Anthony Priddle of Haywood, Hereford, says road route must protect landscape (From Hereford Times)

Anthony Priddle of Haywood, Hereford, says road route must protect landscape

8:00am Saturday 4th August 2012 in Letters

HEREFORDSHIRE Council has received six design options from Amey for the southern core section of the relief road.

Whichever route is adopted, I hope maximum priority is given to landscape impact.

The value of Herefordshire’s open landscape must be protected: it is our prize asset.

If we are to attract people to make Hereford and Herefordshire a chosen destination for work or play, we have to preserve and enhance our rural character.

For work, people choosing where to locate their businesses give strong consideration to the environment that their families will have to live in, that is, the quality of life that they are committing their whole family to.

For play, those coming to Herefordshire for their holidays (and tourism is a very suitable low impact use of our natural assets) the rural landscape must be unspoilt.

Once a road is looped deep into open countryside, the damage can never be undone and we start that steady erosion of our special environment.

We risk making the county and city just like so many other tarnished parts of the UK.

If, however, landscape protection is prioritised, then we can hopefully balance traffic control and preservation of our precious county.

ANTHONY PRIDDLE, Haywood, Hereford.