Plans for a long-dormant scheme to build a “minimum” of 1,500 houses on 360 acres of land south Leominster have now been revealed, at a recent public consultation (see separate story) and now online (at landsouthofleominster.com ).

What have we learned from these?

  • The site is made up of two parts, the eastern part owned by Brasenose College Oxford being promoted by Richborough, the land to the west by Satnam Investments. But for planning purposes it is being treated as a single scheme, with the planning process overseen by consultancy Pegasus.
  • With 25 per cent being classed as affordable, the homes will range from one-bedroom flats up to four- and five-bed homes. A “small number” will be wheelchair-accessible or adaptable.

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  • These will use air-source heat pumps “or other sustainable forms of heating” rather than gas boilers, while some will also have roof-mounted solar panels. All will exceed building regulations standards on energy efficiency.
  • The scheme will also feature a new 420-place primary school, a supermarket and smaller-scale retail units, a community hub, two parks, children’s play areas and allotments.
  • Running diagonally from the Morrisons roundabout on Barons Cross Road in the northwest to a new junction with Hereford Road and Southern Avenue in the east, a new spine road through the development (rather than around it, as originally envisaged) will divert traffic away from the town centre, and will have a shared walkway and cycleway on either side.
  • The website acknowledges there are “localised areas of flood risk” to the west and south, but says these will be given over to parks and conservation areas, while attenuation (water-holding) ponds will also feature.
  • A new wetland area will meanwhile “treat and improve” water from the river Arrow as it flows through the site.
  • Existing retaining hedgerows and trees will be retained and more planted, and meadows created on what is currently farmland “of little ecological value”.
  • An outline planning application for the scheme is expected by the end of the year. But actual construction work is not likely before 2027.