Criticism of meadow development continues to mount

Proposals to build seven homes on medieval meadow in Ludlow have come under fresh criticism after “alarming” plans to re-profile part of the site were revealed.

Shropshire Homes’ plans for the grassland off Castle View Terrace have prompted strong opposition from the community since they were lodged earlier this summer and campaign group ‘Save The Meadow’ was launched to try to fight off the scheme.

The group has now raised further concerns after Shropshire Homes said it intended to “batter the land back” at the western edge of the meadow, which slopes down to Fishmore Quarry, where the company is currently building almost 80 houses and flats.

In an email to planning officers, the company said it would remove the current tree, hedge and scrub from the area but added that “we would be looking to mirror these conditions or improve them to recreate a successful tree and hedge screen”.

Peter Roberts, Save the Meadow group spokesman, said: “We are extremely alarmed by this new proposal.

“While we understand the need to protect the estate below the quarry, we wonder why this issue was not addressed much earlier.

“The work is likely to involve the removal of vast amounts of soil, the loss of mature trees and shrubs, and the destruction of the meadow’s ancient ecosystem.”

Councillor Andy Boddington, who represents Ludlow North, also criticised the proposed changes to the topography.

He said: “At the back of the housing scheme the developer proposes a linear area of public open space. Shropshire Homes this week has explained that it plans to cut three metres off the top of the quarry face, leaving a slope of 45 degrees above an even steeper drop into the quarry.

“People will need to negotiate a difficult slope to access the so-called public open space. The proposed profiling of the site will wreck biodiversity on the site.

“This scheme never had much credibility. It now has no shred of credibility left.”

Further criticism has been made of the developer’s assessment of the site as having “no ecological benefits”.

Mr Roberts said: “It’s a rare green survival, unlike 97 per cent of UK land, it’s had no fertilisers or pesticides, has been grazed for at least five hundred years, and over millennia its rich soil has become home to an unprecedented diversity of species.

“Residents have regularly recorded sightings of red kites, hedgehogs, bats, newts, slow worms, barn owls and other protected creatures, including a peregrine falcon.

“Wildlife expert Mark Lawley states that he’s also seen evidence of badger activity, as well as rare species of moss, in the area of the scarp.

“Sadly, the new trees and hedges promised by Shropshire Homes to replace those they rip out, will take decades to grow and mature.

“And that doesn’t even take into account the impact of building of seven dwellings and twenty four parking spaces on the meadow. We’re now facing the virtual eradication of this precious green space.”

Councillor Boddington added: “The Fishmore Quarry cliff face had grown a natural covering of self-sown trees and shrubs. Too often planners, developers and councillors assume that rewilding places are inferior to a suburbanised planting scheme.

“We should be encouraging rewilding with only minimal, essential intervention. Natural succession is the way nature works. It has also been part of our life on this planet for millennia.

“But we are obsessed with scrubbing land bare, with wrecking its ecosystem, then trying to recreate all that has been destroyed. That takes decades.

“We have too great an obsession with trees that look good to the human eye and not enough on the bugs and beasties that crawl and dig around consuming organic stuff before either becoming compost themselves or food supply for bigger beasts.”

Save The Meadow is fundraising to bid to buy the land from the developer to preserve it for community enjoyment in perpetuity.

The planning application will be decided in due course by Shropshire Council.