PLANNING permission has been approved by Herefordshire Council for 100 new houses on the cricket pitch site, behind the Full Pitcher pub.

But this approval is subject to consultation on proposed access, and also roundabout alterations on the Full Pitcher roundabout.

It will be planning officers, not the council's planning committee, who will now have the final say.

Approval opens gates to the cricket club moving onto its new ground, off the Ross Road.

The two planning applications are effectively linked, and the move could not take place unless the developers were granted permission to build on the existing cricket ground.

Ledbury Cricket Club was granted planning for its new ground on February 11.

But the application for 100 new houses, by the Silverwood Partnership and Enterprise Inns Plc, came before the council's planning committee again on Wednesday, March 4, after a decision on the application was deferred in February, by the same committee, which had called for more information.

Herefordshire councillor for Ledbury, Cllr Liz Harvey, said no time scale had been given on the latest consultation concerning the proposed housing development.

This will involve discussions with ward councillors, the town council, and local people

Cllr Harvey said: "I would imagine it will be a 21 day consultation".

But she added: "I said in the committee meeting that it beggars belief. If this is a consultation that needs to take place, why hasn't it happened before? I don't know."

Cllr Harvey said she was personally "deeply conflicted" over the application for the100 new homes, and the loss of the existing cricket ground.

She said: "Clearly I am in favour of sporting facilities. But the ground is open green space in the town, with a footpath running through it."

At the meeting, Cllr Keith Francis voiced town council concerns over access to the proposed new housing development, and the loss of green space.