The small historic market town of Shipston-on-Stour in south Warwickshire is rebelling against the threat of hundreds of new homes being built there and in neighbouring villages, even though school and medical facilities are already at breaking point.
Residents in Shipston complain that they have had enough of being a dumping ground after Stratford District Council published a local plan and a list of possible sites for new house building. The sites in Shipston and villages around have raised the alarm that there could be between 1600 and 3000 new homes. (Stratford Herald 6 Feb, print version.)
Shipston is already in a state of rebellion against the local hospital trust’s plan to build a new hospital without any beds. Hundreds joined protest marches, more than 4,000 people signed a petition demanding that beds are included. The petition was presented to Parliament and to the local Integrated Care Board (ICB). However, the ICB decided on 19 March to endorse the trust’s plan.
Shipston’s fury fires further action
Residents have now launched two more campaigns: ‘Save Our Shipston‘ and one to keep open the town’s only bank which is scheduled to close in the autumn.
The town’s anger over the hospital has turned to fury following the district council publishing a list of locations where new house building may happen. The council has to provide 27,000 new homes between 2027 and 2050. Sites in and around Shipston allow for 3,000 extra properties.
Opponents of the new housing proposals have held one demonstration and more are planned. They have also taken to social media to express their outrage and are flooding the local council’s consultation process with letters of objection. (Stratford Herald 13 February.)
Verging on a revolution
One social media post said that the council “needs to start listening to residents. We don’t want any more houses. You have absolutely ruined our town by flooding us with more houses than we can cope with. We are drowning in a sea of political incompetence and ineptitude.”
Another showed a picture of Che Guevara, the legendary guerrilla leader who played a prominent role in bringing Fidel Castro to power in Cuba during the 1950s, with the slogan “The Revolution cometh. Viva Shipston!”
Local Conservative county councillor, Jo Barker, said: “It’s absolutely bonkers. In a lot of countries they build the infrastructure first, then they put the housing in but what we get is piecemeal development.
“We know we are at the bottom of the country (geographically) but sometimes it feels we are dropping off the end of it. We are fighting this ruination of our community. We need houses in the right places which don’t destroy where they are put.” Green Party district councillor, Dave Passingham, added: “There are many places in the district with better infrastructure on which to build than Shipston has”. (Stratford Herald 14 February)
Shipton infrastructure stretched to its limits
The Mayor of Shipston, John Dinnie, commented that the town had already seen more than 700 new homes in recent years and already does not have the infrastructure to sustain them.
“We need to stop all this building. We don’t want any more houses, Shipston has had its fair share. They are ruining our town. We do not have the infrastructure to accommodate the houses we have now without any more. The schools aren’t big enough, the doctors can’t cope as it is.”
A spokesman for Shipston Area Flood Action Group (SAFAG) also highlighted the existing strain on the town’s infrastructure, including its ability to cope with flooding and sewage. Building hundreds of additional homes on a flood plain would result in expensive flood-prevention engineering or risk the routine flooding of homes.
Councillor George Cowcher, Liberal Democrat deputy leader of the district council underlined the need to phase development up to 2050, as opposed to rushing building in the early stages and running out of land. (Stratford Herald 30 January)
The leader of the district council, Councillor Susan Juned, stressed that following the public consultation on the possible sites for new homes, council planning officers would sift through the list and remove sites where extra house building won’t happen.
The last straw for beleaguered Shipston
Nonetheless, the perfect storm of the beds farrago, the new SOS campaign and the likelihood of the bank closing has enraged residents.
They point out that the doctors’ surgery is no longer fit for purpose because it is too small to handle the rising population, the two schools are reaching capacity, there is no railway station (Shipston is seven miles away from the nearest), and bus services are poor. Both the police and fire stations have closed in recent years.
To rub salt in the wound, Shipston residents pay one of the highest council tax bills in the Stratford district, thanks to the town council’s precept.
