Proposals to sort out planning tangle at former Shropshire RAF base

Developers believe they have come up with a way to sort out the future of what is left of historically important hospital buildings on a former second world war RAF base in rural Shropshire.

An enforcement notice had been slapped on construction work at the former RAF High Ercall site at Cotwall Road, Shirlowe, after officials found that a building had been demolished rather than converted.

Even though the building was dilapidated, heritage experts at Telford & Wrekin Council considered a former medical inspection unit to be a non designated heritage asset.

A planning inspector later sided with the council but ruled against a newly built agricultural building being demolished.

Shrewsbury-based planning agents Halls Holdings, on behalf of Cotwall Property has told council planners in a new application that the new building “matches the exact same footprint as the building previously onsite.”

It also retains a water tower and the layout of buildings in line with the historic interest of the site, the agent writes.

The site was visited by an Urban Explorer in 2025 – See the photos.

Without a rebuilt replica building the water tower would be a “significant safety risk”, the agent writes.

“The applicant wishes to retain the water tower, and the optimal viable solution is to provide a building as a structural bracing to retain and maintain the water tower in perpetuity, retaining the historic pattern and layout.”

Heritage consultant Richard K Morriss has told planners that whilst the building is “essentially a replica of what was there previously, it does provide the correct context for the water tower attached to its southern end.

“Its removal would leave the water tower isolated and left misleadingly as a standalone structure and one with an odd design.”

A second planning application has been lodged to allow the applicant to continue restoration work to convert a former decontamination block into a house.

The decontamination block had been built in anticipation that the Nazis could use poison gas in attacks on the UK.

RAF High Ercall was completed in the summer of 1941 and was considered to be relatively safe from Luftwaffe raids, planners have been told.

Following the entry of the USA into the war the base was used for several months as a base and occasional relief landing field for the early involvement in the European war of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF).

Mr Morriss concluded that “overall the proposals are well-designed and proportionate and will result in no further harm – substantial or less than substantial – to the character or setting of the former decontamination unit or to the site.”