BALFOUR Beatty Living Places (BBLP) is taking to the road to see what county communities want from the council’s £200 million public realm service contract.

The contractor is holding a series of roadshows where residents can have their say.

The show rolled into Kington last week and headed for Kingsland yesterday.

Andy Williams, BBLP contract director, said: “We want the views of local people to help us to refine the way we work, whether that’s reporting a pothole or putting forward different grass cutting priorities.”

The consultation sets out BBLP’s draft plans for the coming year, with the council having to save £33 million over the next three years.

BBLP has said that it will need to “do some things differently and stop doing others altogether.”

This year, grass cutting put the public realm contract in the spotlight.

Facing widespread protest, the council added extra grass cuts to the BBLP schedule with a new grant scheme for green spaces was launched.

Cllr Paul Rone, Herefordshire Council’s Cabinet Member for Highways, said “lessons are being learned” over the grasscutting.

“But ongoing cuts mean we have to do things differently,”

he added.

“We hope people will come along to these roadshows and talk to us about what’s important to them to help us to improve our plans for the coming year.”

As planned, future roadshow visits are scheduled for the following locations: l Leominster — 10am to 2pm, Friday, November 14, in the market.

l Weobley — 9am to 2pm, Wednesday, November 19, in the Hopelands Village Hall.

l Ross-on-Wye — 10am to 2pm, Thursday, November 20, in Morrison’s supermarket car park.

l Longtown — 10am to 1pm, Friday, November 21.

l Hereford — 10am to 2pm, Wednesday, November 26, in High Town.

The roadshow has already visited Ledbury, Kington and Bromyard as well as Kingsland.