Anger at Hereford's "inadequate" bypass plans

Herefordshire Council has been accused of making undemocratic decisions over changes to the city’s bypass plan.

In a petition signed by 100 residents living near the proposed route south east of Belmont, campaigners say they were not properly consulted over last year’s changes to the route of the Hereford relief road.

They claim the consultation process was at best “woefully inadequate” and at worst would not stand up to legal scrutiny.

Members of the Grafton–Belmont Relief Road Group, which led the petition, have now called for the decision-making process to be investigated and the revised route – connecting the A49 and A465 south of the city at the Clehonger junction – to be thrown out.

“We oppose the road as a whole unless it can be authoritatively and objectively shown that it is part of a combined sustainable affordable transport solution,” said Tom Packham, of Grafton Court.

Preferred route

In October 2010, Herefordshire Council revealed its preferred bypass route was one going west of the city.

A year later – nine weeks before the public consultation closed, the council published a report with a new route for the part connecting the A49 and the A465.

This new proposal was first suggested in the 1980s and runs closer to Belmont Abbey than the earlier plan going further south.

Comments(9)

Chris_SCG says...
10:57am Mon 9 Jul 12

"We oppose the road as a whole unless it can be authoritatively and objectively shown that it is part of a combined sustainable affordable transport solution” — What a load of politically-correct tosh. Enough of pandering to pontificating fools, just get on and build it

Belmont Voice says...
8:00pm Mon 9 Jul 12

Chris_SCG wrote:
"We oppose the road as a whole unless it can be authoritatively and objectively shown that it is part of a combined sustainable affordable transport solution” — What a load of politically-correct tosh. Enough of pandering to pontificating fools, just get on and build it
My thoughts exactly! nobody wants the road near them eh!! we will never have it built at this rate

Belmont Voice says...
8:01pm Mon 9 Jul 12

Discuss this further at Belmont Voice Website FREE to register
www.belmontvoice.co.
uk

bobbob123 says...
8:42pm Mon 9 Jul 12

It's not going to be built anyway as the goverment or Bloor Homes won't pay for it - Jarvis is a complete idiot.

Lukio says...
9:00am Tue 10 Jul 12

How long has the bypass debate/debacle been ongoing? I'd put money on there won't be a solution in the next 10 years.

kevvywebby says...
12:49pm Tue 10 Jul 12

What has Hereford council planners doing? Have they all been made redundant? ESG is a disaster,all that wasted money now the road debacle is caarying on yet again....new housing developement in Belmont causing even more traffic choas...at least Kingstone has got it right in NOT BUILDING 100 MORE NEW HOMES....WELL DONE KINGSTONE :)

William Rudd says...
1:18pm Tue 10 Jul 12

Esg a disaster...Since when.
The problem here is where ever it is proposed to build anything in or around Herefordshire you get the yokels complaining.
NIMBY comes to mind

Lukio says...
3:00pm Tue 10 Jul 12

@William Rudd - I agree that there seem to be a lot of NIMBY attitudes but don't you think that the council's priorities are skewed somewhat? Yes, Hereford needs change and investment but wouldn't it have been more appropriate to address the infrastructure such as providing a bypass and fixing the potholes before embarking on such a massive project and cash drain as ESG? There's no point in having a shiny new shopping area if it takes an hour to get there from Belmont.

bobbob123 says...
11:16pm Tue 10 Jul 12

Shopping centers are a thing of the past - the ESG is 10 years too late and is now completely out of date because more and more people do their shopping in the internet. To attract people to city centers you need to make parking free. No one is coming to the city center to pay £5/ hour to park anymore.

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