HERITAGE experts have praised Hereford’s Old Market development ten years after they last visited the city.

Members of Historic England’s Urban Panel visited the city in October and praised how Herefordshire Council successfully managed to integrate modern developments with the city’s historic core.

They felt the Old Market development has provided “an attractive, well-designed addition to the city and the way in which it is connected with the heart of historic core is first class”.

They did, however, point out some of Hereford’s failings such as the continuing problems that traffic still causes around the city and how fractured much of the townscape around the City Walls had become with large numbers of vacant or underused buildings within parts of its historic centre.

The panel members see the future university for Hereford as a great opportunity to address many of the city’s problems.

They were excited by the prospect of the city itself becoming a campus rather than seeing a purpose built one.

Jeremy Milln of the Hereford Civic Society says the Urban Panel’s report mirrors much of what they have been saying for years.

He said: “It is particularly scathing of the council’s treatment of the ‘townscape grain’ around the perimeter of the historic City.

“The panel lambasts the severance which the extremely busy Inner Ring Road still causes and what a ‘thoroughly unpleasant experience it is as a pedestrian walking the route of the City Walls’.

“It pays complement to the paving scheme for Widemarsh Street, but finds the ‘public realm’ elsewhere to be tired and ‘highway-dominated’,as is the setting of charming Coningsby Hospital dwarfed by the vast Wickes building opposite”.

The Urban Panel also criticised the ‘lack of a sense of arrival’ at Hereford Railway Station and that the economic downturn has meant many elements of the masterplan for the Edgar Street area remain unrealised.

Mr Milln added: “Hereford’s ‘over-engineered City Link road and its unpleasant pedestrian environment’ draws particular ire.

“According to its report the ‘sense of arrival at Hereford Station is quite awful’.  A decade ago there were plans for a new high quality public space in front of this attractive building.

“However, nothing has happened and for a city seeking to attract visitors ‘first impressions matter’.

“The report makes the point that although Hereford Council is preparing an Area Plan for the City, Hereford needs an overarching City-wide Masterplan to ensure that all the elements necessary to create a successful University City will be delivered to a high standard.

“This masterplan needs to address all aspects of place-making, and be underpinned by work on design quality, urban capacity, movement, parking, archaeology, historic spaces, views and green infrastructure.

“The report urges the Council to agree a design code with the University through a process of community engagement.

“This masterplan is an opportunity to roll back the curse cars are within the historic core so that Hereford becomes a walking and cycling city again.”