Herefordshire Council has agreed to spend up to £120,000 on a new planning application and feasibility study at Model Farm, Ross-on-Wye.

This will enable the Council to retain planning consent for the Model Farm Enterprise Park so that the scheme can be developed when funding becomes available. The application will aim to make sure the transport network capacity for the development is retained and the Council will identify the constraints and opportunities affecting its land holdings east of Ross-on-Wye.

The project will cost £80,000 in phase one, including the planning application fee (approximately £35,000) and the consultant’s fee for planning and feasibility (approximately £45,000). There will be a second stage called ‘masterplanning’ which will cost £40,000 and will be subject to a separate procurement.

Herefordshire Council’s planning officers recommended this option as they were concerned that if the Council did not submit a new planning application the permission it currently has will be lost. The officers felt that this “would then limit the development potential of the council’s assets in this area.”

If the Council only resubmitted the planning application, and did not undertake feasibility work into wider development, the opportunity to understand the constraints and opportunities of the land it owns east of Ross-on-Wye would be lost.

Herefordshire Council submitted an outline planning application for the Model Farm Enterprise Park in 2013. The application was for outline planning permission for 29,400sqm of employment floorspace and full details of the access, internal road infrastructure and circulation routes, landscaping (within a landscape buffer zone providing surface water attenuation) and planting. The application will lapse on December 9th, 2017 unless another planning application is submitted and approved.

The officers report states:?“If the application lapses, other developments could capture transport network capacity that was reserved for the scheme and if a funding opportunity arose, the lack of a valid consent would reduce the chance of success and delivery.”

Since the date of the application, the council has been developing a business case to be able to built the site infrastructure on the Model Farm Enterprise Park. Principally, this has involved submitting business cases to the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) for funding to bridge the gap between the cost of site infrastructure and the receipts from sale of the land, which have been unsuccessful.

As the Model Farm sits within a larger council land holding to the east of Ross the council is looking to explore what other development is possible in the area.

For the first stage of the process the external support will be commissioned via an ‘invitation to quote’ process, in accordance with the council’s contract procedure rules. Responses will be assessed in line with the evaluation criteria which is based on 60% quality and 40% cost. The contract will be awarded to the highest scoring bidder providing the council’s requirements can be met and the quoted price does not exceed £45k.

This money will be funded from the Development and Regeneration Programme Capital Budget. Economy, communities and corporate.