Hereford bypass construction ‘on track’

Work on the first phase of the western bypass around Hereford “remains on track”, though permission from landowners along the route has yet to be concluded.

This was among the updates on key Herefordshire projects from a senior figure in the county this week.

Negotiations are continuing with landowners along the bypass route between the A49 and A465 southwest of Hereford, with “urgent meetings requested, to move the signing of agreements forward at pace”, though the scheme “remains on track”, Cabinet member for finance Pete Stoddart told colleagues.

A preliminary planning application including for “haul roads” along the route “is being prepared and should be submitted early in the new year”, he added.

Work which began in August to create a new Transport Hub in front of Hereford station is already nearly a quarter complete, with the “approximately 35-week-long” work programme likely to take up to the start of next May.

Construction of an “integrated” wetland at Tarrington east of Hereford, enabling more houses and other developments in the county to be permitted, “is now almost completed”, Coun Stoddart said.

Preparatory work on the proposed Ross Enterprise Park to the southeast of the town is due to begin imminently.

The “true construction cost” of the long-awaited transformation of Hereford’s museum and gallery will be made known later this month or early next.

Demolition of the flood-prone Peterchurch Primary School in the west of the county is under way, with temporary classrooms now in use while construction of the new £8.5 million school building continues.

The £2.4-million extension to Hampton Dene Primary School in east Hereford to better accommodate pupils with special needs is now being built.

Preparatory work to turn the Buttercross Building in the middle of Leominster into affordable housing “is being finalized”, with actual building work then expected to take around six months.

The council is also looking at the creation of a new care facility support for adults with complex needs, Coun Stoddart told the Cabinet meeting.
Local transport campaigner Liz Morawiecka earlier asked why the Cabinet would not “reduce, defer, or stop the spend of over £40 million on the Southern Link Road to avoid a financial car crash” and which “will add hundreds of pounds to all Herefordshire taxpayers’ bills for the next 40 years”.

Coun Stoddart said he would respond in writing.