Opposition to village housing plan

A new development of “four or five homes” in a field by a Herefordshire village has taken a step closer to approval, despite more than 40 local objections and opposition from the parish council.

Only “permission in principle” was sought for the plot on the south-east edge of Llangrove, between Ross-on-Wye and Monmouth, in a resubmitted application – the difference being that now, “the detailed drainage constraints have been addressed with a positive Habitat Regulations Assessment endorsed by Natural England”, the official planning report said.

Under this route to planning approval, the “permission in principle” stage establishes whether a site is suitable in theory, while a second, “technical details consent” stage assesses the development proposals in detail.

“Other issues will be considered and addressed through the submission of additional information to be required as part of a technical details consent and are not sufficient at this stage to justify withholding permission in principle,” the report said.

The parish council had said the application lacked “any detailed information on the proposed housing design, size and character or even drainage”, without which “no meaningful scrutiny is feasible”.

This site is 800m from, and within the catchment area of, the Garron Brook which feeds into the River Wye, the parish council said.

A recent planning application for another field outside the Llangrove boundary was dismissed at appeal in July, “largely based on the effect on the integrity of the River Wye SAC (special area of conservation) with particular regard to drainage”, it pointed out.

This, it said, “must therefore set a precedent for rejection” of this latest application.

Given the county now has a 6.9-year housing supply, the application “is not therefore required by Herefordshire Council, the Llangarron Parish Council NDP (neighbourhood development plan), by anyone in the parish or in the village of Llangrove”, the parish council said.

“On that basis it should be rejected forthwith.”

But the officer’s report said that surface water “can be managed through relevant onsite sustainable drainage systems that can be subject to a fully detailed submission at the technical details approval stage”.

It therefore concluded there would be “no adverse effects on the integrity of the SAC; subject to appropriate mitigation being secured”.

Officials also considered that the Llangrove NDP, currently being worked on, “has not progressed to a stage where it can be afforded overriding weight”.