A SHELTERED housing block can now be built near to Hereford's Asda supermarket.

The land in Belmont Avenue is presently used informally as a car park and there are also nine garages on site, five of which are let out by Herefordshire Housing.

West Mercia Housing Group applied to build a three-storey building with 10 one-bed flats, and three off road car parking spaces.

Herefordshire Council's planning committee heard there were concerns about the loss of car parking spaces. But the applicant's representative Kat la Tsar said there was on street parking available.

There were also flooding concerns about the site, but the committee heard it is an area that benefits from flood defences, which were put in place when the Asda development was built.

Cllr Paul Rone said there is a need for sheltered housing and supported the application.

Cllr Philip Edwards suggested a resident parking scheme could be put in place to address the car parking issues.

All councillors backed the application.