Orchard homes plan gets given the go-ahead

A plan to build eight houses in an old orchard in a Herefordshire village have been approved.

A Mr and Mrs Price applied late last year for planning permission to build on the two-hectare site earmarked for housing at Bishon Farm, Bishopstone west of Hereford.

“Of a contemporary rural vernacular”, and of a thermally efficient design, the eight new homes would be finished in red brick, clay tiles and slate, and were to be for market sale.

In a nod to the site’s history, surrounding landscaping was to include community and private orchards.

While not objecting outright, Bishopstone Group Parish Council raised several issues including over drainage and land contamination from livestock.

They added that residential conversion of neighbouring listed farmhouse buildings had been granted permission in 2006 but implemented only insofar as a new access road and roadside wall had been built.

“No work has been undertaken on the farm buildings and Bishon Farm remains in a very poor state despite assurances from the applicants”, they said.

It appears this is being addressed in a newly submitted planning application by Mr Price.

Herefordshire Council’s principal building conservation officer Debra Lewis felt that, even with tweaks to the design, the new scheme still went against the character of the village, with its private gardens facing the road and the front gardens facing the internal road, “resulting in an insular estate”.

But planning officer Joshua Evans considered that the scheme “incorporates principles of good urban design” and “respects the village context while offering a high standard of contemporary housing”.

Full planning permission was granted.