HEREFORDSHIRE Council has rejected an 11th hour call to stop fighting a High Court action that puts all of its future planning and economic policies at stake.

The case, due to start today (Thursday) at the Royal Courts of Justice, London, pitches the council against the Dinedor Hill Action Association (DHAA) over the 300 homes due to be built south of Hereford on land near Bullinghope.

To the council, Bullinghope shows the way ahead for home and road building policy in the county over the next 20 years.

DHAA claims the council manipulated its own planning processes to make the homes happen, with the sole purpose of getting money out of the developer – initially for the Rotherwas access road.

A recent meeting of the full council, however, was told the road had now been completed through funding from the council’s transport programme (£1,817,076), council borrowing (£2,207,734) and Advantage West Midlands (£6,500,000).

Bob Clay, Labour branch secretary for Hereford, claimed many councillors supported the scheme only because they were told a contribution from a developer would be forthcoming for the relief road.

Now the road has been built without that cash, Mr Clay wants the council to drop its defence and end proceedings.

But Kevin O’Keefe, the council’s head of legal practice, said the authority “had a duty” to defend the action.

“It isn’t our case to drop. The regional spatial strategy calls for Herefordshire to have 16,600 new homes over the next 12 years alone, and half of those will be in Hereford,” he said.

“The Bullinghope application is to build 300 new homes and contribute towards much needed improvements to community infrastructure.”