Hallow housing to be built as government inspectors back plans

Plans to build 40 homes in Worcester have been given the green light after a council decision was overruled.

The affordable housing in Hallow near Worcester was rejected by Malvern Hills District Council earlier this year.

But government planning inspectors have backed the developer following an appeal hearing.

The council must pay costs for "acting unreasonably" after stating there was enough housing in the district but did not provide any evidence of that claim.

An original plan to build 76 homes on the land was rejected by the district council in 2017.

An appeal was lodged with the government's planning inspector in a bid to overturn that decision and while the number of homes was reduced to 38, the application was still rejected.

Council planners said it rejected the proposal from Hamelin Partnerships and Platform Housing because there was no justification to build outside Hallow's earmarked boundary for housing.

Platform Housing used "flawed assessments" and "unsubstantiated assumptions", as well as "inappropriately" including the number of homes in Claines and ignoring a plan by another developer for 55 homes in the village in its calculations, the council said.

But planning inspector Kevin Savage said in a report: "I have found that the other material considerations in this case do not raise adverse impacts, but conversely there would be significant benefits in terms of housing delivery in an accessible location, both in terms of affordable housing and overall, at a time when the district council is falling well short of demonstrating a sufficient supply of deliverable housing sites."

The mix of one-to-four-bed maisonettes, bungalows and houses is set to be built on almost five acres (two hectares) of farmland.

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