Bid for cash to fix town roads rejected by councillors

Herefordshire councillors turned their backs on proposals to spend millions on fixing roads in the county’s market towns.

Liberal Democrat councillors from Ross-on-Wye put forward the capital spend amendment to guarantee cash for their town as well as Bromyard, Kington, Ledbury and Leominster.

Councillor Paul Symonds proposed setting aside £1m a year to be invested in town public realm improvement during the next three financial years which would be funded from capital receipts.

“The current situation in the market towns is that they tend to lose out through the planned highways works because the risk matrix we use prioritises roads with either high traffic volumes or speeds,” coun Symonds said.

He said the investment would also benefit cyclists.

“Someone was telling me just yesterday how they fear to cycle down the hill into Ross because the road is in such a poor condition.”

This proposal was largely backed by the Conservatives and True Independents but the ruling coalition of Herefordshire Independents, It’s Our County and Green Party rejected it.

Green Coun Jenny Bartlett said she was just as frustrated as everyone that the previous administration never listened to the market towns.
“Just come and look at Leominster, we’ve probably got the most dangerous and out of date cobbles,” she said.

“They are in an absolute disgraceful state.

“We have just approved a county plan which sets out our commitment to work with the market towns and parishes to redress these historic imbalances.

“This £1m may sound like a lot of money but is that only £250,000 per town per year?”