‘Build a new multi-storey car park for the city’ says councillor

Hereford should get a new multi-storey car park on the site of the county bus station, a councillor has said.

Coun Bob Matthews, who leads the True Independents group, says that as the city is to get a new transport hub incorporating a bus station at the nearby railway station, the council should “urgently consider” the car park idea given its nearness to the county hospital.

The bus station, off Commerical Road, already has around 99 street-level parking spaces.

“There is a general shortage of car parking spaces in that area, and one of our main concerns is that medical staff coming off shifts, late at night, have to walk along poorly lit streets to the Garrick House car park,” he says in a proposal to be put to councillors this Friday.

“It would be right and proper for one of the floors to be allocated solely for the use of medical staff.”

It would also benefit other locals and visitors, who “are frequently complaining that at times it takes there an excess of an hour to find suitable parking, with a detrimental effect on our many small businesses”, his proposal adds.

Seconded by Liberal Democrat group leader Coun Terry James, the suggestion coincides with new proposals by the ruling Independents for Herefordshire / Green coalition to reduce the number of parking spaces in the city.

Indeed the county bus station car park is among 19 in the city it is considering building on or turning into green space.

The idea of a multi-storey car park on the site was mooted by the previous Conservative administration in 2018.