HEREFORDSHIRE Council has declined to confirm or deny a claim that its planning officers are calling for two access points to a major new housing estate, to the north of Ledbury viaduct.

This is because the planning application is still officially "under consideration".

At present, the developer Bloor, which is seeking outline planning permission for 625 new homes on land between the railway viaduct and Bromyard Road, as well as 2.9 hectares of employment land, is proposing only one access point, via a new traffic island off the Bromyard Road.

The report that Herefordshire Council is not happy with this single access proposal comes from Cllr Bob Barnes, chairman of the town's finance and general purposes committee, who said this week: "The county planning team favour a dual access, from the Hereford Road and the Bromyard Road."

But when asked to confirm this, a Herefordshire Council spokesman said: "Herefordshire Council cannot comment at this juncture as the application is currently under consideration."

However, the spokesman confirmed that the access situation is indeed being looked into, as part of the process.

The spokesman said: "We wish to reassure everybody that the council will carefully consider all transportation issues, including matters of access.”

Public consultation held several months ago identified the lack of a second access as one of the biggest concerns among townspeople.

However, the location and scale of the new estate is in accordance with Herefordshire Council's planning blueprint for the next two decades, The Core Strategy.

And last month, Nick Rawlings, planning director at Bloor Homes Western, when responding to fears over the proposed single access and the increase in traffic the new estate would generate, indicated that positive talks had already taken place between the developer and the highways authority, Herefordshire Council.

Mr Rawlings said: “The planning application includes a comprehensive transport assessment, the scope of which has been agreed with Herefordshire Council as the highway authority. The assessment concludes that the highway network can satisfactorily accommodate the traffic levels which would be generated by the proposed development."

Meanwhile, the town's planning committee has proposed a number of responses to the planning application, including an objection to the proposed single access "primarily due to concerns with the capacity and safety of the A438/B4214 Hereford Road/Bromyard Road junction at the railway station".

The section of the Bromyard Road which passes under the railway bridge is narrow and is already a known traffic bottle-neck, especially during rush hours.

Town councillors, in support of dual access, are also asking for more detailed consideration "to providing vehicular access from the A438 Leadon Way/Hereford Road roundabout under the viaduct, to serve two-thirds of the residential development and the employment land, with the remaining one third of the development being served by a separate access off the Bromyard Road".