Author: David Tooley - Local Democracy Reporter

A SaTH board meeting on Thursday (March 12) also heard of continuing 12 hour-plus waits in accident and emergency as patients wait for beds to be made available.

“We are running with no headroom,” Mr Hobbs said.

The audit found a range of issues including fire compartmentation, storage of oxygen cylinders and other materials on escape routes, issues with training in fire safety, obstruction of fire exits and overcrowding.

The trust board meeting was told on Thursday (March 12) that many of the risks had already been dealt with but replacing damaged fire doors took longer to fix.

Planning inspector Rachel Standfield reached a split decision ruling – with deciding against Mr Price’s single storey side extension and front porch. But the inspector allowed him to keep front and rear boundary walls.

Telford councillors will be invited to look at new ‘innovative’ ways of providing housing in the borough.

They could be asked to examine using garage conversions, micro and modular builds, pods and other ‘compact’ dwellings, a report reveals.

The council has told its own planning department how it plans to go about the demolition process, which could start in April, 2026, and last for two months.

Refurbishment had been considered but officials decided that this was not as “cost effective as a new purpose-built and future-proof facility”.

Hadley & Leegomery Parish Council had controversially tried to sell Hadley Cemetery Lodge but it ended up being taken off the property market at the end of last year.

Major developers have challenged the legality of a council plan to demand that at least one in every four homes built in Telford are ‘affordable’.

Council officials were this week defending a requirement for major housing developments in urban Telford include a minimum of 25 per cent ‘affordable’ homes, with 35 per cent in Newport and the rural areas of the borough.

Resident Kevan Hendy warned of problems from 10,000 extra car journeys causing problems on the A442 and M54.

Mr Hendy told officials that he had identified a £50 million shortfall in funding for highways over the local plan period to 2040.

“It’s an absolute nonsense,” Mr Hendy told officials as he challenged them to explain.

A councillor told the government inspectors examining the soundness of the local plan that it now seems to be a “done deal.”

Councillor Nigel Dugmore (Conservative, Muxton) said: “It all seems to be a done deal with Bratton and Muxton well advanced.

“What’s the point in having an inspectors report if things are going ahead?”

The former AGA site at Wellington Road was the subject of a controversy in 2024 when the Government warned that the Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Site could be placed at risk, and might ultimately be delisted if plans went ahead.

Named ‘Bratton Green’ by developer Bloor Homes, the site covers 88.5 hectares of farm land between the A442 and the B5063 north of the Bratton and Shawbirch area.

The council has presented developing 8,000 homes in three new communities to the north of Telford as a part of its strategy to find space for 20,000 new homes up to 2041.

Read the full report on the opening day of the local plan hearings.

Officials at Hollinswood and Randlay Parish Council say it is “at least” the fourth time this year that the Pavilion Field has been targeted by quad and dirt bike riders doing deliberate ‘doughnuts’.

Across three weeks of all-day hearings government planning inspectors Mike Worden and Catherine Carpenter will be listening to representations from Telford & Wrekin Council, local councillors, campaigners, and developers.

Over the next five years council officials estimate that about £15.4 million will need to be spent on looking after the borough’s schools.

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Council tax bills in Telford and Wrekin are set to rise by an average of 5.13 per cent when the next demands are sent out, a report shows.

Telford & Wrekin Council is looking to put its element of the tax up by the maximum allowed – 4.99 per cent – and put every penny into caring for vulnerable adults and children.

A new footbridge and two passenger lifts are set to bring ‘step free’ access to Wellington Railway Station.

Planners have been told that Network Rail has investigated replacing the current stepped footbridge but it is “not feasible” to add lifts within the existing Victorian station.

Officials were told that the plan is in line with the promotion of energy efficiency and renewable energy sources as the council aims to be carbon neutral.

Rodney Pitt had served as a town councillor for a number of years but resigned on February 9.

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After being described as a ‘nightmare’ and a ‘joke’ by Cllr White, new parking options and a transport link between the Princess Royal Hospital and the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital were revealed at a meeting today.

Telford & Wrekin Council paid its 14 most senior officials a total of more than £1.6 million in the last financial year, documents show.

Nuplace has been earmarked to receive £72.9 million of capital funds from 2025/26 to 2028-29 under the council’s budget proposals.