Gleeson Land asks the council whether 250 homes on 11.5 hectares of turf fields off the A4103 need a full environmental assessment. Answer due 26 October.
A housing developer wants to build up to 250 homes on farmland at Withington, about four miles north-east of Hereford. The first paperwork reached Herefordshire Council on Monday 5 October.
It is not a planning application yet. Gleeson Land has asked the council for a formal opinion on whether a scheme of this size needs an Environmental Impact Assessment. The council’s answer is due by Monday 26 October.
The request, reference P262949/EIA, is on the council’s planning register. The 229-page screening letter was written by Pegasus Group, the developer’s planning consultants, on 2 September.
The site
The letter describes a field of about 11.5 hectares north of the A4103, the Hereford to Worcester road. It is bounded:
- to the south by the A4103
- to the west by houses in St Peter’s Field and South Bank
- to the north and east by farmland
The land is currently part of a turf-growing business. It slopes from a high point of about 85 metres in the north-east corner down to about 71 metres in the west. The council’s land classification map rates it as Grade 2 farmland, which counts as “best and most versatile” agricultural land.
The whole site sits in Flood Zone 1, the lowest flood risk band. It lies about 450 metres south-east of Withington’s conservation area. The nearest listed building is a barn west of Weston Farmhouse, about 115 metres to the east across the A4103.
What would be built
The letter gives the developer’s working description of the scheme it intends to submit:
“Outline Planning Application for up to 250no. dwellings, open space, and all other associated works including new vehicular access from the A4103. All matters reserved other than access to the site.”
So the first application would fix only the access. Layout, house types and landscaping would come later, as reserved matters.
The access would be a priority junction onto the A4103. The letter says the scheme would come with:
- a cut in the speed limit through the village to 30mph
- traffic calming through Withington
- a shared footpath and cycle route between the site and the village
Traffic
Pegasus Group’s initial transport work modelled a slightly larger scheme of up to 252 homes. It forecasts:
| Period | Extra two-way vehicle movements |
|---|---|
| Morning peak hour | 148 |
| Evening peak hour | 124 |
The letter calls that “around two additional vehicle movements per minute on the A4103”. It says a Stage 1 road safety audit has been carried out on the preferred access and calming scheme.
The site has a footway on the north side of the A4103 into the village. There are no cycleways. The nearest bus stops are 170 to 350 metres west, one in Whitestone Business Park and one on the A4103. Hereford station is about 6.3 kilometres away.
Phosphates and the River Lugg
Withington drains to the River Lugg, so the scheme falls under the nutrient neutrality rules that have stalled housing across north Herefordshire since 2019.
The letter says an attenuation basin could remove about 51 per cent of the phosphorus from the development’s run-off. That would leave about 4.82 kilograms a year to be offset by buying nutrient credits.
Why there is no environmental statement
Under the 2017 EIA regulations, an urban development project needs screening if it covers more than 5 hectares or more than 150 homes. This scheme exceeds both thresholds.
Pegasus Group argues an assessment is still not needed. Its case is that the site is not in a sensitive area, the effects are local and well understood, and each topic can be dealt with by the normal reports that accompany an outline application. It says the council’s pre-application advice on 23 March this year reached the same view.
The council has three weeks from receipt to issue its opinion, which is where the 26 October date comes from. Whatever the council decides on screening, the full merits of the scheme are only judged when the outline application itself is submitted.
What is already around the site
The letter points to two other pieces of land next door:
- Housing for older people. Land south of the site is one of two sites allocated for housing in the Withington Group Neighbourhood Development Plan, made in October 2019. That allocation is specifically for age-restricted housing.
- Whitestone Business Park. Outline permission for an expansion of the business park, reference P240272/O, was granted on 9 September 2025. The follow-up application fixing its layout and appearance, P260976/RM from Collins Properties (Hereford) Ltd, was refused on 30 June this year.
Withington has seen bigger schemes argued over before. David Wilson Homes won permission for 69 homes next to Southbank in April 2016. A later bid for up to 46 homes north of Southbank was refused in June 2020, and the appeal was dismissed in May 2021.
Why now
The timing is not an accident. Herefordshire Council confirmed on 2 October that it can show only 2.81 years of housing land supply against the five it needs. When a council falls short, national policy tilts the balance in favour of granting permission for housing, unless the harm clearly outweighs the benefits.
The same position produced the 250-home proposal at Credenhill earlier this year. It explains why a field with no allocation in the local plan or the neighbourhood plan is now being promoted for 250 homes.
What it means for you
- Nothing is approved. This is a screening request, not an application. The council’s opinion by 26 October only decides whether an environmental statement must accompany the eventual application.
- The file carries a comments-by date of Thursday 22 October. The formal public consultation, with letters to neighbours and a parish council response, comes when the outline application is lodged.
- Withington Group Parish Council next meets on Wednesday 11 November at 7.30pm in Withington Village Hall. Its draft minutes for 9 September do not mention the scheme, so this is likely to be the first meeting where it is discussed.
- Read the documents yourself on the council’s planning page for P262949/EIA. Appendices cover heritage, landscape, ecology, access, transport and nutrient neutrality.
We will report the screening opinion when it is issued, and the outline application when it arrives. For other applications in the district, see our Hereford planning news page.
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