At Ross Town Council’s Annual Review Meeting on Monday, April 29th, Chairman of the Neighbourhood Development Plan (NDP), Melvin Reynolds, gave a presentation about the NDP and explained why allocating The Chase Hotel as a Local Green Space would not necessarily protect it from redevelopment.

Melvin said: “NDPs are mechanisms which devolve certain levels of planning responsibility to communities. They are outlined by national planning policy framework. The basis of Ross-on-Wye’s NDP came out in 2011, and was finally ratified in 2013-14. Herefordshire has number of NDPs, and most of them are based around villages.

Many of the residents who attended the meeting were concerned the find out that The Chase Hotel has not been allocated in the NDP, which is now in its final stages. The draft plan is now being adjusted based on consultations and discussions, and Melvin anticipated that it would be put forward to local residents for a referendum in late Autumn, 2019.

Melvin said: “Following consideration and exclusion of proposals brought under Regulation 14, The Chase Hotel has been excluded from the NDP as a Local Green Space and a development site.

The advice that the NDP team have been given is that there ‘is no question at all’ that any attempt to designate all of the ‘green’ area as a Local Green Space would fail at examination. This would be regarded by any planning examiner as ‘preventing potential development’.

One option advised to those working on the NDP was to designate only a part of The Chase Hotel as a Local Green Space, although, Melvin warned that even that could be regarded by an examiner as too restricting, and comments from the landowner would be anticipated.

Melvin displayed examples of planning drawings for The Chase Hotel that have been considered before to help illustrate the variations in green spaces and housing allocation. These included considerations of housing developments, a spa, or holiday lodges.

Melvin presented four options at the meeting: Leave the NDP as it is; consult on Local Green Space; consult on an extended Green infrastructure policy to apply to The Chase; await imminent revision of the Local Plan to include a county-wide policy similar a Green Infrastructure policy. He also invited suggestions from those at the meeting, and said that the plan for The Chase was hoped to be finalised by December 2019.

Joyce Thomas MBE thanked Melvin for his work on the NDP but said that she was ‘disappointed’ with the fact that The Chase had been excluded from the NDP. She said: “The Chase Hotel is of immense importance. Three of us, Mayor Harry Bramer, Marie Ward, and I, without any trouble, have had over 1000 signatures hoping to protect The Chase.”

Councillor Bramer explained that the NDP was well into development until early January when it was announced that The Chase Hotel would close. He said since then the Plan has been in ‘disarray’.

Councillor Hannah Lerego wanted to clarify that currently, the Town Council has no official view regarding The Chase Hotel. She said: “I have lived here since 2000 and think The Chase Hotel is great, but I would like to say that there’s no official Ross Town Council view on whether it should be saved.

“Nobody can speak for us collectively; this is an emotive issue but the Town Council are not telling the owners of The Chase what they should or shouldn’t do. The NDP has had a huge amount of research and it’s clear why The Chase Hotel has been left out - it’s because otherwise it would fail.”

Melvin said: “If a Local Green Space is what we want then that’s fine, but we need to find a way of putting it forward in a way that isn’t trying to stop future development – that is problematic, and that will fail.”

He then asked for a vote about which option should be chosen. Some residents expressed their anger at being asked to choose between options they still did not understand. In the end, it was decided that the options would not be narrowed down at this stage, and allocating The Chase Hotel as a Local Green Space was not ruled out. Despite this, Melvin warned that it was very unlikely that The Chase Hotel could be allocated just as Local Green Space because of the planning regulations.

At the end of the meeting, residents had the chance to discuss the NDP and the situation regarding The Chase Hotel further with Mayor Harry Bramer, Melvin, and other Town Councillors.See the full story in this week’s edition of the Ross Gazette, or subscribe to our online edition here