Two Kington councillors will represent the town at a Herefordshire Council meeting about the Local Plan

Herefordshire Council is arranging a meeting for interested parties to hear what they are planning to do about the local plan.

A huge increase in the target of house building in Herefordshire cannot be accommodated in the Local Plan as consulted upon in March 2024. 

So the draft plan cannot progress in its current form and Herefordshire Council needs to decide how to proceed with local plan making.

The UK Labour Government issued the National Planning Policy Framework in December. 

It has come from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and sets out mandatory housing targets for councils, targets are no longer advisory and this level of growth must be accommodated.

It means the target for Herefordshire has increased from 773 dwellings per year to 1,370.

This would mean 27,260 dwellings over a 20 year period.

Herefordshire Council’s draft local plan set out a target for 16,100 homes over the plan period so this is a proposed significant increase.

Herefordshire Council said the NPPF has a significant impact upon 5 Year Housing Land Supply. Before the publication of the NPPF, Herefordshire had a 5YHLS of 5.79 years, now it is reduced to 3.09 years – so the revised housing target for the county results in a lack of 5YHLS so there could be an increase in speculative applications which would not otherwise have come forward.

It will also affect Neighbourhood Plans as they will need to be in conformity with an adopted local plan.

At Kington Town Council’s March meeting members agreed that the chairman of the planning committee, Deputy Mayor Councillor Martin Woolford and Councillor Martin Fitton should attend the meeting to represent the town.

A date for the meeting had not been agreed at the time of publication.