HEREFORDSHIRE Council wants to spend £30 million of public funds – that means our money – on a new southern link road (SLR) through open countryside connecting the A465 near Clehonger, to the A49 at the Rotherwas roundabout.

The council knows that this will cause substantial environmental damage, including loss of ancient woodland and the highest grades of agricultural land, and damage to heritage and archaeological features. Yet the council claims that the massive cost and environmental damage is all justified because “the main objective of the scheme is to reduce congestion”.

This claim is absurd, and is contradicted by the council’s own traffic forecasts. If you rely on the A465 to get in and out of the city centre, as I do, you will know that this link can make little difference. It can only redistribute existing traffic from the A465 to the A49.

Use of the SLR will be compulsory for HGVs, as the council intends to prohibit them from the A465 Belmont Road. This just moves HGVs onto the A49. Unsurprisingly, the council’s traffic forecast shows that the average daily volume of vehicles going over the Greyfriars Bridge will be unchanged when the SLR is operational.

Small reductions in traffic volumes on the A465 Asda to Tesco stretch (between 9% and 13%, 1,800 to 2,600 less vehicles per day) are combined with a 15% increase (3,300 more vehicles per day) on the Asda to Holme Lacy Road section of the A49. This is exactly what anyone living down the A465 or A49 would have expected.

After five years of spending cuts under the coalition, the council faces further reductions in funding of £42 million over the next five years. This means more cuts to essential services which will effect us all.

With these constraints, the proposal to spend £30 million of our money on a pointless and damaging road is unacceptable.

RICHARD STOW Rowlestone