THE Foyer of Ledbury's Market Theatre was packed with local residents on Tuesday, when Bloor Homes held a public exhibition about its plans for 625 new homes to the north of the viaduct.

The exhibition took the form of large notice boards, covering different aspects of the proposal, with the first board explaining that no planning application had been submitted so far.

One aspect of the proposal, the question of access to the new estate, did raise concerns among some local residents.

Bloor's information stated: "Two options are being considered for providing access to the development, either a new roundabout junction on the Bromyard Road or via an access under the viaduct, linking directly with the Hereford Road, Leadon Way and the New Mills Roundabout. The most likely option at this stage is the first option."

But one Wellington Heath resident, who did not wish to be named, had concerns that, even now, during the evening rush hour, there are often lines of cars in the Homend, up to the low railway bridge, waiting to access the Bromyard Road, and in the other direction, "lines of cars as far as Beggar's Ash", which is the road to and from Wellington Heath.

His concerns were echoed by town councillor, Bob Barnes who said: "The development is unsustainable without dual access, and it's in the wrong place. It will affect the community because it will create a separate community. Integration will be difficult, and behind the railway embankment, for three months of the years in winter, they won't see the sun."

But Cllr Barnes pointed out that the idea of a major housing estate to the north of the viaduct was in Herefordshire Council's Core Strategy, the county council's planning blueprint for the next two decades.

Cllr Barnes said: "It will go ahead, and we will have to manage it as best we can."

Local resident, Clive Johnson was concerned about pressures on infrastructure.

He said: "There could be 1200 more adults in the town. Where are the children of those families going to go to school?"

The development would be close to the Leadon's flood plain, but Mr Johnson believes "the flood plain is non-existent, and building near the flood plain should not pose any problems.

Mr Johnson, who lives close to the Leadon, says he has plans going back 200 years, showing the flood plain, but added that it has never flooded at that spot.

Bloor Homes' information boards stated, "the development has been arranged to avoid encroachment on the flood plain" and that "the development is therefore located entirely within an area of low flood risk."

One of the largest notice boards was for the Herefordshire and Gloucestershire Canal Trust.

Under Core Strategy, the aim is the re-establish the route of the long-vanished canal through Ledbury, as part of the Trust's aim to complete the entire 34 mile stretch between the two cities.

In Ledbury, the canal could make use of a stretch of the River Leadon, at a place where the original canal course cannot be followed, before passing under the viaduct.

This stretch through town would entail the construction of two locks.

David Penny, of the Trust, declined to give a time-scale for the completion of the ambitious work, but he said: "It will happen. There is 20 per cent on the desk, on the line, in negotiation at the moment".

However he added: "Some of these discussions can take ten years."

The Trust has already had success in re-establishing stretches of the canal at Oxenhall, Newent and Hereford.