Cost of dropped city masterplan ‘a disgrace’

The spending of close to a million pounds on a plan to transform Hereford that was then dropped has been branded a disgrace.

Shortly before losing power in the county three years ago, the former Independents for Herefordshire (i4H) / Green administration published a draft city masterplan for consultation, backed up with public engagement events.

After the current Conservative county bosses decided to drop this, a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the council revealed it had already spent “around £981,000” on the plan.

Coun Terry James, leader of the Liberal Democrats group, the second largest on the council, said this sum was “an absolute disgrace”, adding: “It was obvious the London-based consultants they got to do it didn’t know Hereford or Herefordshire.”

“They tend to be ex-local government workers themselves,” he said. “But we employ our own staff to do this sort of work.

“This is the problem with the public sector. That money could have done something for the people of Herefordshire.”

He also claimed some proposals in the draft plan, which would have radically cut car use in the city centre, were “pie in the sky”.

And while the current administration says it is now re-running the exercise in light of its decision to progress with a bypass around the city, Coun

James said many of the traffic-cutting proposals in the previous plan “couldn’t be done until the bypass was built”.

Meanwhile the current administration’s “half-hearted” consultation on its replacement masterplan was “slipped through” over the Christmas period, he added.

A separate FOI request found this drew just 11 responses.

“Most people sigh at the word ‘consultation’ and they fear it will make no difference,” Coun James said.

“So only a handful of people with agendas, not answerable to the public, respond.”

I4H leader and former Cabinet member Liz Harvey said the original draft masterplan “covered all possible options – not just the ones that suited us” and “was intended to support ‘what-if’ type explorations of planning scenarios to identify the optimum mix for the city”.

Former Green Cabinet member Jeremy Milln added that the previous consultation by contrast drew nearly 400 survey respondents who made over 2,000 comments, in addition to comments posted on an online map.

A Herefordshire Council spokesperson has meanwhile said it will issue a new draft masterplan for consultation “in the coming months”.