Revamps for three Herefordshire schools are among the county’s investment priorities for the year ahead.

Herefordshire Council’s cabinet has agreed a delivery plan for 2022/23 which sets out spending priorities to meet its economic, social and environmental goals.

Coun Gemma Davies, cabinet member for commissioning, procurement and assets, said: “We will be tendering for construction of a new school building at Peterchurch primary school, we will be refurbishing and expanding the Brookfield School [a specialist school in Hereford], and we will seek approval for the much-needed rebuild of Westfield School [in Leominster], and moving to the design stage.”

Two unnamed schools will also get solar panels, the delivery plan says, while others will undergo a three-year “decarbonisation plan”.

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The transfer of Maylords Orchard shopping centre in Hereford to the council’s support services company Hoople “has meant an incredible change, with events happening throughout the year”, Coun Davies said.

She said relocating the city library there “will create a completely different approach to a library and what it does”.

On the council’s own estate, she said: “As we have moved to flexible working, we have vacated buildings, creating revenue savings which we can invest elsewhere.

“We will create asset management plans for each council-owned property, to ensure we get the value from them that we need.”

And on Hereford’s Shire Hall, described in a recent council document as “structurally unsafe”, Coun Davies said: “We plan the capital works to bring it back into community use.”

The council also plans to move forward on its waste strategy on several fronts, the plan says.

“We are about to launch our recyclable nappies scheme following pilots with families,” Coun Davies said.

“We are also trialling cycle storage options with people who life in flats.”

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Cabinet member for finance, corporate services and planning Coun Liz Harvey said afterwards: “We are realistic about the scale of the challenge. Rising costs and changing demands means facing tough choices about where to focus resources.

“This delivery plans sets out how over the coming year the council will invest in services for children, encourage and assist business to thrive, and how we will work to protect and enhance the beautiful county we live in.”