plans suggested the development would be four storeys high but the latest proposals are for the apartments to be no taller than the nearby old Hippodrome, now a Wetherspoon’s pub.
A report to members of Shropshire Council’s north planning committee, which unanimously approved the plans, said Mr Stacey wished to redevelop the site because the market for caravan sales had fallen by 25 per cent since 2008.
Ben McDyre, planning agent for Mr Stacey, said: “We feel the scheme is something to the benefit of the town and the town centre.”
By Tom Johannsen