I refer you back to blog #74: BOLT THAT STABLE DOOR, QUICK.

If you haven’t already read it, this item won’t make as much sense because what you’re about to listen to is Shropshire Council Cabinet making my point for me, specifically those parts where portfolio holder Robert Macey spells out why what’s happening is happening (or having to happen according to him and whichever planning officer wrote his script for him)… basically he seeks to convince us that there is no choice, despite the alternatives having been spelled out in considerable detail in the submissions made by dozens of ward councillors on behalf of their communities.

The portfolio holder’s craven arguments in response to the arguments of members of his own political party underlines the Executive’s confidence that their own arguments will prevail; that with an election pending in less than four months time (Thursday 6 May) NO ONE in his party will dare challenge him in any meaningful way if they wish to retain the ruling group’s (for which read the various constituency offices) support for their candidacy.

In blog #74 and others preceding it I have consistently made the point that alternatives to Shropshire Council’s preferred site for Highley do exist, and moreover exist in abundance, and that their challenging insistence that they have chosen the site DESPITE the alternatives available merely means that those alternative sites remain available for future consideration. That’s a point worth registering.

According to Shropshire Council’s calculation that 250 more houses in an already over-stretched Highley might be in the immediate pipeline, but as many again remain available for the future. That was the planning officer’s response to me when I called in the (preferred site) Yew Tree Grove application to the planning committee meeting.