Cut in affordable homes for new estate

Details have emerged of what the latest development of nearly 100 houses on the edge of a Herefordshire town will look like.

Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey’s outline plan for phase 4A of St Mary’s Garden Village, Ross-on-Wye, originally for “up to 175” houses, was approved in April last year.

This was on condition of two of every five homes being affordable, to which the developer would contribute, as well as to open space management, support for football, rugby, tennis and hockey elsewhere, to education and transport including bus infrastructure, and to allotments.

Now the company is seeking full approval for a 96-home scheme on the 2.5-hectare site, east of the A40 from which it is accessed via the Starling Road roundabout.

But only 16 of the houses, or one in six, will be affordable, according to the latest application.

Taylor Wimpey “has had extensive pre‐application discussions with the Council to ensure an appropriate (housing) mix”, its says.

The “landscape-led” development will be integrated into the wider housing estate, with connections to neighbouring approved and existing green spaces.

It will encourage low speeds and will include electric vehicle charging points. The designs of the houses themselves “draw from the surrounding housing style and the wider area, incorporating material with locally distinctive features”, the application says.

Comments on the application, numbered 223479, can be made until December 22.