THE air quality of residents at a busy Leominster road junction was questioned when considering a reserved matters application for 414 homes.

Outline planning permission was given for the homes at Barons Cross Camp to the western fringe of the town in 2006.

The details of the plan were considered at Herefordshire Council's Planning Committee last week.

The main concern raised by councillors was the air quality in the vicinity of Bargates where the A44 meets with Dishley Street and Cursneh Road.

The junction, which has traffic lights, exceeds the government’s nitrogen dioxide (NO2) objective level and councillors were concerned that the increase in the number of traffic movements from the development would make this worse.

Ward member, Felicity Norman, said: "It is actually very seriously polluted indeed. It is the only way to reach the services of the town."

She said the most recently published figures showed the junction had a level of 42.9 of nitrogen dioxide which is still exceeding the objective of 40.

She said regarding the application: "What it is not telling us is how they can possibly mitigate or do anything about the problem we are faced with."

Cllr John Stone said: "The whole of that area is very congested indeed. Even on quiet days and quiet weekends. The result of that is the pollution."

Planning officer Andrew Banks reminded councillors that the council had already given the proposal outline planning permission, which cannot be withdrawn.

He said: "These reserved matters do not relate specifically to matters of principle - traffic movements along Bargates or matters including air quality."

But he said there is a condition on the outline planning permission which says air quality monitoring shall be undertaken for a minimum of three months at the Bargates junction and submitted to the council in order that the impact of the development on the Bargates Air Quality Management Area can be assessed.

There will also be electric car charging points and low emission gas boilers in the development.

The council also has an eight point action plan to improve the air quality.

Cllr Norman also said she was disappointed that Keepmoat, the developers, had not engaged with the community and the town council.

The application was approved with seven in favour, three against and two abstentions.