A Herefordshire village is to get a new public car park, though not all residents welcome it.

Pencombe Parish Council proposed the 26-space area in the corner of a field next to Pencombe and Little Cowarne parish hall near Bromyard, saying it will “serve the village as a whole”.

It is intended to “improve the street scene by removing cars from the roadside whilst providing a safer, larger parking area”, not to increase the overall volume of traffic in the village, the planning application said.

RELATED NEWS:

The current number of on-street parked cars “are not only a hindrance to through traffic; they are unsightly”.

The local school and church, “both currently hindered by the lack of available parking”, would benefit along with the hall itself, the application added.

The unlit car park will be surfaced in permeable tarmac and bordered by a newly planted hedge. Three trees will be removed.

OTHER NEWS:

The plan drew six objections and seven submissions of support.

Emily Barrett, a trustee of the hall, said it “is one of the largest village halls in Herefordshire”, able to seat up to 120 with 150 standing, but that the limited car parking “puts people off booking it”.

Simon Wells added that the car park “will stop tempers flaring when people’s drives are blocked by cars attending the village hall”.

But Alison Maynard said it seemed “inevitable that traffic through the village will increase if hall usage is increased”, and called it “an ill-though-out plan on many levels”.

And former chair of the parish hall trustees Andrew Mottram said the plan “exaggerates the seriousness of the parking issues in Pencombe”, would “create new dangers for both pedestrians and road users” and “fails to protect both the historic and natural environment”, specifically a stretch of ancient hedge.

The planning permission now granted requires prior approval of a landscape ecological management plan, and also the inclusion of disabled, electric vehicle charging, and cycle spaces.