First pollution-absorbing wetland to open

The first new wetland created to absorb run-off pollution, and so help free up Herefordshire’s planning logjam, should be in use by the end of the year, a senior county official has said.

The council is using £2 million in government funding to buy land close to sewage works on the edges of settlements to turn into wetlands, which will then filter out phosphates from the sewage.

Developers will be required to buy credits in proportion to the impact of their schemes in order to get them approved.

Marc Willimont, Herefordshire Council’s assistant director for regulation, environment and waste services, confirmed: “The first wetland site should be in place by the end of this year, when the first credits will be sold.”

He added: “Due to commercial sensitivity we are unable to give the name of the village(s) which this first wetland will serve as we are yet to exchange contracts. However it is in the north of the county, with the brook into which it drains joining the river Lugg before Leominster.”

The catchment area of the central section of the river Wye, and its tributary the Lugg, together cover most of the county and are a designated special area of conservation (SAC).

In July 2019 Natural England told the council it would object to any planning applications that would increase nutrient levels, particularly phosphates, in these areas.

As a result, 82 planning applications involving 1,650 homes are currently on hold, though schemes that can be shown not to increase phosphate levels can still go ahead.

Under the nutrient management plan overseen by the council, the River Wye SAC is supposed to hit legal water quality targets by 2027.