Village homes approved despite heritage concerns

Plans to build four homes on a sloping field next to a Herefordshire village have been approved.

The scheme for land south of Lynwill, St Weonards, was put forward last August by local resident Mr R Whistance.

The two-storey, three-bedroom homes will be of local stone and slate, mirror existing dwellings in the village, and will “step up the rising land in a similar way to existing houses”, his application said.

The scheme requires a new entrance onto the minor road into the village, in addition to the existing field gateway.

The plan drew five public objections, with concerns over a lack of footpath to the village, over road safety given the lane’s 60mph speed limit, and the amount of development already under way in St Weonards.

The parish council was supportive but had concerns over the planned one-way system through the development.

Herefordshire Council’s building conservation officer Conor Ruttledge said the scheme would “fail to preserve the setting” of a listed school building and other nearby “heritage assets”, noting that a heritage statement had not been included with the application.

“The loss of long-established fieldscape to accommodate new housing [would] fail to accord with any recognised historic setting/settlement characteristics,” he added.

But planning officer Simon Rowles said the scheme had been amended in response to concerns, and that this “just about gets the scheme over the line in design terms”.

Choice of materials and suitable landscaping would “help ensure the scheme is responsive to the rurality of the area”, and any harm to the setting “is outweighed by the public benefits of the development”, he concluded.