A PUBLIC poll will be held in an eleventh-hour attempt to ensure a second road is built to allow people to access a major new estate.

The parish poll was called to provide evidence that plans for a single road to give access to hundreds of homes due to be built to the north of Ledbury viaduct is not enough.

Residents fear traffic snarl-ups along the Bromyard Road and under Ledbury railway bridge, at the Herefordshire Road junction, unless another access point, possibly under the viaduct, is created.

As it stands, Bloor's plans and Herefordshire Council's planning blueprint for the next two decades, the Core Strategy, only allows for single access to the estate with 625 homes and three hectares of employment land.

The town council has decided to challenge these access proposals, on the grounds they may not be "satisfactory" under planning regulations, and want to use a poll in May to gather evidence and gauge public opinion.

Cllr Nina Shields, the chairman of Ledbury Town Council, said: "It’s all to do with challenging the proposal that single access from the site north of the viaduct onto the Bromyard Road meets the requirements in the planning regulations, for access to be ‘satisfactory.’

"There is no definition of ‘satisfactory’ which doesn’t help.

"Residents are very concerned and called a parish meeting about this in March.

"At that meeting it was agreed that the town needs to present evidence to Herefordshire Council's planning committee and to any appeal."

Cllr Shields added: "A poll would present stronger, numerical evidence and would be a first step in challenging any belief that single access is ‘satisfactory.’

"It starts building the town’s case in this latest phase of the planning process."

The news of the poll has been welcomed by Ledbury residents.

Posting on the Voice of Ledbury Facebook site, Hilary Jones said: "That junction is bad enough as it is now! How about scrapping the whole estate?"

Janet Morris said: "I thoroughly agree, scrap it completely - a dreadful place to put a housing estate! A single access is ludicrous."

Many residents support a second access point under Ledbury viaduct.

Dean Whattler said: "The town bypass should be continued from the Hereford Road roundabout, under the viaduct, to the west and north of the proposed estate to link up with the Bromyard Road.

"This should be the major access to the estate and it would provide a lorry route to the existing trading estate that did not involve the difficult turn at the station junction. It would also reduce traffic at the station junction especially at rush hours because two routes would be available to traffic."

Other residents said that objections had been raised before, about the single access, but they had come to nothing.

Aleksandra Zalewska said: "There were so many other official ways before to protest, and we did, and Bromyard Road companies did, and nobody paid attention and now again. What's the point?"

There have already been public protests under the railway bridge, about the single access and, last July, a lane blockage at Ledbury railway bridge raised further fears among Wellington Heath residents that a proposed new access off the Bromyard Road will cause further traffic chaos.

But Bloor say their plan is in accordance with the Core Strategy and also that the planning authority, Herefordshire Council, will be given the opportunity for further examination.

Nick Rawlings, planning director at Bloor Homes Western, said: “The highway access arrangements for our 'Land north of the Viaduct’ development proposal have been considered and prepared in the planning policy context of the adopted Herefordshire Core Strategy.

“The outline planning application for this allocated site, along with the detailed site access and all associated off-site highway mitigation works, will be determined by Herefordshire Council in due course.”

A Herefordshire Council spokesman said: "The local planning authority would consider a representation made from the outcome of a parish poll and address it within the decision report.”

The date for the parish poll is still to be decided.