News & Notices

Click on the image to visit Herefordshire Council Coronavirus Information Page and stay up to date with the latest information.

Following relaxation of the rules around conducting meetings online the steering group has returned to their task of planning and executing the Walford Parish NDP project. We are able to meet using WebEx and members of the public are able to join.  See the calendar on the NDP website or the Walford Parish website for details of how to join the meeting.

We are currently concentrating our efforts on two tasks:

1. Development of vision, objectives and policy areas for the NDP document.
2. Site assessment, having received a total of 30 sites within the parish which are offered for potential development towards our target of a minimum of 91 new houses for 2031.  We are setting site selection criteria which enable us to select suitable sites that meet the rules and standards that the National Planning Policy Framework and the Herefordshire Council Core Strategy dictate.  The 30 sites will be published once we have completed mapping them.

We are also checking what further tasks we might be able to proceed with during this time of lockdown and we will publish a revised project plan as soon as we can. Things will continue to be unclear for some time to come and so project planning is an imprecise art at the moment.

Thank you.

The results from the Public Consultation Events held at the end of February have been collated and will now be used to revise our Vision, Objectives and Site Selection Criteria.  The full PDF document is available HERE or by clicking on the image.

The Coronavirus Bill is progressing through Parliament.  The bill includes clauses that will enable Parish Councils and thier Committees and Working Groups to meet remotely on-line.

The timeframe for the completion of the Bill is unknown at the moment.  Once passed it will enable us to continue the to make progress on our NDP project.

Watch this space for updates!

The offered housing development sites were to be assessed in March and April as we stated in our consultation events in February.  However, given the restrictions with COVID-19 we have postponed this to a later date.  More information will be published as we receive it.

The deadline for submission of additional sites remains 31st March.

The information gathered at the two public consultation meetings has been collated by our consultants in preparation for presentation and discussion at the next Steering Group Meeting.  In addition several new potential development sites have been submitted (the process is open until the end of March) and will be added to the 17 original site submissions for review.

Due to the current Coronavirus situation as reported in the last news article we are not likely to make further progress until local government legislation allows us to meet via tele or video conference.

While this is frustrating, particularly in light of the progress we are making, public safety is our primary concern.

Thank you.