Shared living plan for village

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Thursday, 5 October 2023 07:32

By Gavin McEwan - Local Democracy Reporter

A new housing development promoting shared living in a Herefordshire village has been put forward.

Larkrise Cohousing is seeking planning permission for the 20-home scheme at Tump Lane on the edge of Much Birch south of Hereford.

It would consist of 13 houses of two, three and four bedrooms for market sale, while the remaining homes, comprising four one- and two-bedroom flats and three two-bedroom houses, would be classed as affordable.

There would also be a “common house” with shared facilities such as a kitchen and common room – leaving the individual houses “slightly smaller than usual”, the application says.

“Co-housing communities are created and run by their residents,” it goes on to explain.

“Although each household has a self-contained home, residents will regularly come together to manage their community, sharing social activities as well as responsibilities.”

The development would be “a visual extension” of, and similar in scale to, the existing 1970s semi-detached Tump Lane houses.

Being south-facing, the houses will make the most of solar gain and natural light into public rooms. Timber frames with wood fibre insulation are “being looked at as a possible building method”, while each would have an air source heat pump and wood-burning stove.

There would be 36 parking spaces, in blocks away from homes, as with the existing housing, and 52 cycle spaces. New road access onto Tump Lane would be created, involving partial removal of an existing row of eight garages.

Green space, including orchards and allotments, would make up a “significant part” of the sloping 2.3-hectare site, the application says.

Comments on the application, numbered 232807, can be made until November 2.