A planned housing estate is raising some eyebrows due to its seemingly phallic shape – and that’s not the least of its problems.
Opponents of a proposed 250-home development in Telford say it’s too big for local infrastructure to cope, so much so they suspect it will be a ‘flop’.
But it’s not the technicalities of planning permission and public consultation that’s turning most heads.
Instead it’s the shape shown on mock-ups of the estate, which bulges at the base before curving off in, what looks to some like, the outline of a penis.
One resident said: ‘I can’t believe somebody didn’t look at that [design] and snigger, because we’ve all cottoned on.’
Another, Antony Iles, claimed the shape was ‘as absurd as the plans themselves’.
It’s even inspired plans by some locals to run a t-shirt campaign labelling it a ‘glop’.
Plans for the development, part of the Lawley West project, have just been through a public consultation, BBC News reported.
Telford and Wrekin Council, which described it as a key part of plans to expand housing supply under a 2015 deal, will review responses ahead of an autumn deadline for outline planning permission.
Opposition to the mix of two, three and four-bedroom homes, some of them affordable, centres on the impact it will have on local infrastructure, particularly road safety.
If it gets the go-ahead, the estate will include 635 private and 97 on-street car parking spaces, along with parking close to a nearby junction.
A cycle and pedestrian route will also be included.
Mr Iles, whose home he shares with his wife and two daughters overlooks the plans site, said: ‘Because the top road of Pepper Mill is going to be very busy, people will use this as a rat run to get to this estate.
‘My girls do ride their bikes up and down this road. It isn’t a main road, it’s brick-cobbled road so it’s not designed to be a through road.’
It’s not just traffic that’s a concern for Mr Iles, who said: ‘We’ve got one doctors’ surgery, one dentist… I’ve been here 10 years and I can’t get into the dentist in Lawley.
‘We’ve got a primary school on this side which is over-subscribed as it is, and they built a new primary school over the road but I know that’s now full.’
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