Leominster Town Council has voted to "strongly" oppose a planned 118-home estate on the edge of the town, despite efforts to gain support for the scheme earlier the same day.

The bid has already drawn over 150 formal objections, mostly concerning the road access to the site along Westcroft, a relatively narrow residential street which is currently a cul-de-sac.

Chris Brearley, director of the Archi-scape practice which put forward the proposed layout of estate, told an online public meeting that Herefordshire Council’s highways department “has already found the layout broadly acceptable, though we have addressed minor changes”.

OTHER NEWS:

Richard Stewart, consultant with Cerda Planning which assembled the bid for strategic land promoter Muller, said: “We understand highway safety is a concern. We have done a detailed scoping exercise which shows the surrounding junctions could cope.”

Nearby resident Gary Stinton challenged the extent of this – to which Mr Stewart said: “There was no selective decision to scope specific streets in or out.”

“There wouldn’t be a severe impact” during the construction phase, he said, while an independent flood risk assessment had considered the site to be suitable for development. “There would also be negligible impact on air quality,” Mr Stewart added.

On drainage, Mr Stinton said: “The run-off goes into my house, which is in your map of the catchment basin.”

“Any water will be retained on-site,” Mr Stewart replied.

Mr Stinton also claimed to have video evidence of herons, woodpeckers and newts in the “never cultivated” field – to which Mr Stewart said: “I take your comments on board.”

RELATED STORIES:

At the subsequent town council planning meeting, Coun Jenny Bartlett said there could be no alternative access to the site as there was “no chance” of the planned southern relief road around the town being delivered ahead of the estate.

To which Coun Alan Williams said: “It would be right to have the road first. You have a job getting through there (i.e. Westcroft) even now. Bargates (the main A44 into town) is also congested. I am dead against it.”

Coun Trish Marsh, who is also the county ward councillor for the area, said she had asked for the decision to be taken by the county’s planning committee rather than by officials, adding there had already been a “magnificent” local response to the planning consultation.

Coun Jacqueline Herschy, chairing, said: “The town council will be commenting on the fact that the transport survey didn’t appear to cover all the houses in the area.”

Nor had the survey used the most up-to-date area traffic data from Herefordshire Council, Coun Bartlett added.

She also contested the applicant’s claim that the estate would be within the Leominster Strategic Urban Expansion (SUE) area proposed in the county’s development plan, saying: “It doesn’t yet have a boundary – we can’t say where it is, any more than they can.”

Development of the SUE first requires a detailed masterplan for the whole site, within which individual sites should be laid out, Coun Bartlett pointed out.

Coun Herschy also described the proposed area as “a greenfield site that’s already full of biodiversity – we have identified brownfield sites that should be developed first”, adding: “The flood risk is obvious.”

The motion to “object strongly” to the proposal was passed by three votes to none, Councillors Bartlett and Marsh abstaining as county councillors.