Andrew Mottram of Pencombe, Bromyard, says project is simply unsustainable (From Hereford Times)

Andrew Mottram of Pencombe, Bromyard, says project is simply unsustainable

8:00am Wednesday 2nd May 2012 in Letters

SIXTEEN years’ involvement at All Saints Hereford and Café@All Saints, and now working in regeneration in the region, is enough to show me that the Edgar Street Grid scheme will seriously damage the economic vibrancy of High Town.

Hereford is too small, both in its population and its catchment from the wider county, to support the increase in the amount of retail floor space proposed. It is unrealistic for Herefordshire Council to believe that the incoming retailers will fund it.

Coun Hubbard is correct – the council will end up giving the land assets away for nothing. It might be a quite different prospect, albeit for a lower cash return, if the bulk of the land were to be leased long term for residential development.

I am concerned because I have always believed the Edgar Street Grid project to be unsustainable as proposed.

We, the electorate, are being treated like mushrooms by Herefordshire Council – kept in the dark and fed manure. I feel conned due to manipulation of the legislative process, a lack of transparency and a lack of proper public debate.

ANDREW MOTTRAM, Pencombe, Bromyard.