Eco-mansion plan back on the table

Plans for a futuristic, curved-profile eco-mansion in the Herefordshire countryside are back on the table.

The application, by local residents Phil and Jackie Perry, has been resubmitted after Herefordshire councillors voted to reject a previous bid last September.

The new bid addresses the “lack of information demonstrating the outstanding nature of the design” of the so-called Flow House and accompanying landscaping, planned for a 12-hectare hillside site near Ullingswick, between Hereford and Bromyard.

Plans show it includes six bedrooms, a cinema room, gym, bar, wine room, swimming pool, jacuzzi and carp pond.

National planning policy generally prevents isolated new homes being built in open countryside unless they are of “exceptional quality”.

The previous bid “was refused for lack of information pursuant to demonstrating the outstanding nature of the design”, the revised application now says.

Its “remedy” for this is to submit the opinion of an independent review panel of design experts, which “confirms that the design is outstanding”.

Having considered the proposal last November, the Design Midlands review panel concluded: “Overall, this is now an exceptional design bringing so many things together well, proportions and elevations, materials, sustainability and in particular a special relationship between the building and a significantly enhanced surrounding landscape.”

During the earlier council debate on the plan, Ocle Pychard group parish council chairman Giles Blackmore called it “an intrusive building whose modernist design is not in keeping with our rural location”.

Local councillor Jonathan Lester also said at the time: “Its sheer scale means it cannot respect the character of adjoining listed and historic developments.”

However the council’s own historic buildings officer has raised no objection on heritage grounds, “as no harm has been identified to the nearby conservation area or the setting of nearby listed buildings”.

Comments on the application, planning reference number 221177, can be made until 20 May.