'Eyesore’ pub to be knocked down for housing plan

Developers are set to call time on a ‘derelict’ Shrewsbury pub – which will now be bulldozed to make way for new houses.

Nine homes will be built on the former Belvidere pub in Crowmere Road, Monkmoor, after the scheme was given the green light by Shropshire Council planners.

Applicants MW Knight & Sons Limited say the building was no longer capable of being brought back into use due to repeated anti-social behaviour at the site, with the building subject to vandalism and “numerous, almost daily break-ins,” they said.

The building has sat empty since May 2023 when it was last occupied by the Shrewsbury Ark homeless charity.

The new development will see the pub completely knocked down and replaced with a housing development, described as a mixture of semi-detached two and three bedroomed properties and detached three bedroomed properties.

The plan was approved by the council’s Northern Planning Committee on Tuesday, February 6.

In a written statement, Monkmoor Councillor Pam Moseley supported the principle of developing the site for housing, but felt nine homes was too many, adding it would be better with “two fewer houses”.

“I felt that seven units was one too many, and now another two are proposed. I feel that this is overdevelopment,” she said.

“The houses are small, and there is certainly a local need for smaller units, but these are out of character with the properties in the surrounding area in terms of size, design, plot size and density, which is exacerbated by their being at right angles to Crowmere Road.”

However David Knight, of MW Knight & Sons, said the new scheme would provide “badly-needed” smaller housing, and added the applicants had originally purchased the site with planning permission for seven homes, which had subsequently expired.

“The previous consent unfortunately produced a scheme which didn’t actually work. There was no level access provision to any of the houses and a sub-standard depth of parking,” he said.

“Many of you will have visited the site today, and you will have witnessed the state of the Belvidere. It’s very dilapidated and it needs to be demolished as soon as possible – it’s constantly boarded up and it constantly gets vandalised and it’s a cause of concern to all of us.

“We’ve given considerable time and thought to this scheme and we like to think it’s good, balanced, sustainable and a well thought-out proposal providing vitally needed homes on a brownfields site.”