Bayston Hill Parish Council STRONGLY OBJECT to this application for the following non-exhaustive reasons;

• Within the adopted Local Plan, policy S16.2 provides the development strategy for the settlement. It specifies that Bayston Hill has a residential development guideline of 50-60 dwellings to 2026 and that “development by infilling, groups of houses and conversion of buildings may be acceptable on suitable sites within the development boundary identified on the Policies Map”. No sites are allocated for development at Bayston Hill within the adopted Local Plan.
• Within Bayston Hill, over the period from 2011/12 to 2021/22, 65 dwellings have been completed. As of 31st March 2022, 7 dwellings were committed on sites with Planning Permission or Prior Approval. In addition, 22/02517/FUL bring forward a further 23 dwellings. As completions already achieved exceed the residential development guideline of 50-60 dwellings within the adopted Local Plan, this residential development guideline has been achieved.
• This area is a greenfield site and next to a well-used and loved country park, with the current climate and food crisis it should remain green and available for agricultural use. In addition to this Shropshire Council has ambitious plans for nature recovery and this plan is in contradiction of these proposals.

• Serious traffic concerns for Lyth Hill, already exacerbated by on street parking making it a single lane in a number of areas and it services a 90-place nursery which makes it very busy morning and afternoon. Little Lyth junction will be even more unsafe with vastly increased traffic. Frequent closures on the A49 already cause Little Lyth Hill to become a dangerous "rat run". The main junction at A49/Lyth Hill is already over capacity and has tail backs daily and requires traffic light control.

• Overdevelopment - it is clear from the plans that the density is not in keeping with the village and is out of character.

• Infrastructure - the village does not have a Secondary School and the Primary School is already at capacity. The GPs surgery is at capacity, evidenced by the failed recent push to have it relocated out of the village. The bus service has been cut to an “on demand” service that is sparse.

• There has been no public consultation. The Statement of Community Engagement that was uploaded to the Planning Portal on April 8^th is the same document that was used for a previous speculative application. Given the time lapsed between the application, large portions of the report are invalid. The Parish Council requests that a full public consultation is undertaken.

• Drainage and flooding. The area is well known for flooding and has done so several times this winter. Just this last weekend (April – 5-7^th 2024) water was cascading down both Lyth Hill and Yew Tree Drive. There is no adequate mitigation for this in the new design

Residents are strongly advised to lodge their own objections on the Shropshire Planning Portal, if you need assistance to do this please visit the Clerk at the Parish Office on Lyth Hill.