Plans for fully let rural business park near Newport to expand into farmland

A fully let business park in the heart of rural Shropshire needs to expand into farmland to make space for growing firms, planners have been told.

The owners of Rodenhurst Business Park, between Shrewsbury and Newport, have applied for permission to build two commercial buildings with a total of 14 flexibly sized units.

But it would need to take greenfield land next to the site that is currently mainly used to grow arable crops.

Shrewsbury based planning agent Berrys has told planners at Telford & Wrekin Council that the business park is fully let with 21 businesses and has been for some time.

Owner Rodenhurst Hall Ltd has been "unable to meet continued demand for commercial space at the park", including from firms already based there, the agents write.

"In the absence of any available space, there is a real prospect of established businesses being lost from the local rural area, with the associated loss of local employment," the agent has told planners.

"This application seeks to respond directly to that demand, retaining and supporting existing businesses and enabling new ones to establish at the park."

The applicants are proposing to add one 3,488 sq ft building and a second of 2,325 sq ft with units that could be used flexibly. The occupiers are yet to be decided.

The agents say the layout has been designed to place the new buildings tightly against the existing developed footprint of the business park, rather than taking more open countryside.

The agents add that the proposal is a "logical, infill expansion of a successful rural employment site, contained tightly against the existing built development and extending no further into the countryside than the adjacent poultry units.

"It responds directly to a demonstrated need for additional commercial floorspace, enabling established rural businesses to expand while remaining on site and releasing smaller units for new and start-up enterprises."

The plans can be viewed on the Telford & Wrekin Council planning portal with the reference TWC/2026/0585