A bid to build 118 homes on fields next to Leominster has been put forward as part of ambitious growth plans for the town.

Muller Property Group of Staffordshire has said that 30 of the planned homes would be affordable, of which 14 would be flats. A further 16 flats would be among the properties sold at market rate.

The 10-acre (four-hectare) site on the town’s southwest edge lies next to the Leominster Sustainable Urban Extension (SUE), already earmarked for housing within the local (county-wide) and Leominster neighbourhood plans.

This is intended to deliver at least 1,500 homes, a quarter of which are to be affordable, as well as a new primary school and sports facilities.

Alongside this, a new relief road, already begun, is intended to link the A44 at Barons’ Cross to the A49 via the Worcester Road roundabout south of the town.

This latest proposal “would not compromise the future delivery of the SUE”, the application states.

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A landscape design statement says a linear green space through the development is “essential to its viability and sustainability, as is the retention of existing landscape features”.

To gain approval, the development will have to show it does not harm the nearby river Lugg and river Wye special areas of conservation (SACs), the application notes.

To this end, the development “may include water efficiency measures; phasing or delaying development until (water treatment) capacity is available; the use of developer contributions to contribute to improvements to waste water treatment works”.

Muller said the current plan has been informed by pre-application remarks from Herefordshire Council.

One consequence of this is that vehicle access to the estate would be solely along the existing Westcroft, with Stochenhill Road to be used only for emergency access.

The current application seeks permission for the access plans, and outline approval for everything else.

It can be found on the Herefordshire Council planning portal under reference 213943. Comments can be made until 16 December, with a decision on whether it can go ahead due five weeks after that.

More detailed site plans would then follow.