Fantastic. Well done. Herefordshire seems to have a lot of these excellent independent businesses... so why not focus our economic strategy on them instead of a desperate and doomed attempt to attract big names to the Edgar Street Grid, killing off the remaining independents in our city centre in the process?

Another brilliant idea. Let's abandon the Edgar Street Grid, with its cinema, university, affordable housing, and shops and leisure to attract paying visitors and keep our young people occupied and sink our future into redcurrant sorbet instead? One again Aremach has the problem licked.

Oh dear. The problem is that the retail section of the ESG is the only bit that has been costed or committed to. The cinema, university, affordable housing (not enough though) and leisure are un-costed as far as I know at the moment and remain nice ideas with little detail. The retail sector is what they are hoping will kick start the rest of it. But even with the retail, the rest of it is pretty vague and funding is yet to be found.

Personally I feel they have got the cart before the horse. The Council should be looking at a strategy for the whole city as one system, and not handing over responsibility to one private company for one section of it, with no responsibility to the rest of the city.

Try not to be so negative about new ideas Sue just because they are different. I like Hereford because it IS different and I want it's individuality to be enhanced by development rather than us becoming a pale copy of the Bullring.

I like Hereford too because it is different. But without the investment the ESG will bring, the city will continue to lose shops and outlets.

People are currently going to shop elsewhere, or spend their leisure pounds elsewhere because Hereford does not offer enough.

Worse of all, our young people are leaving in droves because an influx of older retired people are determined that Hereford is stuck in the 1950s forever.

Everyone I know wants the ESG to succeed and hope that the fuddy duddys do not get their way and turn this city into a Jurassic Park for zimmer frames.

I actually agree with everything you've said in your last post Sue. But do you think that shopping is the best we can do for our young people? I don't think anyone wants the ESG to stay as it is and it's unfair to say that to question the CONTENT of the development is the same as saying you don't want it.

We really cannot compete on big retail with other bigger places, even if they stayed the same. Problem is they are also planning to expand and as a relatively small town we simply can't beat them at that game. So we should change the game. Develop the grid with housing, employment, entertainment, arts etc as you say, certainly. But let's make shopping in Hereford DIFFERENT to other places. I want people to say 'I'm bored of the chain stores Bullring or Cheltenham, let's go to Hereford because of all the independents, the eating places, the culture and the atmosphere.'

Bunging a few chain stores on the grid will make the problem of young people leaving worse not better. We need to be more imaginative and create a more diverse and attractive jobs market to encourage them to stay (or move here!).

Far from being a fuddy-duddy, I think this is a more radical and exciting policy for Hereford than the fuddy-duddy 'bung on a few chain stores' strategy of the current ESG plans. We ALL want the ESG to work, but how?