Inspector rejects seven-home plan for village

A plan to build seven houses at a Herefordshire village has been rejected because it is not in line with the area’s neighbourhood development plan.

Russell Pryce, of Collins Design and Build, Pontrilas, applied in January 2021 to build the three four-bedroom, two three-bedroom and two two-bedroom houses on a half-hectare paddock at Ramblers Way, off the A438 at Winforton.

This drew 24 individual objections and a “strong” objection from Eardisley Group Parish Council.

Planning officer Adam Lewis concluded in October 2021 that the local neighbourhood development plan “only supports new residential development outside of the settlement boundary where there are special circumstances”, which did not apply in this case.

It would be “an unjustified encroachment into the countryside which would promote unstainable patterns of growth and be harmful to the character of the settlement”, he said.

Mr Pryce then appealed against the decision. But now planning inspector Steven Rennie, appointed to decide the appeal, has backed Herefordshire Council’s original refusal.

The proposed scheme “would not conserve nor protect the character of the site and the rural setting of the village”.

And while this would be “mitigated by its low density and landscaping”, approving it would “undermine the plan-led approach to housing delivery”, he ruled.

The site has a complex history of planning applications for different schemes, some approved, others refused, going back to 2005.