Plans for two four-bedroom houses off A438 refused

Plans for two four-bedroom houses off a main road near Hereford have been refused.

Resident Mr AS Boyal wanted to build the “chalet bungalows” off the A438 behind an existing house, Hilltop, near Lugwardine to the east of the city.

Of “modest” design and with adjoining garages, the two were to be fitted out to high insulation standards, with heat pumps and water-saving measures.

There were no objections to the plan from the parish council or the public, nor from Herefordshire Council’s highways officer over road safety.

But the proposal became the latest to fall foul of strict rules in the county preventing any further water pollution entering its protected river systems.

According to the council’s ecology officer, “no nutrient neutrality has been submitted or demonstrated as having been legally secured for this proposed development” – meaning planning permission “cannot be granted”.

Planning officer Laura Smith judged that though the scheme’s design and layout were “not of a high quality”, this did not warrant refusal of planning permission.

But she agreed with the ecology officer’s objection that the application did not “establish beyond all reasonable scientific doubt that there will not be an adverse effect” on the river Lugg catchment, “which is currently failing its water quality targets”.

The location outside the Bartestree and Lugwardine settlement boundary, and hence in open country, also went against local and national planning policy and so provided a further reason for refusal, she concluded.