Valley view homes approved

Plans for three “generous” new houses with views across the Wye valley in the south of Herefordshire have been approved.

The two-storey bespoke designs will be partly recessed into the slopes of Leys Hill above Kerne Bridge, making them “a modest insertion into the landscape”, the planning application said.

Built of coursed stone, timber and zinc cladding, they will offer “generous family living spaces”, one having three bedrooms, the other two, four bedrooms.

Each will have solar panels on the roofs, a garage, its own driveway onto the main road, and its own package sewage treatment plant.

Mature trees on the site, including veteran pear trees and Scots pines, would be retained. Indeed, the number of houses has been reduced from four to three to enable this.

Permission was granted on condition that car charging points and water efficiency measures are included and a landscape plan approved.

All three are within the grounds of the existing Orchard Heights house, which has also gained permission for a new garage.

No objections were lodged.