Petition against overdevelopment of Eccleshall presented to borough council

Eccleshall residents fear their town could almost double in size over the coming years, with hundreds of new homes earmarked across several sites.

In July Eccleshall Parish Council agreed a £10,000 budget to fight planning applications for large housing developments. And campaign group We Love Eccleshall, which held a packed public meeting in the same month, has urged residents to comment on planning applications for proposed new housing developments when they are submitted to Stafford Borough Council.

At Tuesday’s (September 9) full borough council meeting, Eccleshall ward member Jeremy Pert presented a petition urging the authority, alongside Staffordshire County Council, the town’s MP and statutory planning consultees to “think again and instead find a way of ensuring that development only happens in a positive way that does not undermine the very fabric of our communities”.

The petition also calls for sufficient cross-partner work to be undertaken “to look at the cumulative impact of any development and that any houses permitted are done on an equitable basis across the borough with appropriate infrastructure to meet the growing requirements”.

It added: “The town of Eccleshall has grown by 350 homes in the last 10 years and now has just over 1,500 homes, with a primary school, secondary feeder school and doctors surgery at capacity, and a High Street that lacks car parking. Navigating the High Street can be difficult.

“Eccleshall is still seen as one of the best market towns in Staffordshire on a regular basis for its charm, individual house design and High Street, amongst other things. However with the prospect of four major housebuilders putting in planning applications for over 1,000 new homes across six different sites, this threatens over-development by destroying many of the elements that make Eccleshall one of the best places to live in Staffordshire, providing little new infrastructure to counter-act the potential growth in population [and] changing permanently the way the town has developed over centuries, by over-development.

“If massive-scale development goes on unchecked it will ruin the historic settlement of Eccleshall.”

Councillor Pert told fellow elected members that the petition had received 3,332 signatures online, as well as 867 signatures offline. “Residents of Eccleshall are not against development. Far from it – they are against overdevelopment”, he added.

“What was voted Staffordshire’s best village this year is at risk from rampant overdevelopment. The infrastructure cannot cope today.

“There is no car parking to support the High Street, the doctors are already full, the school is full or towards capacity and there is flooding, as was shown last Thursday, when there was surface water mixed with raw sewage floating down the main street. These issues need fixing first before any development should be considered.”

The petition will now go forward to the council’s cabinet for consideration.