MORE than 30,000 houses are set to be built across the county in the next 18 years under Shropshire Council’s latest development blueprint.

The new local plan is expected to be adopted in early 2022, and sets out where homes and business sites should be constructed up until 2038.

Some towns and villages are set to see major expansions through the allocation of large areas of land for hundreds of properties, while others will see more modest growth through small scale schemes.

The council’s cabinet will meet on Monday to sign off the latest draft of the plan, which lists the sites earmarked for significant development along with a raft of new planning policies.

It will then go out to a final round of public consultation before being presented to the full council for approval to submit it for government examination.

In Oswestry, despite a target of 1,900 new houses and 57 hectares of employment land to be developed, no new sites are allocated for significant development within the town itself.

The only site which was initially included in the new plan was for 30 houses off Trefonen Road, but this has been dropped after local opposition.

The plan allocates land for a ‘garden settlement’ at Park Hall, which will include 240 houses and ancillary commercial development in association with the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital and Derwen College.

Housing will also be built in Oswestry on previously allocated sites off Whittington Road (117 homes), the former Richard Burbidge site (180), and south of the cemetery (80).

Likewise land already allocated for business use next to the Whittington Road and Mile End Roundabouts are brought forward from the council’s previous plan.

Villages near the town are also set to expand, including Gobowen (360 houses), St Martins (355), Whittington (200), Llanymynech (125) and Ruyton-XI-Towns (125).

Most of this will be through small-scale development or larger sites already allocated in the council’s previous plans. However, some significant new sites include land east of Barley Meadows in Llanymynech, earmarked for 50 houses, land off Donnett Close in Whittington (70 houses) and the former dairy site in Ruyton-XI-Towns, (65).

A site in St Martins is allocated for 60 houses, as is one in West Felton.

Weston Rhyn is to grow by 155 houses, of which 60 will be on a newly identified site off Trehowell Lane, which it was revealed last week has now been included in the plan after a previous site off High Street, for the same number of houses, was dropped following the latest round of consultation.

In Ellesmere, around 800 houses and eight hectares of employment land. Most development will be to the south of the town, between Scotland Street and the canal. This includes previously allocated pieces of land for an 18 hectare leisure and tourism site and 250 houses, along with a new site for 170 houses.

Nearby Dudleston Heath is expected to grow by around 60 houses, of which 20 will be built at the former Ravenscroft Haulage site which was already allocated for housing.