The news that the bypass and southern link road proposal was to be shelved came as no shock, it has been developing that way for some considerable time.

The fact that the council now proposes to build a road from Rotherwas to somewhere on the Ledbury road just emphasises how out of touch this council is.

Such a road will do nothing to alleviate the congestion in town.

The A49 both from the north and south, along with the A465 from South Wales, the A483 from Mid Wales and the A4103 from Worcester all take considerably more traffic than the Ledbury road.

The proposed road will be a white elephant; is it that white elephants need to be preserved or is it a short cut to Rotherwas for the business owners so that they don’t have to negotiate the congestion in town?

Taking the figures from Councillor Harrington, 20% of the traffic in town is generated within the city limits.

It is this traffic that could benefit from the cycle lanes, electric buses and other schemes being proposed if people use them.

However, it will do nothing for the remaining 80% of traffic generated from outside the city limits.

If Councillor Harrington’s figures are correct, and I have no reason to dispute them, only 40% of the traffic is destined for the city in addition to the 20% generated locally.

This leaves a further 40% that is not destined for the city, ie through-traffic.

Councillor Harrington has said that only 7% of the traffic is through traffic but this does not add up.

(20% local city generated, 40% outside generated destined for the city and 7% through traffic = 67%). What about the remaining 33%?

A bypass is needed, east or west is irrelevant, (a complete ring road, a sensible way out, would be better), but as it has taken 54 years to get this far since it was first mentioned at the opening of Greyfriars Bridge, I don’t expect Hereford will ever see one.

Whilst on the subject of transport – cycle lanes, why build more?

The existing cycle lanes are hardly used as cyclists prefer to cycle on the road. ignoring one-way traffic flows, traffic lights and other junctions, often after dark with no lights on.

An example of this is the relatively new cycle paths in Rotherwas. One would expect these to be used extensively but since being completed I have seen very few cyclists using them, they tend to stay on the road.

Until they are used, I would not expect my council tax to be wasted on further expansion of an underused facility.

Raymond Papworth

Hereford

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