A BID by county chiefs to try to cut the huge number of new homes earmarked for Herefordshire over the coming two decades appears to have failed.

Under the Labour government, the county faces having to up the number of new houses it builds by 2045 to 27,260 following changes to the way county targets are calculated.

A year ago, Herefordshire councillors backed a motion by Independents for Herefordshire leader Cllr Liz Harvey urging officers and the ruling Cabinet to seek from the Government a lower housing requirement for the county, “on the basis of local constraints on land and on delivery”.

But now a update from council officers on this and other councillors’ motions said their call for sites put out to landowners and developers ahead of its redrafting of the county’s key Local Plan, has revealed it is not short of potential development land.

“In total, submissions for the call for sites saw 4,231 hectares of land submitted, and to put this in to context, this could potentially provide enough land for some 148,085 homes,” said the council officer’s adding that it was over five times more than even the increased new homes target.

“Due to the scale of this response, it is no longer possible to counter housing requirements on the basis of local land constraints, and such an attempt would render the Local Plan unsound,” the officers warned.

They conceded that there continues to be constraints in delivery in Herefordshire, primarily concerning road infrastructure.

“However, the provision of a bypass will address such constraints and assist the council to produce a robust and realistic Local Plan,” they wrote.

According to the council’s Back the Bypass campaign, the new route round the west of Hereford will enable 14,000 new homes – making the city half as big again.