BROMYARD Mayor was not speaking on behalf of the town council when he raised safety fears about a landmark housing development, a councillor has said.

Last week, Mayor Fred Clark raised concerns that a footpath leading from the proposed 500 homes at Hardwick Bank was not wide enough for pedestrians to safely walk from the development into Bromyard town centre.

However, Cllr Roger Page, chair of the town council’s planning committee, said that this was Cllr Clark's personal concern and not them of the planning committee.

He said: "No pedestrian safety concerns were raised by councillors at the council’s planning committee meeting when Bovis Homes’ application was considered.

"The concerns mentioned by the Mayor Cllr Clark are personal concerns and it should have been made clear that he was not speaking on behalf of the town council. No concerns about pedestrian safety were raised by the planning committee.

"The planning committee’s only concern was the current lack of five hectares of designated employment land to accompany the 500 houses and the committee felt it could not support the application until that land is identified.

"It is understood that this land will be identified by Herefordshire Council through a Bromyard Development Plan which is already underway.

"The town council has always supported the principle of 500 houses being built in the form of a sustainable urban extension on Hardwick Bank and indeed consulted the people of Bromyard on the proposal a number of years ago.

"The public were overwhelmingly in favour and the council worked hard to ensure that the proposal was included in Herefordshire Council’s Core Strategy, which it is. The principle of the development is therefore well-established and included in the Core Strategy."