Removing traffic lights in Hereford in an attempt to ease congestion “is still an option”, the county’s transport chief has said.

Cabinet member for infrastructure and transport Coun John Harrington was asked by one resident at an online meeting this week if “fixing the problems with the existing road structure”, including the “traffic lights clogging up the centre of Hereford” shouldn’t be a higher priority than an extra river crossing.

“I am with you on traffic lights,” he said. “They are a cop-out, for a developer they are easier than putting in a roundabout. We have looked at removing them, including on the main corridor (through the city) controlled by National Highways.”

Traffic has been seen to move better on this stretch when traffic lights fail, he said.

However the council’s traffic consultants “didn’t like the idea” of removing traffic lights, he added. “They said, ‘yes when we modelled, it reduces congestion, but then you will get induced traffic’. They chose what they wished to see. But it’s still an option.”

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On the council’s strategy of encouraging alternative modes of transport within the city, Coun Harrington said: “Improving buses and cycling, especially the school transport issue, will make a huge difference to congestion and make more room for people from further out who have to use their cars.”

But he conceded that persuading those who make the two-fifths of car journeys in the city which are under 1.2 miles to use alternatives, “won’t happen unless you give them choices”.

“Cycling and walking aren’t just add-ons that you spend a couple of hundred thousand pounds on,” he said. “You have to be prepared to spend literally millions.”

And while government is telling local authorities to focus on sustainable transport, he said funding for this “hasn’t filtered through”.

Bus services meanwhile “shouldn't be treated as a revenue cost, but as a piece of capital infrastructure to solve congestion”, Coun Harrington added.