This is a request for environmental information under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004. It concerns the protection of groundwater within a Source Protection Zone, habitat loss and biodiversity, and the conditions and obligations proposed in connection with outline planning application 222138 (Land at Three Elms, North East Quarter, Hereford). It therefore falls within the definition of environmental information in regulation 2(1) and should be handled under the EIR rather than the Freedom of Information Act.
Please provide the following.
Heineken correspondence and what was before the committee
1. The schedule of measures attached to the email of 18 November 2025 from the Commercial Legal Counsel of Heineken UK Limited to members of the Planning and Regulatory Committee, in the form in which it was sent. This is the document referred to in that email as setting out the measures to be secured by planning condition and/or planning obligation, and which includes the item described as "row 9 — Management and maintenance of dwellings and private open spaces."
2. Any record showing whether that attachment was circulated or otherwise made available to members of the Planning and Regulatory Committee before or during the meeting of 19 November 2025, and in what form — for example as part of the updates sheet, as a supplementary update, or as a document tabled at the meeting. If the council holds no record that the attachment was circulated to members, please confirm that expressly.
3. The updates sheet and any supplementary updates published or circulated for the meeting of 19 November 2025 in respect of item 222138.
4. Any note, script or record made by the principal planning officer or the case officer of the verbal update given to committee concerning that correspondence.
Section 106 and conditions
1. The draft section 106 agreement and/or the current heads of terms for application 222138, together with the schedule of planning conditions as resolved, insofar as they relate to:
(a) the protection of groundwater, water abstraction or the Source Protection Zone, including any obligation relating to the establishment and remit of a management company for the protection of water supplies;
(b) affordable housing provision, including the number and tenure of affordable units and the basis on which land for the care home is provided in lieu of part of the Policy H1 requirement;
(c) the financial contribution secured for the Grandstand Road Corridor active travel and speed reduction scheme; and
(d) education and healthcare contributions.
2. The full text of the condition relating to skylark mitigation (understood to be condition 11), and any officer advice on whether the mitigation requested by the Principal Natural Environment Officer (Ecology) — off-site long-term alternative nesting land, legally secured for the lifetime of the development and implemented at least 12 months before any works commence — is to be secured by condition or by planning obligation.
Groundwater and Source Protection Zones
1. All correspondence between the council and the Environment Agency concerning the Three Elms Source Protection Zone modelling dated after 25 February 2026, including any finalised revised SPZ extents, plans or maps covering the Heineken and Avara boreholes.
2. Any record of the council's consideration of the Environment Agency's advice that the detailed design of the development will need to be finalised on the basis of the newly modelled Source Protection Zones once produced, including any assessment of whether the section 106 agreement should be completed or the decision notice issued before that modelling is finalised.
Ecology
1. The council's own Habitats Regulations Assessment for application 222138, recorded by the Principal Natural Environment Officer (Ecology) in his consultation response of October 2024 as having been carried out and provided separately to the case officer.
2. Any correspondence between the council's ecology officers and Natural England concerning this application.
