Herefordshire is to get over £300,000 to fund four road schemes promoting alternatives to car travel.

Work on traffic management to make Barton Road in Hereford more cycle-friendly will get £100,000.

Herefordshire Council describes the road as a key connection between the non-traffic Great Western Way and the city centre, but says it is narrow and is often backed up at the busy junction with the A49 north of Greyfriars Bridge.

National Highways, which maintains the country’s major A-roads, will be involved in plans to redesign the junction, “to enhance active travel crossing facilities over the A49, ideally an at-grade [i.e. street-level] facility”, the council said.

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The same sum will also go on developing plans to redesign the layout of the A465 at the Commercial Road/Aylestone Hill rail bridge near the station, another “pinch point” in the city where peak-hour traffic tailbacks coupled with junction turning lanes make cycling difficult.

“This scheme will require modelling to develop options to provide active travel continuity over the bridge and through the junction [with the Station Approach Road], either with road space reallocation or other additional capacity,” Herefordshire Council said.

Meanwhile two primary schools in the county, Lugwardine and Trinity in Moor Farm, Hereford, will together get a further £100,000 in construction costs under the “school streets” programme.

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Intended to deter traffic in streets around schools, these measures will be enforced by what are called experimental traffic regulation orders.

Lastly, £6,000 is to go on making “dropped” road crossings more accessible to blind people by incorporating “tactile” paving and other measures.

This has been identified by Hereford’s Royal National College for the Blind as an issue on a route between the college and the city centre.

A Herefordshire Council spokesperson said: “Three of the schemes are already in progress, while the dropped crossing money will fund crossings at locations to be determined.”

The money comes from the latest round of the Government's Active Travel Fund, and is part of £21.3 million being spent on 29 schemes across the West Midlands.

The Government says cycling in England is "thriving", with bike use up 11 per cent on pre-pandemic levels.

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