105 city extension homes approved

Plans for over 100 more homes north of Hereford have been approved.

The latest phase in the city’s West Holmer northern extension will now see Bloor Homes building a mix of terraced, semi-detached and detached homes numbering 105 in all.

The housebuilder made the full planning application a year ago for the 3.7-hectare site north of Hedgerow Way, the extension’s main spine road now running between the A49 and the A4103 Roman Road.

A third of the homes are to be affordable, including first homes, shared ownership, discounted market and social rent tenures, with priority for parish and then city residents. There are to be two wheelchair-accessible bungalows.

Holmer and Shelwick group parish council objected to the plan as being “over-development”, given that 460 of the 500 homes originally allocated for the city extension have already been approved.

The extra 65 should therefore all be affordable, it said. It also pointed to the lack of transition between the estate and the open fields beyond, and said the proposed layout disregarded the parish’s guidance on parking spaces.

This last issue is already causing problems in the existing Holmer West site, “with considerable on street parking on evenings and weekends, which creates friction to householders and obstacles for emergency vehicles”, the parish said.

The council’s strategic housing manager did not object to the housing mix.

Its senior landscape officer Nigel Koch said the 57 trees initially proposed for the site amounted to “half a tree for every home”, with several constrained by small planting spaces. But he said later changes to the landscaping plan addressed these concerns.

Planning officer Adam Lewis said there had been no objections from technical or statutory consultees. And while acknowledging the issue of parking standards, he said departing from this “would not give rise to demonstrable material harm which outweighs the benefits of the scheme”.

The planning permission comes with 25 conditions ranging from landscape maintenance to drainage and lighting.

Bloor is also to make contributions of £723,000 to local schools, £200,000 towards transport improvements, £127,000 to public green space, 93,000 to sports facilities, £67,000 to healthcare, £15,000 to libraries and £8,400 to provide bins for each new household.