Government ruling over village homes

A plan to build more than 40 homes in a village already rejected twice following a long campaign by residents has been refused again in a government ruling.

The controversial plan to build 42 homes on land off Bransford Road in Rushwick, which has been refused on two occasions by Malvern Hills District Council, has been thrown out again in a victory for village campaigners.

Hundreds of residents in the village near Worcester successfully fought against a plan by Custom Land Ltd to build the homes more than three years ago having raised concerns about the added pressure on services the new homes would bring and bemoaning the loss of agricultural land.

Despite the opposition in the village against the homes and despite Malvern Hills District rejecting the plan, the homes still could have been built if the government’s planning inspector overruled the council.

Following the government planning inquiry, inspector Hayley Butcher said building homes on the green space would harm the character and appearance of the village and surrounding countryside.

“The current soft edge of Rushwick here would therefore be lost, to be replaced with a harder, more heavily urbanised edge, whichever way the site was laid out, and this would be materially harmful to the character and appearance of the area,” she said.

Malvern Hills District Council planners had rejected the first plan in March 2018 because it was outside the village’s development boundary in the South Worcestershire Development Plan (SWDP) and it would have impacted negatively on the character of the area.

The same plan was put forward again by Custom Land Ltd in 2019 and rejected for a second time by council planners.

Hundreds of objections were raised against both plans include including a 400-plus petition in 2018.

The 42-home plan is one of several planned or already approved in Rushwick in recent years including a 120-home plan which is also the subject of an appeal with the government’s planning inspectorate.

Lioncourt Homes wants to build a mix of one-to-four bedroom homes in Rushwick but villagers have registered more than 270 objections with Malvern Hills District Council.

Many objectors complained against the number of homes saying they were not needed and the village did not have the infrastructure to cope.