Date looms again for key city housing decision

The controversial plan to build up to 350 homes at a sensitive spot on the edge of Hereford is due to be decided on later this month – but the date has slipped before.

The scheme put forward nearly a year ago for an area between the east of the city south of the A438 Ledbury Road and the Lugg Meadows flood plain has brought almost unprecedented public opposition, with over a thousand formal objections submitted.

These range across the impact on the protected plain, the risk of flooding, the impact on local traffic and air quality, among other issues, tallying with concerns lodged by Herefordshire Council officers.

The Land East of Hereford Action Group (LEHAG), which is coordinating local opposition to the scheme, wrote last month to ask the council planning officer responsible for the case Ollie Jones asking why the previous decision date of December 20 had again been extended, this time to February 28.

“Has there been any further correspondence from the applicant, as according to your email to them previously, there would only be an extension agreed if there was substantial evidence that all areas of concern were being addressed,” the group wrote.

Mr Jones replied that “while no additional information has yet been submitted by the applicant at this stage, they have confirmed their commitment to addressing some of the outstanding issues previously raised (by officers)”.

“I fully appreciate that successive extensions of time without any further information being submitted or any other visible progress can cause frustration and uncertainty,” he added.

Acknowledging “the extent of local concern, both with respect to the application itself and to the extended period of time for determination”, he said:

“We are actively working to establish more definitive timescales and we will communicate those with you in due course.”