Hope Mansell Parish Council Planning Policy
Planning Policy Statement
- Hope Mansell has no neighbourhood development plan. There is no requirement for us to have a plan, and therefore we do not expect to produce one.
- For Herefordshire planning purposes, Hope Mansell lies in an area designated RA3 (more or less meaning open countryside) and is not one of the areas identified for growth in the Herefordshire Core Strategy. Indeed our parish is protected by the Council's Core Strategy.
Outside the identified settlements the Core Strategy will restrict new home building to avoid unsustainable patterns of development and any proposals will need to meet the following criteria and possibly conform to other/further conditions:
- meets an agricultural or forestry need or other farm diversification
- is necessary for the growth of a rural enterprise
- involves the replacement of an existing dwelling and is comparable in size and scale
- would result in the re-use of a redundant building, e.g. a disused barn
- is rural exception housing, i.e. is affordable housing to meet a proven local need together with any market housing necessary to subsidise it
- is of exceptional quality and innovative design
- provides for the needs of Gypsies or Travellers
- Hope Mansell Parish Council has no decision-making powers in matters of planning but comments to Herefordshire Council on planning applications as they arise. As a matter of policy, Hope Mansell Parish Council is in sympathy with the above criteria, and will not support any planning proposals that conflict with them. It is a particular concern of the Parish Council to ensure that springs used for the supply of drinking water should not be put under stress by additional or enlarged households.
Procedure for Dealing with Planning Applications between Council Meetings
The Parish Council notes that the recommended method by which a Parish Council comments on Planning Applications is by discussion at a scheduled or extraordinary Parish Council meeting to which members of the public have been invited by public notice. A meeting will always be called to comment on potentially contentious planning applications.
The responsibility for commenting on non-contentious planning applications which, due to time restrictions, cannot wait for the next Parish Council meeting is delegated to the Clerk (in liaison with the Parish Planning Group) as follows:
- The Clerk locates the planning application(s) on the Planning Authority website and files details in a digital file / spreadsheet, especially where the Planning Group meets and provides comment or recommendation.
- The Parish Council will form a Planning Group to consider applications which are contentious. In all other cases the Planning Group will not form.
- The Planning Group will meet on a case by case basis and any site visit deemed necessary will take place.
- In the case of a site visit, the members of the Planning Group may show the plans to neighbours in the vicinity of the application site.
- Such site visit by the Planning Group may occur to acquaint themselves with the details. There should be no discussion onsite, particularly if local residents are a) invited or b) passing by.
- Members of the Planning Group forward comments to the Clerk.
- The Clerk forwards comments to the Planning Authority, making sure that comments are 'material considerations'.
- The Parish Clerk is given delegated powers by the Parish Council to comment on applications received between meetings which, due to time restrictions cannot wait for the next Parish Council meeting.
- The Clerk keeps a record of comments in the digital file.
- For the next meeting of the Parish Council, the Clerk produces a planning sheet with details of all applications, permissions and refusals received from the Planning Authority. Applications commented upon by the Clerk (in consultation with the Planning Group) are also listed, with a precis of comments.
This policy confirmed at a meeting held on 3rd July 2019 and revised on May 11th 2023 and October 20th 2025.