300-home city estate plan dropped

A stalled plan to build 300 homes south of Hereford has formally been dropped.

J S Bloor (Tewkesbury) Limited, a now-dormant division of one the country’s largest housebuilders, Bloor Homes, originally applied in 2008 to develop 13 hectares of farmland between the Marches railway line and the Withy Brook.

The homes were to range in size from one-bedroom flats to five-bedroom homes with four parking spaces.

Sustainability measures were to include energy-efficient housing, on-site renewable energy generation, access to public transport, cycle storage and rainwater collection for all homes.

The scheme was to incorporate “architectural forms, detailing and materials associated with traditional Hereford”, with “a series of landmark buildings throughout the development to provide a focal point within different neighbourhoods”, a design document with the original application said.

The scheme was intended to have two public green spaces, with the existing Withy Brook corridor “retained and strengthened with new woodland and aquatic habitat”, it added.

According to a decision notice this week formally withdrawing the application, apparently from Herefordshire Council’s lead development manager

Kevin Bishop: “The applicants confirmed that their agreement that the application from April 2008 cannot be progressed any further.”

He added: “I cannot see any explanation on the file as to why it stalled at the time.”