Eight homes bid near city

An application has been made to build eight “smaller, traditional” homes off the A438 near Hereford.

Sockett Properties of Hereford is seeking to build six two-bedroom, one three-bedroom and one four-bedroom homes off Conifer Walk, King’s Acre, for sale at market rate.

The planning application says it “seeks to respond positively to the evident need for smaller, more affordable market dwellings for sale and rent, and also includes accessible bungalows”.

This “will help ensure the properties are within reach for local people wishing to rent or purchase on the open market”, it adds.

These would have “traditional and attractive designs”, with “gabled roof profiles, modest building heights, traditional roof pitches and porches, and similar material use (to each other)”.

Energy efficiency would be achieved through “high-performance glazing and insulation to ensure airtightness”, with heating “likely provided by air-source heat pump”.

Each would have two parking spaces. The main road would be accessed from the existing Conifer Walk.

The already-developed T-shaped site is currently occupied by a residential bungalow, offices and a commercial workshop, which would be demolished.

“The applicant is very keen to bring the development forward quickly and has local contractors lined up to undertake the build if planning permission is forthcoming,” the application says.

Outline permission for three larger houses on the site was granted in 2003, and again, to Sockett, in 2016.

The site lies within the boundary of the Kings Acre Road settlement– a “ribbon development” along the south side of the A438 from the edge of Hereford to Swainshill Farm.