An old Herefordshire school building should be used to “give something back” as plans to develop its grounds for 20 affordable homes move forward.

This was Coun Louis Stark's comment as the council's scrutiny committee debated the future of the Holme Lacy school site, five miles southeast of Hereford.

Coun William Wilding added that the site “should have 10 houses and a medical centre next to it – that’s what local people want to see”.

Councillors resolved to call for the building to be “considered as a community asset to be used by and benefit the local community” within any development of its grounds.

Herefordshire Council voted in July to begin design work at the site, one of several it owns and plans to develop for affordable housing over the coming years.

Any such redevelopment must take into account local provision of health, transport and other infrastructure, councillors urged.

The council has left open the option of selling such sites to developers instead, to raise money to build affordable housing elsewhere.

Council programme manager Nigel Thomas said: “Open-market sale is an option for Holme Lacy but we are still at early stages.”

Any such move should require developers to ensure what gets built takes full account of local needs and wishes, the committee said.

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Members of the public submitted 10 questions to councillors on the Home Lacy plan and put further questions in person at the scrutiny committee meeting.

One, Mrs Stubbings, said the Holme Lacy site was a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” to deliver rural affordable housing in the county along with improvements in infrastructure.

“If the council’s ‘pipeline’ of sites does not include other sites in the rural housing market area, how will the council assist local people who can’t afford market prices?” she asked.

Cabinet member for housing Coun Ange Tyler acknowledged there is an “extreme shortage” of affordable homes in the county, adding: “We can’t deliver all those in our pipeline of development so we have to look at other options.”

What the council is proposing “are not homes for social housing – they are for people to get on the housing market”, she added. “There would be a planning condition to specify that those in housing need with a local connection.”

Cabinet member for planning Coun Liz Harvey said that sustainability, viability and local infrastructure "will all form part of a rigorous process of consultation with the community” as the proposals move forward.