Herefordshire is famous for fruit, in fact the county has more orchards than any other, yet over the past 70 years 40% of our orchards have been lost.

At the same time, our county is facing another crisis; a housing crisis, with prices rising 105% between 2001 and 2014! A new development from Herefordshire Housing has taken steps to not only meet the community’s need for affordable housing but also the need for more orchards.

Pomona Grove in Upton Bishop is a development of ten affordable homes, created with the determination that new homes need to meet community requirements. In this case the need for shared community resources like orchards.

Community volunteers selected apple varieties with assistance from experts, Matthew Vincent from Herefordshire Housing told the Ross Gazette: “Herefordshire Russet was a popular choice because of its sweet taste.”

Once established, the orchard will provide not only Herefordshire apples but sow the seeds for relationships between the new and existing residents.

This careful involvement with the local community, considerate planning and sustainability considerations hasn’t gone unnoticed. The scheme’s been hailed as a blueprint for similar schemes across the UK being ‘highly commended’ out of 20,000 at the prestigious LABC Warranty Awards earlier this month.

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The village supported the scheme because it supported the village’s way of life and managed their needs. If more developments succeed in doing this it’s hoped both the county’s housing needs and those of the wider community can be met.