Neighbours devastated by new industrial units plan

Neighbours have expressed their anger at a decision to allow five new industrial units a stone's throw from their homes.

The project was approved by Telford and Wrekin Council last week - despite 500 objections from residents.

Locals are concerned about the impact it will have on local wildlife, roads, and two Grade II listed locks.

The council said planning permission was approved because of the site's employment value, creating 1,800 jobs.

The area is peaceful, said residents, with winding paths through the trees leading to the old Shropshire Union canal.

Hadley Park Lock and Turnip Lock are rare surviving examples of 18th-century guillotine locks, and locals are particularly proud of them.

"The whole process seems to have been very much railroaded through," said resident Steve Bryant.

He added: "Nobody has actually spoken to the residents at all to understand our fears and concerns, and it's just being driven through the bureaucratic process in the most horrendous of fashions.

"It was summarised recently as being a brutal abuse of bureaucracy to oppress democracy, all in the name of allowing economy to ride roughshod over community and amenity."

Colin Rogers has lived in the area for 25 years - he told me the industrial units would rise above the trees that sit at the end of his drive.

He was particularly concerned about the impact the building would have on the local wildlife.

"The owls of an evening calling out, the buzzards, bats, badgers, toads - the variety of wildlife here that will no longer be around because of a loss of their habitat is a crying shame," he said.

Protecting Hadley Park Lock and Turnip Lock is also a priority for Mr Rogers. The locks were completed in 1796.

"My concerns are access to, ability to come and see, and upkeep of these monuments - it's the Shropshire Union Canal, and having fences, and soundproofing and all that, would just take away from our natural Telford and Wrekin history," he said.

The plans include office spaces, parking, gatehouses, cycle shelters and landscaping - but it has not yet been made public which companies will occupy the units.

Part of the land housed the GKN Sankey site at Hadley Castle Works - and developers say its redevelopment will bring jobs to the community.

A spokesperson for Telford and Wrekin Council told the BBC the area had "long been a significant employment location", which meant that "planning permission was recommended for approval based on the site's employment value."

The authority added that concerns regarding noise would be addressed by requiring noise assessments for each of the five units.

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