Alarm at Leominster extension plan
Plans for a huge extension to the town could bring unforeseen problems, a senior local figure has warned.
Plans for a huge extension to a Herefordshire town could bring unforeseen problems, a senior local figure has warned.
Twin applications for outline planning permission covering a large area of farmland southwest of Leominster have now been published following an extensive public consultation in the town last year.
But Leominster Civic Society chair John Farrar said the spine road now proposed through the two development areas would differ markedly from the “relief road” originally intended for further out of town that was to divert traffic away from the town centre while delimiting the new housing and employment land.
“You can’t have a bypass going through a housing estate, taking the quarry lorries to and from Kington,” he said.
“And where will the local jobs be? A couple of local firms have moved into the land that’s already there, but no one else has. The jobs aren’t there, so people will have to travel elsewhere, which means more traffic.”
He was also concerned at the plan to move the town’s Aldi discount supermarket from the town centre to the north end of the development site, beside Morrisons.
“That will be a disaster for the town centre, as it will lose one of the main reasons why people come into it,” he said.
The so-called Leominster Sustainable Urban Extension was set out in the county’s overall planning policy in 2011, and “has always been a designated housing and growth site”, ward councillor for the area Mark Woodall, and councillor for the neighbouring ward, Jenny Bartlett, said in a joint statement.
The two proposals published this week “have the potential to be the largest housing and infrastructure development not only in Leominster but in North Herefordshire for many years”, they said.
“They also have the potential to make an immensely positive impact on the town and surrounding area, and it is our job as ward councillors and for all residents of Leominster to do our best to make sure they will.”
To this end, the two urged locals to take the time to digest the many planning documents and to respond to the planning consultation by the January 5 deadline.