Commons Bill [Lords]

It is a great pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Sherwood (Paddy Tipping). I am sorry that I shall put an individual case that goes the other way and that has major implications for brownfield sites. I have been lurking in the undergrowth on this Bill for the past few months, having private discussions with the Minister’s predecessor, the hon. Member for South Dorset (Jim Knight), and sending quite a lot of information, I think, to the Minister. I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for South-East Cambridgeshire (Mr. Paice), who has put my point of view. I am pleased by his amendment (a) to Government amendment No. 10, which I nearly welcome entirely—my only worry is that it does not go far enough. If you will permit me, Madam Deputy Speaker, I shall go into some detail on the case of the town of Oswestry, which has major implications for brownfield sites across the country. Oswestry’s population is 37,308, which has grown dramatically by about 11 per cent. in the past 15 years. It has four wards with the highest population density in the whole of Shropshire. On several criteria in the deprivation indicators index, they do not do well. For children’s income deprivation, Carreg Llwyd and Gatacre are in the bottom 30 per cent. in Shropshire. For older people’s income deprivation, Cambrian, Gatacre, Castle and Carreg Llwyd are in the bottom 30 per cent. Carreg Llwyd falls into the lowest 20 per cent. nationally for education, skills and training. I do not want to paint a terribly black picture of Oswestry, but there are opportunities for land development to have a major impact, particularly with regard to health. As I said, I nearly welcome entirely amendment No. 10, but there is one project that it could jeopardise completely. There used to be an Oswestry and district hospital, which was built by benefactors in the 1930s and sadly closed, and many of the promises made about the services carrying on were not met. The primary care trust, when it was formed, had a meeting with me, and set up an inquiry into Oswestry’s health needs, which was widely welcomed. A most ambitious project emerged to build an enhanced primary care centre, which received overwhelming support by a show of hands at a packed public meeting organised by the then leader of the council, Councillor Betty Gull. The centre would collect together all the basic NHS services offered in Oswestry, but additional services would be provided. At the time, there was controversy about a maternity unit closure, but that would be brought into the town. There was also a proposal, which I called phase 3, to build a 60-bed nursing home, which would also benefit the town hugely. The site involved is known as the Five Acre site, right in the middle of Oswestry, which used to be the shunting sidings and approach to Oswestry station. Oswestry had been the headquarters of the Cambrian railway, which closed in the 1960s. It had had substantial workshops, and it was one of the town’s major employers. The site has been a ghastly derelict eyesore ever since. It is on the main approach to Oswestry, and there are a lot of self-seeded willows and elders, as well as a large amount of scruffy rose bay, willow herb and substantial amounts of rubbish, litter and supermarket bags blowing around. Since the railway closed, however, the site has been used by the inhabitants of Oswestry as a place to walk. The issue of what should happen to the land has been one of real controversy. The proposed development, which involves the local regional development agency, Advantage West Midlands, would be very significant. I have given some background information about the town. The RDA has already spent £2.4 million regenerating the station building, and intends to spend about £2 million on remedial work on the Five Acre site, with a further £1.3 million of transport works attached to the site. The primary care centre would cost £5 million, and the nursing home, which would also have free-at-the-point-of-use maternity and community beds would cost about £8 million. Extra housing costing about £3 million would be provided, as well as live-and-work units worth £1 million. The cream on the cake is a plan to revive the old Cambrian railway as a heritage railway, which would cost about £11 million. That brings the total to nearly £34 million without even trying. If the railway took off, bringing in a conservative estimate of 60,000 visitors, it would involve spending of about £2 million a year. Bridgnorth, for instance, brings in £8 million a year, and Minehead apparently brings in £6 million.