Plans to build 36 new houses in a Herefordshire village have drawn nearly 240 objections locally.

Rosconn Strategic Land applied in February to develop an L-shaped field off Old Church Road, Colwall, lying within both the village’s conservation area and the Malvern Hills area of outstanding natural beauty (AONB).

Fourteen of the 36 homes were to be classed as affordable, while none would be of more than two storeys, with bungalows sited along northern and western edges.

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Road access to the site, earmarked for house building in the village’s neighbourhood development plan (NDP), would be via a new junction onto Old Church Road, while a new footpath would connect the site to the rest of the village.

A total of 237 objections to the application have now been lodged, some expressing concerns over drainage and the feared increase risk of flooding to neighbouring properties.

These gained support from a submission apparently by Ruth Blair, drainage engineer with the council’s public realm contractor Balfour Beatty, which urged a revised surface water drainage strategy and flood risk assessment, and “the site layout reconfigured appropriately”.

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“The topography of the site brings into question whether this is the right place for this, even before we begin to question the ethics of building on designated conservation [area] and AONB [land],” village resident Sally Brain wrote.

Fellow resident Sue Glover said: “It would be an act of vandalism to destroy habitats, disturb bird life and increase pollution with an enormous increase in traffic on a narrow winding country lane,” adding the plan did not address local housing need as there are already “numerous unsold properties around the Malverns”.

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Others questioned the legitimacy of the site’s allocation in the NDP. However Colwall Parish Council has not objected, though it made suggestions regarding materials.

Herefordshire Council says it expects to decide on the application by July 30.