11 new industrial units to be built on vacant land in Hereford

A vacant triangle of land in Hereford will be turned into 11 new light industrial units if a new plan is approved.

The bid by Birmingham-based Avenbury Estates is to develop the half-hectare site east of Mortimer Road, off Newtown Road (the A49).

It sits among the Widemarsh area’s light industrial, retail and service buildings – though Mortimer Road itself has terraced and semi-detached housing along its west side.

Old maps show the plot having had industrial and commercial uses for about 150 years, but it has been derelict for some years.

The currently overgrown site “has very little natural landscaping present on site with very little ecological value”, a statement with the planning application says.

The culverted Ayles Brook flows under the southern part of the site. An Environment Agency map shows most of the site to be in flood risk zone 3 (at least 1 per cent chance of flooding each year) , and a flood risk assessment with the application says the site is “within an area subject to flooding from the Ayles Beck [sic]”.

However it concludes that the development “can be protected by setting an appropriate finished floor level”, and that “post-development, there would only be a marginal impact on the extent and depth of flooding on adjacent land”.

Covering 23,400 square feet (2,200 square metres) in all, the 11 units will range in size between 520 and 3,000 square feet. The metal-clad portal-frame buildings nearest Mortimer Road will be 6 metres high, the others, 9 or 10 metres high.

These are intended “for light manufacturing or storage and distribution purposes”. The application forecasts these will give rise to 43 new full-time jobs.

The site “is well served for buses, private motor vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians and therefore will provide a sustainable location for the proposed new provision”, the application says.

The plan replaces an earlier proposal to turn the site into a mixed development of 28 homes along with commercial units.

Comments on the application, numbered 223093, can be made until November 3.