Campaigners say revised housing plans near ancient hillfort still have potential to ‘devastate’ its setting

Revised plans for a new housing development near Old Oswestry Hillfort still have the potential to “devastate” the setting of the nationally important monument, campaigners have said.

Proposals to build 91 homes on a site just a few hundred metres from the base of the Iron Age hillfort have been amended to reduce the number of properties to 83.

The developer, Galliers Homes, says the changes have been made in response to concerns raised about the scheme since the current application was lodged almost two years ago – which was itself a scaled-back version of an earlier plan for 100 houses on the site.

But campaign group Hands Off Old Oswestry Hillfort (HOOOH) says the latest scheme still constitutes ‘major development’ within the near setting of a scheduled monument.

The group argues that an even greater proportion of homes would exceed, either wholly or partly, the northern limit for new buildings that was agreed between Shropshire Council and Historic England when the site was allocated for housing in the council’s current development plan, adopted in 2015.

A change in ownership rights affecting access across the railway line also prevents the application complying with special conditions for development.

HOOOH says the revisions do not mitigate what would be substantial harm to the setting and significance of the hillfort, described by English Heritage as “one of the greatest archaeological monuments of the nation”.

A spokesperson for the group said: “We are at a frightening tipping point in Old Oswestry’s 3000-year history.

“The proposals threaten a new direction of town growth that will devastate the hillfort’s surviving but fragile setting, after we have held Oswestry’s urban edge at a respectful and protective distance for generations.

“Housing will obliterate one of the best views of the hillfort for visitors approaching Oswestry from the east, leading to substantial harm to the heritage significance of the monument by destroying appreciation and understanding of the hillfort in its landscape setting as seen from this important vista.

“The town’s northern development boundary will creep ever closer to the hillfort to make way for this out-of-place housing, eroding the hillfort’s rural setting and devaluing its status and visual dominance in the landscape.

“More worrying still, it will give a potential foothold for further construction that will side-line the hillfort as the Oswestry Growth Corridor takes shape along the bypass.”

Classed as greenfield and high quality (Grade 2/3a) agricultural land, the site was originally allocated because the public benefits to meet housing targets were judged to outweigh the impact on the monument.

But HOOOH says new targets have been scaled back in Shropshire Council’s new local plan, expected to be adopted later this year, and more than sufficient land has been identified elsewhere to accommodate long-term housing growth in Oswestry.

The spokesperson said: “The over-ambitious housing targets and over-stated need for housing land that were the main imperative to build seven years ago no longer exist.

“The push to develop now is purely down to a housebuilder keen to capitalise on the site’s very saleable proximity to a sleepy, green hillfort despite the devastating impacts on world-class heritage and on a landscape highly valued by the community. We trust the planning committee will see sense and throw it out.”

The group also highlighted a refusal of a recent planning application for a site off Whittington Road, which was turned down because it would add to traffic congestion and safety issues at the junction with Gobowen Road.

The current application has attracted 274 objections. Previous plans for the site have consistently met with mass objections from the public, local stakeholders, and national heritage bodies including the Council for British Archaeology, Rescue – The British Archaeological Trust and The Prehistoric Society.

High profile academics and media figures have also voiced their support for the campaign including Professor Alice Roberts, Professor Michael Wood, Professor Mary Beard, Bettany Hughes, Dan Snow, Tom Holland, Francis Pryor, and the author Cressida Cowell. The campaign was also featured on Griff Rhys Jones’ ITV series, Griff’s Great Britain.

The application will be decided at a later date by Shropshire Council.