Large Hereford church signage plan withdrawn

Controversial plans to put up large signs and a video wall outside a Hereford evangelical church have been withdrawn.

The Freedom Church, based in a former cinema and nightclub in the city’s busy Commercial Road, wanted to display its lion’s head logo across four panels covering a large part of the streetside wall, with the stonework below painted a matching dark grey.

It also planned a two-by-four-metre video wall alongside.

Hereford City Council’s planning committee said they were “adamantly against” the proposal, of which “would dominate the street”.

“The building is already in a sad state of repair, and this should be the focus of the applicant rather than covering the building façade with distasteful imagery,” the city councillors said.

For Hereford Civic Society, Jeremy Milln added that the “large, incongruous and intrusive” features would distract drivers in a “complex” road situation of junctions, signals, pedestrians and cyclists, as well as being against the city conservation area’s design policy.

Public opinion was evenly divided, with eight submissions opposing the plan and seven backing it.

Mr M Banks said the LED screen in particularly would “cause significant noise nuisance for nearby residents”, while Carol-Ann Banks, of a different Hereford address, wrote: “Commercial Road is turning into Blackpool with its neon lights and advertising posters everywhere.”

Jonathan Roger meanwhile thought the large logo proposed for the panels was “horrible – it will blight the whole Art Deco of the existing building”.

But Chris Cooke thought it was a chance to “brighten up” the “tired a rather ugly” building, while Aidan Billington said it would “be in keeping with what’s already in the road”.

And Harriet Coleman of Ledbury said: “After the sad announcement of the closure of St Nicholas Church due to dwindling congregations, there has never been a better time to make the case for the modernisation of church advertising,” which would “be a positive alternative to the constant, sometimes dangerous, marketing messages of profit-driven corporations”.

Planning applicants are not required to give a reason for withdrawing an application.

The large building opened as the Ritz Cinema in 1938 with seating for over 1,000, since when it has gone through several name changes and alterations. Freedom Church took it over in 2016.