THE roads near Leominster face the prospect of a hundred extra daily lorry journeys if a change to planning conditions at one of S&A Produce’s farms goes ahead.

John Davies has asked Herefordshire Council for permission to remove a condition attached to S&A Produce’s approved construction of water storage reservoirs at Brierley Court strawberry farm in Brierley.

The scheme to build the reservoirs was approved in January 2014 but it has a condition that no excavated materials shall be removed from the farm and no waste materials shall be imported to the site.

Mr Davies is proposing removal of this condition to allow 100 lorry movements per day, 50 in and 50 out of the site, to transport sand and gravel to Tarmac’s quarry in Wellington.

If approved, the lorries will travel from the site east along the private road, turning left on to the B4361 Hereford Road and then right along Southern Avenue (through an industrial area) to link up with the A44/A49.

MORE NEWS Is this Herefordshire's least talked about environmental problem?

This route would avoid Brierley hamlet altogether.

Consultants working on the scheme say these plans will avoid wasting high quality sand and gravel and will bring in some extra income for the farm, which is struggling with the effects of Covid-19 and Brexit uncertainty.

However, Leominster Town Council has asked for more information about how long this extraction would go on for.

Speaking at a meeting this week, county councillor Trish Marsh said: “They haven’t told us or given any idea of how long that will take.

“If that turns out to be a prolonged period, I do hope our own planning committee will push for more clarity on what is actually being proposed.

“They have already got two reservoirs. Whereas before they were going to use all the excavated soil on site.

“They’ve now discovered that there is in fact a lot of high-quality sand and gravel which they want to export off site.”

Town councillor Jon Preece said: “So basically, what they are going to do is they are going to quarry it.”

A spokesperson for S&A Produce said the company did not wish to comment.

“The application has been made by John Davies as the landowner on behalf of S&D Partnership.

“This application is not part of the activity of S&A Produce therefore the business has no comment to offer.”

Herefordshire Council is expected to consider these proposals in February next year.