HEREFORDSHIRE COUNCIL "ploughed on" with plans for a major housing development despite a planning inspector slamming the site as totally unsuitable, the High Court has heard.

Today's hearing pitches the council against the Dinedor Hill Action Association (DHAA) over the 300 homes due to be built on land near Bullinghope, just south of Hereford.

The council has gone against the 2005 ruling of a government planning inspector to keep the Bullinghope homes in its draft Unitary Development Plan (UDP) for the county.

The court will rule on whether or not the re-instating of the homes in the plan represents a manipulation of the council's own planning and democratic processes, as DHAA claims.

This morning, the High Court heard that the council feared missing its government recommended target of 12,200 new homes by 2011 without the development at Bullinghope.

David Forsdick, for DHAA, said the council effectively based its case on the fact that, at the time, the target was not being met because housing allocations and sites on which the targets were based had not been confirmed.

But the homes, the court heard, were also worth serious money to the council in the form of developer contributions - initially to help meet the cost of the Rotherwas Access Road.

Mr Forsdick said that in re-instating the Bullinghope homes in the UDP, the council had "failed to grapple" with points against the development raised in the inspector's rejection.

"It is simply a matter of the council ploughing on regardless. My clients won at the planning inquiry, where a local planning authority wants to go against that it has to demonstrate why," he said.

The case continues.