Oakland Farming pulled its 570-home Battlefield scheme on 23 September, five days after National Highways' third holding notice. 34 objected, none backed it.

Plans for up to 570 homes and a primary school on farmland south east of Battlefield Roundabout in Shrewsbury have been withdrawn.

Shropshire Council issued the paperwork on Wednesday 23 September. The letter, signed by planning and development services manager Tabitha Lythe, is four lines long: “We acknowledge your communication advising that the above application is being withdrawn. No determination will now be made in respect of this application.”

The application had been with the council for eight months, and it drew 37 public comments, 34 of them objections and none in support. The applicant is Oakland Farming Ltd, advised by Armstrong Rigg Planning of Sharnbrook in Bedfordshire.

What comes out with it:

  • up to 570 homes on land to the south east of Battlefield Roundabout
  • land for a single form-of-entry primary school
  • a local centre of no more than 500 square metres gross, for Class E town centre uses and community uses
  • a new roundabout on the A53 to serve the site
  • enhanced footpath links and open space

Every matter except access was reserved for later, so the scheme was still at outline stage when it was pulled. The full record is on the council’s planning register as 26/00188/OUT.

Five days after a third highways holding notice

The timing is the part of this that the register explains and nothing else does.

National Highways never objected. It stopped the clock instead, three times in a row. Its interest here is the A5 trunk road, and its letters say the nearest potential point of impact is 4.5km south of the site, at the A5 Preston Island Roundabout.

It wrote three times, on 19 March, 19 June and 18 September 2026, each time signed by assistant spatial planner Ellie Smith. Each letter ends with identical wording:

In light of the above, National Highways recommends that planning permission not be granted for a further period of three months from the date of this notice, to allow the applicant time to submit additional information.

The June letter opens by saying National Highways “have not received any new information and our previous holding recommendation from March 2026 is about to expire, therefore, our previous comments remain”. The September letter says the same thing about the June one. Six months of holding notices, and on the agency’s own account nothing new had arrived to answer them.

What it was waiting for is set out in that September letter:

  • the VISSIM traffic model files for the base and forecast models, which had not been supplied, so a detailed review could not be done
  • confirmation of the opening year. The assessment models 2035, but the Transport Assessment says the site would be fully occupied by 2030 or 2031, and DfT Circular 01/2022 requires the opening year to be tested
  • an explanation of the growth assumptions. Without them, National Highways calculates TEMPro factors of 10.2% and 10.1% for the morning and evening peaks, against the 3.7% used in the applicant’s forecasting report
  • person trip rates rather than vehicle trip rates, and a newer version of the TRICS database than the 7.11.4 the applicant used

Five days after that third notice, the application was withdrawn.

It was withdrawn eight days before it had to be. The council’s determination deadline had been 6 May 2026, and an extension of time had been agreed to 1 October 2026.

What the record shows, month by month

Shrewsbury Battlefield 570-home application, from submission to withdrawal Timeline of Shropshire Council planning application 26 slash 00188 slash OUT. Received 20 January 2026 as an outline application for up to 570 homes, a primary school and a local centre. Validated 4 February with a determination deadline of 6 May. Historic England offered no objection on 18 February, noting the site is 300 metres from the only Registered Battlefield in Shropshire. Active Travel England wrote on 26 February that it would be an isolated development rather than a well-integrated part of Shrewsbury. Astley Parish Council resolved to object on 2 March, citing 450 homes proposed at Ellesmere Road. National Highways issued three-month holding notices on 19 March, 19 June and 18 September, each because no new information had been received. The determination deadline passed on 6 May and an extension to 1 October was agreed. The application was withdrawn on 23 September with 37 comments, 34 of them objections and none in support, eight days before the agreed deadline. Eight months, three holding notices, no decision Shropshire Council application 26/00188/OUT, land south east of Battlefield Roundabout, Shrewsbury Dark markers are National Highways holding notices. The red marker is the withdrawal. 20 Jan 2026 Application received Outline, up to 570 homes, a primary school and a local centre 4 Feb 2026 Validated Determination deadline set for 6 May 2026 18 Feb 2026 Historic England: no objection 300m from the only Registered Battlefield in Shropshire 26 Feb 2026 Active Travel England “an isolated development rather than a well-integrated part of Shrewsbury” 2 Mar 2026 Astley Parish Council objects Cites the 450 homes proposed at Ellesmere Road as cumulative impact 19 Mar 2026 National Highways holding notice 1 Permission not to be granted for three months, pending information 6 May 2026 Determination deadline passes An extension of time is agreed, to 1 October 19 Jun 2026 National Highways holding notice 2 “have not received any new information”. Consultation closes 18 Sep 2026 National Highways holding notice 3 Same wording again. VISSIM model files still not supplied 23 Sep 2026 Application withdrawn 37 comments, 34 objections, none in support 1 Oct 2026 The agreed deadline it never reached Source: Shropshire Council planning register, application 26/00188/OUT, read 24 September 2026. Graphic by Shropshire Today.
How application 26/00188/OUT ran from submission to withdrawal. Graphic by Shropshire Today.

Shrewsbury Town Council: “inappropriate and speculative”

The town council objected. Its recorded response runs to eight grounds, and the two that carry the most weight are about the line on the map and the balance of harm.

The site sits outside the Town Development Boundary, which the council called “an unplanned and unsustainable extension of the urban area”. It concluded that the adverse impacts “significantly and demonstrably outweigh any potential benefits”, and described the proposal as “inappropriate and speculative development, contrary to national and local planning policy”.

Astley Parish Council objected too, after a resolution at its meeting on 2 March 2026. Its letter makes the cumulative argument: that the Battlefield scheme has to be read alongside other proposals in the same corner of town, and it names 22/01432/OUT, an outline application for 450 dwellings on land west of Ellesmere Road.

That one is worth knowing about. It was validated on 23 March 2022 and the register still records its status as “Awaiting decision”, four and a half years later.

Active Travel England: “an isolated development”

The government’s walking and cycling body was blunter than the heritage regulator.

Active Travel England wrote on 26 February 2026 that the site “has the potential to become sustainable development”, but that “a significant level of works would be needed to achieve this due to its location in a car-dominated environment”. Its judgment on the A49:

The level of severance along A49, which presents little opportunity for connections to the rest of Battlefield, even with an added footbridge, makes it an isolated development rather than a well-integrated part of Shrewsbury.

It asked for the local centre to move to the north west corner of the site and for the school to sit more centrally, and it noted that the applicant had promised to “install agreed level of cycle parking” without giving any numbers. Its position was that it “requires quantifiable modal share targets before it can support the application”.

Historic England did not object

The one national consultee that might have been expected to dig in did not.

The site lies about 300 metres south east of the Battle of Shrewsbury Registered Battlefield, where Henry IV defeated Henry “Hotspur” Percy in 1403. Historic England’s letter of 18 February 2026 records that it is one of only 43 Registered Battlefields in England and the only one in Shropshire.

Its advice was that the scheme would cause “less-than-substantial harm” to the battlefield’s significance, that the application site falls within an area of “low sensitivity” in its setting, and that harm “could be managed through careful design”. It offered no objection at outline stage, while saying the real assessment would have to come at reserved matters.

Why schemes like this keep arriving outside the boundary

A withdrawal is not a refusal, and nothing in the record stops the same land coming back.

The reason unallocated sites keep being proposed is on the council’s own planning policy pages. Shropshire’s most recent five year housing land supply statement puts the county’s deliverable supply at 4.61 years and concludes that the council “is currently unable to demonstrate a five-year housing land supply”. Because the housing policies in the adopted development plan are more than five years old, the requirement is now measured against local housing need under the government’s standard method, which for Shropshire is 2,030 dwellings a year.

That shortfall is what the town council was referring to when it acknowledged “the tilted balance” under paragraph 11(d) of the National Planning Policy Framework, while arguing that “housing delivery alone does not equate to sustainable development”. Until the supply figure crosses five years, the balance in these decisions tilts towards approving housing, and sites outside development boundaries keep being tested.

What it means for you

If you objected, your comment does not carry over. A withdrawn application is closed. If the site is resubmitted, the consultation starts again from zero and every objection has to be made again. There were 37 comments on this one and 34 of them were objections.

If you live at Battlefield, Harlescott or Astley, the A53 roundabout is off the table for now. So is the primary school that came with it. Neither was consented, so neither was ever guaranteed, but both are now out of the pipeline entirely.

Watch for a resubmission rather than an appeal. There is no appeal against a withdrawal, because there is no decision to appeal. The three points National Highways was waiting on are all technical and fixable, so a revised transport case is the most likely route back.

The Ellesmere Road application is still live. 22/01432/OUT, 450 homes, has been undetermined since March 2022. You can still comment on an application that has not been decided.

To track either one, search the reference on the council’s planning register. Our Shropshire planning news page follows the bigger applications across the county, and the Shropshire roadworks and travel page covers what is closed on the A53 and A49 this week.

Sources