ORCOP Hill residents breathed a sigh of relief after county planners rejected a controversial housing scheme which would have included cesspits.  

Dozens of villagers had described the proposals to build three houses on land at Newcastle Farm as ‘swapping a beautiful countryside view for a repository of human waste’.  

And more than 40 people signed a petition against the scheme with the parish council denouncing the development as unsustainable and detrimental to the character, environment, drainage, local roads of the area.  

Jane Rigler, speaking at Herefordshire Council’s planning committee on behalf of Orcop Parish Council, said the three large executive style houses did not meet local need.  

She said: “The development would have an urbanising effect on the village.  

“The rural feel of the area would be lost.”  

Sophie Murphy, an objector, asked the committee to imagine a tanker in their cul-de-sac emptying cesspits every couple of weeks.  

She said: “Imagine having to become a prisoner in your own home while these emptying operations are taking place because the smell is so overpowering.  

“Imagine young mothers living on the new development having to keep their children in doors to protect them from the tankers and to safeguard their developing lungs from the harmful effects of diesel fumes.   “Imagine the pollution when cesspit levels overflow.”  

Local ward councillor David Harlow argued the scheme should be rejected and councillor Bruce Baker proposed refusing permission for the proposals as he said the use of cesspits would be like ‘using 19th century technology in the 21st century’.  

Councillor Felicity Norman questioned the rejection of reed beds and the use of executive homes instead of affordable housing.  

While councillor Philip Edwards said the scheme was too impractical.   “It’s disappointing that government policy is pressuring the housing number in counties such as ours and pushing third would policies,” he said.  

The proposals were unanimously rejected.