ONE of the county’s two MPs has said plans for a £27million road to the south of Hereford should be reconsidered in favour of an eastern route.

Jesse Norman has weighed into the debate on the proposed Southern Link Road (SLR) which would connect the A49 near Rotherwas with the A465.

In a letter to Herefordshire Council’s planning department, Mr Norman has said an Eastern Link Road (ELR), which he has long supported in favour of the council’s own western route, would be the most ‘cost-effective’ single piece of road infrastructure potentially available to ease congestion.

In his letter, Mr Norman said: “The main economic objective of the SLR is to ease traffic congestion in Hereford city centre. But Herefordshire Council’s own traffic forecasts demonstrate that when the SLR is operational the average daily volume of vehicles going over the Greyfriars Bridge will be unchanged.”

Mr Norman said an ELR would likely cost in the same region as the SLR – £25 million – and that he would be writing separately to the leader of Herefordshire Council to review the case for an ELR.

“I have long campaigned for better funding for Herefordshire, and the £27 million of central government funding secured for the package is greatly welcome.

However, it appears that the money is not exclusively reserved for the SLR,” the letter added.

“I would be interested to know what steps the council has taken to inquire as to the possibility of the money being re-allocated and used for alternative infrastructure projects in the county such as the ELR.”

However, responding to Mr Norman’s letter, Councillor Philip Price, cabinet member for infrastructure, said that European law states that if there’s a less damaging environmental route that can be taken in the context of Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) then that must be taken – whatever the cost.

Councillor Price said: “The SLR is the start of the western bypass and it’s the only way we can go. That is the direction of travel we have taken and had support from our partners in the LEP, the treasury and Highways England.

“When we get to building [the SLR], and it’s my hope we get there sometime really soon, we will then be able to go straight into conversations with interested parties [about the] Western Relief Road.”

A western bypass, he said, would enable traffic that does not want to go into Hereford at all to get around the city.

But Cllr Price said there could still be some time before any bypass or east/ west link road is in place at all and said no building work would likely start before 2022.

“If we did an eastern route we would have to start from the beginning,” he added.