A refused plan to build a 53-flat retirement block in a Herefordshire town is now back on following a planning appeal.

The proposal by McCarthy & Stone Retirement Lifestyles was for a three- and four-storey building of one- and two-bedroom flats with communal areas on open space north of Ledbury town centre.

Access to the site, enclosed by housing and by the Tesco supermarket to the south and not currently accessible to the public, would be off the main Homend and would require demolition of a bungalow, Greenacres.

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Given the strength of feeling locally on the plan, with more than 20 objections lodged, it was passed to Herefordshire’s planning committee to decide on last October.

In the event, councillors went against their own officers’ advice and refused the scheme, saying the one-hectare site was a designated local green space and “a corridor for wildlife and biodiversity”, and also citing concerns over the “narrow” proposed access off the main road.

A bungalow on The Homend would have to be demolished to provide access to the siteA bungalow on The Homend would have to be demolished to provide access to the site (Image: Google Street View)

McCarthy Stone said at the time it was “extremely disappointed” that it could not “deliver much-needed retirement housing in Ledbury”, and appealed against the decision to the government’s planning inspectorate.

During the resulting appeal process, the council withdrew its concerns over road safety.

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Now planning inspector Tamsin Law has sided with the developer, saying she had “not found harm to the character and appearance of the area or on biodiversity” from the proposed scheme.

The need for housing for older people is “critical”, and would bring economic benefits to the town as well as health and social benefits to its residents, she concluded.

And she gave “significant weight” to the likelihood that the new supported-living flats would free up other local properties, “which are often under-occupied and larger family houses”.

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Ms Law set out 25 conditions to the permission, ranging from planting and landscape maintenance to drainage, provision of vehicle charging points, and cycle and mobility scooter parking.

Welcoming the decision, a McCarthy Stone spokesperson said the development “will support Ledbury's growing ageing population to move into a more suitable home, while staying close to friends and family”.

The firm will now begin preparatory works on the site, “to allow construction to commence in due course”, they added.