Thread by @OldOswestryFort

A Valentine to #ShropshireCouncil

Roses are red, violets are blue
Our hillfort loves her setting
But why don’t you?
💔
#HillfortHeartbreak
#SaveOurSetting

Join us for our Valentine's thread🧵

(it's the last day 🚨 before the objections deadline)

This #ValentinesDay we’re reflecting on 10 years of campaigning to protect the landscape setting of Old Oswestry hillfort.

We’re brokenhearted.

Another housing-estate application, submitted to a broken planning system, full of broken heritage promises.

#HillfortHeartbreak💔

#ShropshireCouncil planners used to respect the hillfort, ensuring that modern housing was held behind the natural screen of The Coppy. Now, planners want to push modern housing out into the setting of a nationally important hillfort, 300 m from the rampart. #HillfortHeartbreak💔

👆👆(you have to zoom right in to the bottom of that image to find yourself)

#ShropshireCouncil planners think harm to hillfort setting would not be substantial. But Prof. Sir Barry Cunliffe, the UK’s foremost authority on hillforts, has said that development would ‘ruin the setting’ of the hillfort (that's Old Oswestry on his book) #HillfortHeartbreak 💔

We agree. Once #ShropshireCouncil planners allow modern housing beyond the natural screen of The Coppy, it sets a precedent for future development within the setting of the hillfort. It's very much the 'thin end of the wedge' for Old Oswestry. #HillfortHeartbreak💔#SaveOurSetting

You'd hope there were heritage protections in place to stop this development. There are: NPPF16. But #ShropshireCouncil *isn't listening* to the experts on the issue of harm.
You can read NPPF16 here: tinyurl.com/s3vh4zhr
#HillfortHeartbreak💔 #SaveOurSetting

So if an 83-house housing-estate can now be built in the setting of a monument as nationally significant as Old Oswestry, then the UK heritage protection principle of 'setting' is effectively redundant.
#ShropshireCouncil planners have a lot to answer for.
#HillfortHeartbreak💔

#ShropshireCouncil planners are also *not listening* to @HistoricEngland. The two agreed a ‘Statement of Common Ground’ where HE placed a northern limit on development (due to significance). But the housing estate just bulldozes right through that limit. Heritage protection..? 💔

What's most worrying is that @ShropCouncil is also *not listening* to YOU.
Despite the fact that:
▪️ 12,000 people signed a petition vs OSW004.
▪️ Oswestry Town Council opposes development.
▪️ MP @HelenMorganMP supports the campaign.
#ShropshireCouncil #HillfortHeartbreak💔

Between 2015-2019, several hundred of you turned up every February to 'hug the hillfort'.
Here's a great video of one hug: tinyurl.com/mrxzzjrf

In 2017, we received over 1000 hearts (from Oswestry primary schools to residential homes). #SaveOurSetting #HillfortHeartbreak 💔

Here are some more of those 1000 Oswestry hearts - the last one is our favourite 💕

Oswestry artist, Diana Baur, saved a sample of those 1000 Oswestry hearts, and transcribed their messages. This is a word art from those 175 Oswestry voices:
#BuildHillfortLove 💕 #Please 🙏

Please help the campaign, and object TODAY to development in @OldOswestryFort setting 👇

This Valentine’s Day, donate 15 minutes to write to #ShropshireCouncil, and object to a development that will ‘ruin the setting’ of our nationally significant Old Oswestry hillfort.
Despite the voices of thousands of local people, hillfort experts, Historic England, and OTC.

Alternatively, you can object online by registering & following the instructions on the #ShropshireCouncil planning portal: tinyurl.com/3mdpa5ft

Objections should be based on ‘material considerations’. Advice on this is available here: tinyurl.com/4pf8ubs2

#SaveOurSetting

News just in:
shropshirelive.com/news/2023/02/1…

@threadreaderapp Please unroll 💕