City cycling plans move forward

Plans to improve cycling and walking around Hereford have taken a step forward.

Herefordshire Council has agreed a deal worth £22,500 with engineering consultancy Price & Myers to create “a more interconnected and more enjoyable experience” for cyclists and walkers, the council said.

This will fund developing the business case for a number of measures across the city, and pay for their initial design.

Among these are plans to bring the Great Western Way into line with Department of Transport standards on cycle routes, and to fix “pinch points” along it.

The route, which runs along a disused railway from the southern edge of the city at Newton Farm to Beaumont Gardens, has “a number of crossing points with the road network that deter potential users and present difficulties to existing travellers”, it said.

One of those flagged up for improvement is the Blackfriars Street/Edgar Street junction, which cyclists must negotiate to get between the end of the route and the city centre.

The improvements are part of the Greening the City project, paid for by the £22 million Stronger Towns programme of government funding for a range of improvements across the city.

The outline design stage “needs to progress promptly in line with wider Stronger Towns timescales”, in order to ensure access to the remainder of the £1.5 million Greening the City funding pot, the council said.