PARISH COUNCIL - The packed village hall heard councillors summarise Herefordshire Council’s proposal to build at least 8,500 (and potentially up to 12,000) new houses across Hereford city to fund a relief road. The meeting was advised there is insufficient sewerage treatment capacity for more than 3,500 houses and nothing had been done to address the additional capacity that would be needed in Hereford hospital to support such an increase in population. Herefordshire Council’s own reports suggest that even after the relief road is built, the increase in population would result in journey times across Hereford taking longer than at present. Bill Wiggin MP said 5,000 of his constituents need homes, and ward councillor Bob Matthews advised that sound planning reasons must be given in the feedback to Herefordshire Council. Full consideration of environmental issues is yet to take place. The feeling in the meeting was that it was more than a question of whether the relief road should go east or west and encouraged the public to respond to the council before the deadline of November 5. One participant suggested that at the next elections voters make a choice to vote locally on these specific issues, rather than follow traditional political allegiances. There was a call for a sub-committee to help co-ordinate opposition to the relief road, and the Campaign to Protect Rural England is also willing to support the fight. There will be a further public meeting at Trinity School on Wednesday, at 7pm, where Councillor John Jarvis and four senior planning officers will be available to answer questions on the proposals for the additional housing and relief road.