West Midlands Ambulance Service plans a £14.2m base at Emstrey off the A5, doubling capacity to 500 staff and 50 ambulances. No planning application yet.

West Midlands Ambulance Service intends to spend £14.2m on a new operational hub for Shrewsbury at Emstrey, replacing the station it runs off Longden Road.

The trust announced the plan on 1 September. What it has said so far:

  • The site is Emstrey Bank, just off the A5, in Atcham parish, about two miles south east of Shrewsbury town centre
  • Capacity for over 500 staff, roughly double the current site
  • Room for over 50 ambulances, with expanded on-site fleet maintenance and “make ready” preparation
  • Purpose-built training facilities and better rest accommodation for crews on breaks
  • A BREEAM Excellent rating, built to Net Zero requirements and fully electric vehicle enabled
  • Intended to “future proof ambulance provision within the county for the next 30 years”

The current Shrewsbury Hub is at Mercian Close, Longden Road, SY3 9EA, in the Meole ward, according to the trust’s own locations page. Emstrey Bank is in the Severn Valley ward, outside Shrewsbury’s parish boundary but still in Shropshire Council’s area.

No planning application has been submitted

The trust says the application is “expected to be submitted to Shropshire County Council in the next few weeks”.

We searched Shropshire Council’s planning register on 7 September for applications at Emstrey and for any mention of an ambulance facility. Nothing for this scheme is on it. The most recent Emstrey entries are a self-storage scheme on land east of Lower Farm and householder extensions on the lane itself.

Two things follow from that. Nothing about the design, the exact plot, the access arrangements or the traffic impact is in the public domain yet, because the documents that would set it out have not been lodged. And the decision will be made by Shropshire Council, a unitary authority since 2009; there has been no Shropshire County Council for seventeen years.

What the trust says about the move

Operational Support Services Director Craig Cooke said the scheme is “a real step change in the provision we are providing for the community in Shropshire”, and that the trust “acknowledged some time ago that we needed to move from our current site, but such a large scale development does take time, not just finding the right location, but also the funding for it”.

Shropshire Senior Operations Manager Will Gould said staff are “very excited about the move”, and pointed at two things a resident would notice. On response times, he said the site “will give us an excellent point with which to access the road network in Shropshire which can only help us get to patients more quickly than we do currently”. On the Longden Road site, he said: “It obviously means that we will no longer be in a residential area which I am sure will also be popular with local people.”

Current site and proposed site

Shrewsbury ambulance hub, current site compared with the proposed site A comparison of West Midlands Ambulance Service's current Shrewsbury Hub with the proposed replacement. The current site is Mercian Close off Longden Road, postcode SY3 9EA, in the Meole ward inside Shrewsbury, in a residential area, and its staff capacity is roughly half the proposed site. The proposed site is Emstrey Bank just off the A5, in Atcham parish in the Severn Valley ward about two miles south east of the town centre, with capacity for over 500 staff and over 50 ambulances, expanded fleet maintenance and make ready provision, purpose-built training facilities, a BREEAM Excellent rating and full electric vehicle enablement. The cost is 14.2 million pounds and no planning application has been submitted as of 7 September 2026. From a residential street to the A5 What West Midlands Ambulance Service has published about each site   Now: Shrewsbury Hub Proposed: Emstrey Where Mercian Close, Longden Road SY3 9EA, Meole ward Emstrey Bank, off the A5 Atcham parish, Severn Valley ward Setting A residential area Beside the trunk road network Staff capacity Roughly half the proposed site Over 500 Ambulances not published Over 50, plus fleet maintenance Status In use £14.2m, no application lodged Source: West Midlands Ambulance Service, 1 September 2026, and its Shrewsbury Hub location page. Planning register checked 7 September 2026. Graphic by Shropshire Today.
The trust has published far more about the proposed site than about the one it is leaving.

What has not been said

Three questions the announcement does not answer, and which the planning application should:

  • What happens to Mercian Close. The trust has not said whether the Longden Road site would be sold, and if so for what. It sits in a residential area in the Meole ward, which in Shrewsbury usually means a housing proposal follows.
  • Where exactly at Emstrey. “Emstrey Bank just off the A5” covers a stretch of the old road on the Atcham side of Emstrey Roundabout. The red line plan will settle it.
  • When crews would move. No construction start or opening date has been published, only the intention that the building serves the county for 30 years.

What it means for you

  • Nothing changes at Longden Road yet. Call 999 as normal. This is a proposal at pre-application stage.
  • If you want to comment, wait for the application to appear on Shropshire Council’s planning portal. Anyone can comment on a planning application during its consultation period, whether or not they were formally notified. Our Shropshire planning page tracks what is going through.
  • If you live near Emstrey Bank or Atcham, you would normally be a consultee once the application is validated. Atcham parish is in the Severn Valley division.
  • On the drive, Emstrey Roundabout already carries the A5, the B4380 and the traffic for the retail units beside it. A hub with over 50 ambulances is a traffic question, and the transport assessment submitted with the application is where the answer will be.

Sources