As the date (6 June) approaches when a planning decision on the proposed £27million Southern Link Road linking the Ross Road with the Abergavenny Road will be made, we hear that Herefordshire Council is also pursuing the £160million necessary to build a western relief road and river bridge. They tell us that this, and all the 1000s of new homes that will accompany it, are what Hereford needs to boost its economy.

What they don’t tell you is that these single carriageway roads would be swiftly filled with all the new traffic resulting from new homes, adding to that already travelling in and out of the centre of Hereford. At the same time, the flagship Enterprise Zone in Rotherwas, (where 6000 new jobs were promised but are not materialising), will still have very poor access to Worcester, Gloucester and the UK motorway network.

How can spending nearly £200million on these roads possibly be good value for money? To relieve congestion, there are many much more cost-effective measures that could be taken within Hereford that are being ignored. What sort of council can’t find the relatively small amounts of funding for support we really need all across Herefordshire: our Libraries, subsidised bus routes, the respite care centre at 1 Ledbury Road, the CAB, SHYPP, The Courtyard, etc, etc, but thinks that spending a minimum of £200million just on these roads for Hereford will make the whole county a better place to live?

N Geeson, Kings Acre Road