This site has been created to bring to your attention a planning proposal that has been submitted for 44 houses to be built on Vicarage Lane, Gresford.

The proposed site is outside of the settlement limit, on Green Barrier land, within a Special Landscape area, and would entail the destruction of valuable Grade 3a agricultural land. If approved, it would represent a very worrying and dangerous precedent for the potential development of other greenfield sites around Gresford, Marford, and Rossett.

The development is forecast to generate between around 254 and 335 additional traffic movements per day on Vicarage Lane. This would be a large increase of between 26% and 35% on current traffic volumes. Residents are very worried that all the additional traffic would represent a danger to pedestrians, cyclists, and other non-vehicle road users, including the residents of Trewythen Hall care home. This is before adding in additional traffic generated by the construction of over 350 houses in Llay, which will exacerbate the already well known trend of Vicarage Lane being used as a rat run to Wrexham Industrial Estate. Moreover, it is proposed to install a one-way priority traffic management system on Vicarage Lane at the junction with Chester Road, which residents are concerned will cause congestion and increased traffic emissions from waiting vehicles.

Indeed, the development will adversely affect the local environment and ecology. The proposed plans would involve the removal of the majority of an important hedgerow that is protected under the Hedgerow Regulations 1997. Residents are also concerned about the loss of habitat for badgers and bats, and the destruction of field margin.

It scarcely bears mentioning the additional pressure a new housing development would put on Alyn Family Doctors. This is an issue of which everyone is already acutely aware.

Opposing this development is not only within the interests of the residents of Vicarage Lane, but also those of Gresford more widely as well as Marford and Rossett. To do otherwise risks jeopardising the rural setting of these villages by empowering developers to destroy agricultural land within the Green Barrier. For more detailed information click here.

To view the proposed plans, visit www.wrexham.gov.uk/plans and search for planning application case number P/2018/1063.