Foreword, Introduction and Background

1. Tasley Parish Council decided in the autumn of 2022 that a Neighbourhood Plan was what the Parish needed to give our residents a greater say in the large amount of development being planned for our area. There are already 550 homes proposed at Tasley Gateway under the adopted Shropshire Local Plan and a further 1,500 are included in the new Local Plan due to run from 2026 to 2038, if adopted.

2. Whilst there was much opposition to this amount of development, we knew that decisions on these proposals would be made by Shropshire Council and the Government.  However, once adopted, a Neighbourhood Plan would allow us to have some input into this and any later development in Tasley, including smaller scale infill development.  It could allow us to give protection to some of our best loved green spaces and their biodiversity. It could allow us some control over the design of new housing including its density and help to support the infrastructure needed to go with this level of development.

3. This Tasley Neighbourhood Plan (TNP) sets out the planning policies we have prepared to achieve the best outcomes for Tasley Parish and is the result of the consultations we have held with the local community to understand their needs and desires for the future of this parish.

4. We have endeavoured to write this plan in plain English and, whilst it complies with Planning regulations and laws, it is intended to be read and understood by us all whether or not we have any previous knowledge of planning policy.

1. Neighbourhood Plans (also called Neighbourhood Development Plans or NDPs) were introduced by the Localism Act in 2011. They contain locally prepared planning policies and site allocations which are used to help determine planning applications within a defined area such as a parish.

2. The idea behind localism is that decision-making is passed to a more local level, from national or local government to local communities.  A Neighbourhood Plan is one way that local communities can have a say in the future planning of the area in which they live and work.  Parish and town councils (and in non-parished areas, neighbourhood fora) can prepare neighbourhood plans for their local area, putting in place a strategy and policies for the future development.  A Neighbourhood Plan is an important and powerful planning document that has statutory weight, and the policies must be taken into account as a material consideration in planning decision making.

3. Neighbourhood Plans cannot be prepared in isolation; they have to sit within a higher-level planning policy framework of national Government planning policy (set out in the National Planning Policy Framework or NPPF) and the local planning authority’s adopted Local Plan (here prepared by Shropshire Council).  These and certain other requirements, known as the Basic Conditions, are tested during an independent examination process, before the Plan can be subjected to a local referendum.

4. Tasley Parish Council applied to Shropshire Council to designate a neighbourhood plan area in November 2021.  The area went out for public consultation from 10th  December to 28th January 2022 and the application was approved by Shropshire Council's Cabinet on 6th April 2022.  The Tasley Neighbourhood  Plan Area is the same as the Parish boundary and is shown on Map 1.

5. Community engagement has been central to the preparation of Tasley Neighbourhood Plan.  A community meeting, held in the Village Hall on 24th January 2023, enabled the Parish Council to set up a Steering Group comprised of Parish Councillors and members of the local community, to prepare the plan on behalf of the Parish Council.  The Steering Group meets monthly and all documents relating to TNP are published on the Tasley Neighbourhood Plan website (https://sites.google.com/view/tasleynp/home) with a link from the neighbourhood plan page of Tasley Parish Council’s website: https://www.tasleyparishcouncil.org.uk/tasley-neighbourhood-plan/ .  

6. The Steering Group analysed the outcomes from the public meeting in January 2023 and prepared a Vision Statement for Tasley.  During 2023 the Steering Group concentrated on in depth exploration of the state of public footpaths, the green spaces and their biodiversity needing protection, the history of Tasley and its listed buildings. Shropshire Council provided information on heritage assets and landmarks in Tasley and also assisted by providing maps showing details of present day Tasley and the location of future housing development proposals at Tasley Gateway and Tasley Garden Village (TGV). 

7. The Steering Group spent a significant amount of time considering the questions to  be included in a questionnaire survey to help ensure the views of residents could be captured and used to help shape TNP’s planning policies.  An informal consultation using a questionnaire survey was undertaken for 6 weeks from early January to mid-February 2024.  The questionnaire could be completed online using a link or QR code or using hard copies and a drop in event was held in Tasley Village Hall on 20th January 2024.  The consultation was extensively publicised by the Steering Group, with leaflets delivered to every household in Tasley and displayed on noticeboards, in local shops and at bus stops.  There were posts on Facebook and articles and letters in the local press. The survey was completed by 108 respondents, the majority of whom were Parish residents.

8. The report, Tasley Neighbourhood Plan Survey Results, 15th February 2024 describes the consultation process and provides the complete responses to all the survey questions. The analysis of the survey results gave the Steering Group a sound outcomes-based platform from which to prepare the draft planning policies within TNP.  

9. TNP Steering Group undertook a character appraisal of the existing character of TNP area which identified and described a number of different character areas, several important key views and local landmarks and gateway sites.  The full report Character Areas, Views, Landmarks & Gateways is published as a background, evidenced base document on the website and informs TNP policies on design. 

10. The Parish Council has commissioned design codes to support policies on design, but this work is at an early stage. 

Note : The results of this work will be included in the final version of the Neighbourhood plan.

11. An informal consultation was carried out as online and in paper form between 7th March and 18th April 2025. A drop in session was held in Tasley Village Hall on 22nd March 2025. 

Note : The results of this informal consultation will be included in the final version of the Neighbourhood plan.

12. Shropshire Council does not expect that Strategic Environmental Assessment and Habitats Regulations Assessment will be needed because no development sites are proposed in the Tasley Neighbourhood Plan but this will be determined in the future.

13. The planning policies in TNP will apply to the whole of Tasley Parish – see Map 1: Tasley Neighbourhood Plan Area and Parish.  This is the First Draft TNP and there are several more stages of consultation and amendment before TNP is ‘made’ (adopted) by Shropshire Council and becomes part of the Shropshire Local Plan. 

14. Neighbourhood Plans must have regard to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). The NPPF sets out the Government’s planning policies for England and how these should be applied. It provides a framework within which locally prepared plans for housing and other development can be produced. Within that national framework local authorities like Shropshire prepare development plans for their area.  The most recent version of the NPPF is dated December 2024.  Further advice about how the NPPF should be used is provided in the online resource, National Planning Practice Guidance (NPPG).

15. Neighbourhood Plans also have to be in general conformity with the strategic policies in the Local Plan.  At the time of preparing TNP the strategic policies are set out in the Shropshire Local Development Framework: Adopted Core Strategy, March 2011.  The Core Strategy sets out Shropshire Council’s vision, strategic objectives and the broad strategy to guide future development and growth in Shropshire during the period up to 2026.  Shropshire Council Site Allocations and Management of Development (SAMDev) Plan was adopted in December 2015 and sets out proposals for the use of land and policies to guide future development in order to help deliver the vision and objectives of the Shropshire Core Strategy for the period up to 2026. 

16. A new Local Plan, Shropshire Local Plan 2016 to 2038 is at an advanced stage of preparation and was submitted to the Secretary of State for examination in September 2021.  TNP is being prepared with the expectation that the new Shropshire Local Plan 2016 – 2038 will be adopted by the time TNP reaches examination stage.

17. Whilst the Neighbourhood Plan cannot conflict with any of the policies within the Shropshire Local Plan, its policies can provide a finer level of local detail to strategic planning policies, and it can address those locally important planning issues not included in the Local Plan.  Once completed, TNP will be used to help determine planning applications within Tasley Parish alongside policies in Shropshire’s Local Plan.

18. Work on the Neighbourhood Plan has also included consideration of proposed improvements to local community facilities, open spaces and the PROW network (see Note 1 below).  These proposals are not planning policies but are listed as ‘Community Aspirations and Parish Council Actions’ in Appendix 1.  It is likely that Tasley will attract significant infrastructure funding (known as ‘CIL’) from development proposals, and it is important that local people have a say in how this money should be spent.  The proposals include those suggested by local residents and stakeholders in response to public consultations on TNP as well as projects identified by the Steering Group and Parish Council which would add value to the policies in TNP. 

19. Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) is a charge on new development to help fund supporting infrastructure. Details of Shropshire’s CIL can be found at https://www.shropshire.gov.uk/planning-policy/community-infrastructure-levy-cil/.  Once TNP is made (adopted) the Parish Council will be eligible for 25% of CIL funds made available for local infrastructure projects.

Note  1: Public Rights of Way (PROW):  

A public right of way is a right by which the public can pass along linear routes over land at all times.  The public can walk on all public rights of way. Some public rights of way are also open to horse riders, cyclists or motorists. Types of PROW are:

• Footpaths - for walking, running, mobility scooters or powered wheelchairs

• Bridleways - for walking, horse riding, bicycles, mobility scooters or powered wheelchairs

• Restricted byways - for any transport without a motor and mobility scooters or powered wheelchairs

• Byways open to all traffic - for any kind of transport, including cars (but they’re mainly used by walkers, cyclists and horse riders).

See https://www.gov.uk/right-of-way-open-access-land/use-public-rights-of-way .

20. Historically Tasley Parish comprised a few scattered dwellings and agricultural holdings. The focus of the early settlement may have been around the site of the present Church of St Peter and St Paul, particularly as a church is known to have existed on the site since 1138.  It is likely the cottages mainly housed agricultural workers as the census across the years shows a high turnover of residents.   The remains of a brick kiln can still be found in Brick Kiln Woods. 

21. ‘A Gazetteer of Shropshire’ published in 1824 by T. Gregory describes Tasley as ‘a parish in the Chelmarsh division of the hundred of Stottesdon, a rectory discharged, in the diocese of Hereford, the deanery of Stottesdon, and archdeaconry of Salop. 17 houses, 95 inhabitants. 1½ mile north-west of Bridgnorth.’ And ‘Tasley is a manor. The manor and estates though undivided, are in thirds,- one third belongs to Charles Talbot, earl of Shrewsbury,- and the other two thirds to Edward Acton, of Gatacre Park, Esq. The church is in the patronage of the earl of Shrewsbury, and of the Acton family.’

22. Early records show that horse racing was taking place in Bridgnorth by 1690, and in 1830 the races transferred to a new course at Tasley where they remained until the start of the Second World War.  The racecourse was in the fields to the right of Church Lane, when going in the direction of the Church, reaching as far as Trinity Woods and the location is identified on the OS map of 1948, although by 1954 the course had gone.  Today there is little evidence of the racecourse, apart from the old entrance gate which can be seen hidden in the hedge on Church Lane, and a road near Church Lane and Wenlock Road is named Racecourse Drive.

23. Tasley is currently a mainly rural parish located to the immediate west of the town of Bridgnorth.  It is bisected east / west by the busy A458 road. As well as the small historic village core and isolated farms, the Parish includes areas of modern suburban housing and the Bridgnorth livestock market.  The current population of Tasley is 1,127 (2021 census), predominantly consisting of white British born adults aged between 16 and 64 years.  There are two modern housing estates; Tasley Park and Wenlock Rise, where the majority of Tasley residents live.

24. Local community facilities include a small village hall, the Parish church, and St Leonard's Hall Church on Racecourse Drive (which is outside Tasley Parish)  as well as a children’s play area and informal recreation area.  Residents value the pretty, rolling countryside surrounding the village with its fields, hedgerows, areas of woodland and network of public footpaths and bridleways.

25. Tasley has three Grade II Listed Buildings: The Church of St Peter and St Paul built 1840–1; the 17th century former farmhouse at The Leasowes; and early 19th century The Leasowes.  There are also a number of non-designated heritage assets. 

26. TNP’s policies have been prepared to help ensure the Tasley of the future takes into account the desires of the local community as encapsulated in the Vision Statement.  We want to keep the best of what is already available in Tasley, protect our valuable green spaces, improve our public footpaths, protect our heritage assets, and use our history in the names of new places, cycleways, bridleways and footpaths.

27. The current Local Plan (SAMDev) includes proposals for 550 new homes on the Tasley Gateway site, and this is close to being developed. The site extends from the junction of the A458 with Wenlock Road, near the current location of the livestock market up-to and across Church Lane, then on across the field to Tasley Park.

28. If the new Shropshire Local Plan is adopted, there will be a further development built on the far side of the A458 running from the junction with Ludlow Road towards Morville as part of the Tasley Garden Village proposal. The Local Plan site allocation Tasley Garden Village, Bridgnorth (BRD030) includes 1,050 dwellings, 16ha employment land, a new local centre, 20ha of green infrastructure and a 19ha linear park.

29. Tasley Parish therefore will go through major changes during the Plan period (up to 2038).  Decisions about these major development proposals are the responsibility of Shropshire Council and the Government, but TNP can add value by setting out a local planning framework which focuses on some elements of the Garden Village proposal and those parts of the Parish which are on the edge of or outside the strategic sites and which link them to the countryside, natural heritage assets and local facilities. At the forefront of this will be seeking to ensure the remaining rural character so valued by many residents is protected and enhanced for residents’ future enjoyment and wildlife gain.  In addition, Tasley will continue to see some smaller scale development taking place including in existing estates and within its rural areas, and there is a need to ensure such development is appropriate in scale and design.