Vistry abandons Bromyard homes plan after two year deadlock

One of Herefordshire longest running planning sagas looks set to be buried this week, with the council set to refuse plans for 250 homes.

Vistry first put forward outline plans for 500 houses on the edge of Bromyard in 2016, an application that was eventually recommended for approval in slimmed-down form in 2024, subject to thrashing out the terms for a Section 106 agreement.

But two and a half years later, the house builder is still in deadlock with Herefordshire over the proposals, and patience with the scheme appears to have run out on all sides – with the council’s planning committee set to reverse its recommendation to approve when it meets later this week.

Herefordshire first identified the site, known as Hardwick Bank, in 2015. The 30-acre plot was included in the county’s core local plan to 2031, initially earmarked for 250 homes but now slated for double that amount in the council’s emerging development framework.

The proposals put forward by Vistry included public open space, play areas and land set aside for an expanded St Peter’s Primary School, plans which it said formed a complementary extension to the existing settlement, that “takes account of the growth pattern relationship with the River Frome valley and surrounding countryside”.

Following eight years of consultations over the proposals, Herefordshire Council’s planning committee rubber stamped the application at its January meeting, but asked for commitments from the developer on a number of issues, including affordable housing, education, transport, and several others.

But a report set to go before the council’s planning committee on 29 July says “little substantive progress has been made” on negotiations over the scheme, while Vistry itself says it no longer has any interest in taking the proposals forward.

“The previous committee resolution identified a number of planning obligations that were necessary to make the development acceptable in planning terms. These included the provision of affordable housing, education contributions, transport improvements, healthcare contributions, public open space management arrangements, sports and recreation provision, land for school expansion and nutrient mitigation,” says the report from Herefordshire Council’s planning department.

“The council remains of the view that these obligations are necessary, directly related to the development and fairly and reasonably related in scale and kind to the proposal.”

The authority said it recognised the benefits of the development, adding that the principle of housing had now been established at the site, at a time when it could not demonstrate a five-year land supply.

But the report said the benefits of the scheme did not outweigh the “fundamental requirement” to secure the planning obligations and phosphate mitigation it previously deemed necessary, and the council’s planning committee has been directed to refuse the scheme when it meets later this week.

“Following a review of the proposals and market conditions, Vistry will not be taking forward the development of the site,” a spokesperson for Vistry told Place Midlands.

Herefordshire Council’s planning committee will make a final decision on the scheme on Wednesday, 29 July.

Plans and documents relating to the proposals can be found on Herefordshire Council’s planning portal under reference: P163932/O