A SENIOR councillor has hit back at claims that a new road through Hereford has gone over budget.

Cllr Philip Price, cabinet member for infrastructure, said there has not been an overspend on the city link road, which will run from Commercial Road to Edgar Street, and has cost £34.1 million to build.

He was responding to a question from Liz Morawiecka, of Here for Hereford, who asked why there had been an overspend of £7m more than the original £27m budget for the road. But Cllr Price said the total budgeted capital spend for the Hereford city centre transport package remains at £40.6m, which includes the road and the active travel measures planned for Commercial Road, St Owen Street, the transport hub and refurbishing High Town.

Cllr Price said the road was part of the Hereford Futures discussions in 2010 when it was first talked of for the regeneration of Hereford city.

The road’s proposal had to be put before the cabinet and the council for approval.

Cllr Price said: “We underwrote an amount of money to get this scheme up and running. That was the amount the council had granted to underwrite the building of this road. We didn’t know what it was going to cost at that time.

“Somebody estimated the cost of a road from there to there. A stab in the dark at that time was £27m. Pre-business case a figure was needed to take the programme forward.

“It was never the cost of the road. It was an estimate.”

Cllr Price said that following planning approval, a detailed business plan was put together, which the Marches LEP has supported with £16m funding.

The business case covers the whole of the Hereford city centre transport package which amounts to £40.6m.

In the council’s accounts there are two lines for the package, one which says £27m and the other which says £13m. But Cllr Price said this is for the whole package and the auditor pointed out that the cost of the package should be on the same line. Cllr Price said the new road has opened up land which can be developed.

The capital fund put aside for the South Wye Package is £35m, which includes the first part of the Western Bypass from the A49 to the A465.

But the council said the costs for this are lower due to the lower land value costs. The cost to actually build the City Link Road was £13m to £14m whereas the cost to buy the land was higher as the council had to pay for retail and business land.