Application P262019/O A short guide for residents

What is being decided

Herefordshire Council is considering an outline application for up to 250 homes on land north of Granary Cottages, Credenhill.

“Outline” means only two things are decided now: the principle of introducing new housing here at all, and the access off the A480. Layout, scale, appearance and landscaping are “reserved matters” that will need separate approval later, if this outline application is approved.

Where we are now

The landowner’s agent shared an initial proposal with the public on 16 April 2026. You can read the Executive Summary (PDF), Site Plan (PDF), and the Parish Council’s announcement email (PDF) here. The aim was that this first, informal consultation on the proposal would go on to influence the eventual formal planning application.

The formal planning application was received by Herefordshire Council on 9th July 2026.

The application is currently at the public consultation stage, running from 29th July until 27th August 2026. The deadline for the public to comment is 27th August 2026.

Herefordshire Council is also consulting a number of statutory bodies, as well as departments within the Council itself (such as highways, ecology, and archaeology).

They expect to “determine” (decide) the Application around 22nd October 2026.

How to comment, and what counts

You will likely want to read our analysis of the application’s shortcomings, to guide your comments.

You can write to the Council with your views on the proposed development – ideally via the online form linked from the application’s webpage.

Even if you previously responded to the landowner’s informal consultation in May, we strongly encourage you to submit a formal comment now, so that your views will be heard.

Give your name and postal address, or your comment may be treated as anonymous and carry little weight.

Remember that your comments will be published online.

Note that Herefordshire Council’s planning officers can only weigh material planning considerations. The Council’s own guidance lists these as matters such as design, traffic and parking, loss of privacy or light, noise, loss of green space or habitats, and over-development.

Non-planning issues (eg: how the development might affect your view or your house price) must be set aside. Including non-planning issues in your comment may result in the entire comment being ignored.

How the decision is made

As mentioned above, Herefordshire Council is deciding two things right now:

• Whether to allow new housing on this site at all
• Whether the applicant’s plans for road access are safe

By law, the Council can’t decide the application just on the strength of local feeling. It has to start from the relevant local “development plan”. Since Credenhill does not have a Neighbourhood Development Plan, the Council must refer to its Core Strategy 2011–2031 (adopted October 2015)¹ along with national policy and laws.

The “presumption in favour” argument

The applicant originally argued the Council can’t show a five-year housing land supply, which would (under the National Planning Policy Framework at the time) have rendered the Council’s existing policies officially “out of date”,² and triggered a “presumption in favour of sustainable development” for all planning applications in the county.

However, the government published an updated National Planning Policy Framework on 17th August 2026, and it comes into force immediately.³ The “paragraph 11(d)” that the applicant was originally relying on to justify the “presumption in favour” no longer applies.

A presumption in favour does still apply, to an extent, under the new 2026 NPPF, but it works differently and is not automatic:

• For sites “outside a settlement”, 2026 NPPF policy S5 says only certain kinds of development should be approved. A shortfall in housing land supply is one route in,⁴ but only where the development is “physically well-related to an existing settlement” and “of a scale which can be accommodated taking into account the existing or proposed availability of infrastructure”.
• Whether inside or outside a settlement, the new NPPF says development “should be approved, unless the benefits of doing so would be substantially outweighed by any adverse effects, when assessed against the national decision-making policies in this Framework” (2026 NPPF policies S5 and S6). It goes on to say that adverse effects are likely to outweigh the benefits where a proposal “would fail to comply with one of the national decision-making policies which state that development proposals should be refused in specific circumstances.”

What happens next

As a “major” development, the statutory target for decision on this outline planning application is 13 weeks⁵ – the Council’s has set a target determination date of 22nd October 2026.

If the Council refuses the outline application, the applicant can appeal the refusal. Changes to the planning appeals process in April 2026 mean that the appeal should be decided only on the evidence that was originally supplied. If the applicant thinks fresh material would overcome the refusal, they are expected to submit a new planning application instead of appealing – which starts the whole process off again.

If the Council approves the outline application, the applicant must then submit further applications for the “reserved matters” before any building can start, namely:

• Layout – how the buildings, roads, and open spaces are arranged in relation to each other and to things outside the site.
• Scale – the height, width and length of each building in relation to its surroundings.
• Appearance – the visual impression of the buildings, including architecture, materials, colour, texture and lighting.
• Landscaping — the treatment of the land, including planting, screening and open-space design.

Next: What’s in the application →

1. Herefordshire Council is currently in the process of renewing its Local Plan. But the new 2025-2045 Local Plan is still in an evidence gathering stage, and the Council has confirmed that this planning application will be assessed against the existing 2021–2031 Core Strategy. ↩︎
2. Paragraph 11(d) and footnote 8 of the December 2024 National Planning Policy Framework, which was replaced in August 2026. ↩︎
3. 2026 NPPF Annex A.1 confirms its new policies “are material considerations which must be taken into account in decision-making from the day of its publication.” ↩︎
4. 2026 NPPF section S5(1)(j). ↩︎
5. Article 34 of the Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure (England) Order 2015. ↩︎