Hereford Civic Trust wants a name dropped. City of Living Crafts suggests somewhere 'folksy and backward looking' not a place proud of its past and looking to get ahead says Trust chair Harry Chadwick.

And this sepia tint to the blueprint blurs the 'big picture' he says. The focus should instead be on Hereford's 'real needs' like a new library.

To that end the Trust doesn't see City of Living Crafts as part of any co-ordinated plan and regards many of its priorities as wrong - a worry when democratic control was 'inadequate'.

Who, asks Mr Chadwick, takes over the projects and maintains them once the work of Hereford City Partnership (HCP) is done - the council?

When it came to specific proposals the Trust favoured Option 1 for High Town, clearing out the 'clutter'.

It didn't need any new buildings, though, nor the 'masts' that featured in the initial illustration.

The ideas for St Peter's Square are 'good' but don't appear to account for future uses of the Shire Hall and Town Hall should new Council offices be built on the Cattle Market site.

There is no argument over improving Castle Green; that's a cause the Trust took up some time ago. A welcome for its retention as recreational space is tempered by concerns over 'commercial exploitation'.

The likes of 'riverside walks' and 'lift towers' would only spoil one of the best views of Hereford, he says.

And there's a vandalism problem to solve before anything gets done.

Across the Green at Cathedral Close a new lease of life for the Cathedral Barn is 'long overdue' and Stonemason's Yard could certainly do with a tidy. But 'totem poles' along Broad Street? The Trust doesn't think so.

And that's food for the Partnership's thoughts, even if it finds the Trust's take on Living Crafts a little hard to swallow.

The strategy, says promotions and development manager Alison Alsbury, is not 'written in isolation' but with reference to wider ideas being implemented by Herefordshire Council such as the Creative Industries Growth Plan, the Tourism Strategy and the Arts Strategy.

"Care has been taken through a joint HCP-Council steering group to integrate all the city centre proposals with both the Unitary Development Plan and the Hereford Transport Review."

Many council service heads are also 'actively involved' in the consultancy process, says Ms Alsbury.

"We couldn't have got this far had we not been able to form such creative partnerships."

CCTV coverage of Castle Green is included in a security package, says Ms Alsbury, but the Partnership believes the area's best defence lay in 'regular usage'.

An associated Wye walkway is not, she says, a new concept but builds on a promenade popular during the Georgian era.