Councillors made a U-turn on their concerns over narrowing a road in West Felton during a planning meeting.

Cllr Joyce Barrow led calls to refuse the variation to create a pavement on the other side of Holyhead Road as part of a new housing development in the village on the grounds that it would “endanger lives”.

However, planning officers explained that the pavement – and therefore narrowing of the road to 5.5 metres – had already been granted permission by the planning inspectorate as part of the outline plans.

The proposal for 25 homes was initially refused by Shropshire Council, but later granted on appeal.

However, Cllr Pat Mabe and resident Chris Jones said the narrowing of the road would cause chaos because of the buses and agricultural vehicles that use Holyhead Road.

Cllr Barrow had told the meeting: “I cannot vote for this variation because I believe it will put lives at risk. Knowing this road I believe everything the parish council has said.”

Cllr Paul Milner added: “We have got a duty of care to people in the rural village. There has been no traffic survey and I cannot support this.”

However, principal planning officer Karen Townend said: “The inspector accepted the reduced carriageway and the pavement size, that was his condition.

“The width of the road is going to be that whatever side the pavement is on.”

Members of the North Shropshire Planning Committee were also asked to approve the reserved matters which includes the layout, however Cllr Mabe and Mr Jones called for a decision on the reserved matters to be deferred because the layout was changed again on December 18 and that the parish council had not been informed.

Ms Townend said everyone who needed to be consulted had had a letter about the changes, adding: “They had 21 days to yesterday and people can still comment up until the time of this meeting.

“The majority of the objections are on the principle of the development as a whole.”

However, Cllr Barrow requested a deferral to allow the parish council to comment, which members agreed meaning the final decision will be delegated to planning officers.