PLANNING BRIEF - Railtrack Land off Ellesmere Road, Shrewsbury

The objectives of this brief are:

To provide supplementary planning guidance to the Deposit Local Plan.

To explain development requirements and constraints to assist developers to redevelop the site.

1.0 Introduction

1.1 This is a linear stretch of railway land, some of which is operational. It lies immediately to the east of the main Shrewsbury to Chester railway line and is approximately half a mile north of the town centre (See Plan 1). It extends from the Ellesmere Road (A528) in the south into open countryside (See Plan 2).

1.2 The area is flat and mostly overgrown. A relatively short section of the land to the north of the Ellesmere Road is bordered by a row of terraced housing, this then gives way to open countryside to the north.

1.3 The site is owned by Railtrack and comprises 3.88 hectares in total. Whilst the site is surplus to operational requirements, there is a freight lease on the existing railway sidings , this is due to expire in 2001 and will preclude development of the site before this time. Once the lease has expired Railtrack intend to retain four sidings between the operational rail line and this site.

1.4 The site is closely related to adjacent railway land owned by Rail Property Limited. A separate development brief, proposing residential/ light industrial development, has been prepared for the British Rail Property Limited site (See Plan 1).