A plan to turn a disused public toilet in Hereford into a homeless “pod” has been dropped.

The proposal put forward by Herefordshire Council in February for the Union Street facility was greeted with some astonishment by the city council, Hereford Civic Society (HCS), and St Peters Church next door, which is active in homelessness support.

Herefordshire Council’s own environmental health officer Sheneka Royal said the pods would have to meet the council’s legal obligations on heating, ventilation and fire safety, as well as its minimum size for a bedroom of 6.5 square metres.

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But its housing development officer Tina Wood said the pods “will provide improved quality of life, will be well insulated and sound proofed, [and] will assist in the prevention of rough sleeping and homelessness”.

The council has now formally withdrawn its application for planning permission for the proposal.

But a second plan by the council to convert former public toilets in East Street in the city into homeless accommodation remains under active consideration.

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For HCS, Peter Taylor said the society also objects to this proposal “in the strongest possible terms”.

“As with the earlier application, we cannot see how the remodelling and refurbishment or the isolated, minimally sized and non-communally based building in East Street can be called ‘appropriate housing’ [as per the council’s homelessness policy], nor how support services can be enabled for any occupant,” he wrote.

The John Haider Building, proposed as an alternative for homeless housing in HerefordThe John Haider Building, proposed as an alternative for homeless housing in Hereford (Image: Google Street View)

Mr Taylor added that a previously mooted scheme for the council to buy the John Haider Building, a now-derelict four-storey 1930s block of social housing at the junction of Bath Street and Gaol Street, could instead “form a base for the provision of such welfare and mental health help”.

This would also “overcome the need to continue with the unsuitable temporary accommodation for homeless people” in the Symonds Street / Venns Close car park opposite, he said.