The implications of the Local Plan Consultation on Credenhill
Herefordshire Council are consulting on the Local Plan 2021-2041 Place Shaping Options from Monday 13 June to Friday 29 July 2022.
The new Local Plan will determine growth and development in Herefordshire over the next 20 years. Place Shaping explores options on areas for new housing and employment across the county.
What does this mean in simple terms to the Parish of Credenhill?
Simply: at least 165 houses in addition to those already planned; but we do not know how many more at this early stage.
Why “at least” 165 more houses in Credenhill?
The current policy has a target of 149 houses for Credenhill; with the Orchard House development (67) and the land to the north east of the school (100) plus those already built and a few smaller plots we will exceed our existing target by 45 houses. The current policy assumes growth spread evenly accross the county; this policy is changing.
Work has been completed by Herefordshire Council to assess how sustainable a village/town/parish/city is within the county; using this assessment areas not seen as sustainable are removed from the model meaning that the sustainable areas will take on a higher proportion of the housing requirement in the county. Credenhill has been assessed as a sustainable parish both in the county model (Option 1a) and within the Hereford City area (Option 1b) – therefore both models being considered include Credenhill.
The county has been set a target of 17,000 additional houses by 2041 by government (based on a population growth model), this is an additional 20.5% of houses. If we assume the current policy of proportional growth then 20.5% of the 802 houses in Credenhill is 165 houses.
Because the options being considered apply the growth to just the sustainable areas and excludes other areas then the figure of 165 can be considered a minimum. We also do not know if those houses which are approved to be built will be build so we think we will have built 45 more houses from the previous target – will we get this taken off the new target?
Looking more realistically at the available land in the parish it may be possible to reach this adjusted target of 165 less 45 = 120 additional homes however any more than this will mean developing on Flood Plain, Farm Land, Woodland, Green Open Spaces or Sports Fields; all of which have significant benefit to remaining as they are.
In the Place Shaping consultation the Parish Council have said that Credenhill should be removed from the sustainable settlements list and should have a target based on growth through land made available from developers through the “Call for sites” exercise.
The link to the consultation is here and we encourage everyone to actively get involved:
