A HEREFORDSHIRE secondary school has revealed its plans for a new car park to cut the amount of traffic waiting on a main road through a village.

Fairfield High School, in the Golden Valley village of Peterchurch, has applied to Herefordshire Council for planning permission wants to turn a farm field into a sports pitch and overflow parking area.

A design and access statement submitted with the plans on behalf of applicant Sue Gaston, the school's headteacher, consultants said the proposed overflow parking will significantly increase the amount of parking currently available and will allow parents to safely pull off the lane, the C1207, during drop off and pick up times.

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They said this will significantly reduce the amount of traffic waiting on the B4348 near the Crossways junction and will therefore result in a material improvement to highway safety for the village. That is the main road which connects the A465, near Hereford, and Hay-on-Wye via a number of villages.

The surface would be compacted hardcore with decorative gravel.

The new sports pitch, without floodlights to the north of the site, would not lead to an increase in pupil numbers, they said, but would mean the school have a full-size pitch. This is something the school has never been able to provide on land within its ownership.

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Consultants also said the proposed scheme would enhance the biodiversity of the site with new native species hedges planted along all new boundaries while also providing a wetland/pond area to the north of the proposed pitch.

"This wetland area will take the form of an attenuation basin which captures surface water draining from the sports pitch," they said.

Herefordshire Council will make a decision on application 230917 once consultation had ended on May 5.