Plans have been unveiled for a 350-home estate on farmland east of Hereford.

The 23-hectare site lies immediately south of Ledbury Road, the A438, with the protected Lugg Meadows to the east.

A website outlining the proposal, landeastofhereford.co.uk, was launched yesterday (September 5), coinciding with an in-person consultation at Hampton Park United Reformed Church, Tupsley. The website is accepting public views until September 17.

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The “predominantly two-storey buildings” would include terraced, semi-detached and detached housing “of various tenures”, the website says.

The “pedestrian-friendly” estate would also include employment areas as well as a farm shop and café.

Three schools and nursery lie close by, while the Hampton Dene doctors' surgery is also “within walking distance”, it adds.

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An accompanying draft masterplan for the site shows at least half of it would be made up of green open space, to include wetland and scrub creation and other work on new and improved habitats.

Meanwhile the project’s lead developer STL Group says it “is excited by the possibility of utilising the renewable energy being generated at their nearby anaerobic digester plant to deliver sustainable, low-carbon heat to this new development”.

“Other renewable energy sources will be embedded in the proposals,” it adds.

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STL made a pre-application submission to Herefordshire Council in May. It now aims to submit an outline planning application this autumn, which it expects a decision on next spring.

The county’s local plan, or “core strategy”, adopted in 2015, anticipated 6,500 new homes in the city by 2031. It earmarks expansion areas to the north (Holmer West), west (Three Elms) and south (Lower Bullingham) as well as within the city itself, but makes no mention of an eastward expansion area.

Meanwhile the new administration running Herefordshire Council has yet to give a commitment to its predecessor’s plans for a new eastern river crossing over the Wye to link the A438 with the B4399 in Rotherwas.

It appears from published council documents outlining this project that the route of the link road would clash with the new housing proposal.

A Herefordshire Council spokesperson said: “The council notes the intention to submit a planning application for these proposals.

“Full public consultation will be undertaken once the application is received and the decision will ultimately be made by the planning committee.”