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Southern Link Road Preferred Route


megilleland

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Yes Cambo, I had the e.mail as well as I am a Councillor on Clehonger Parish Council. PB have been working again in the field next to me which is on the route of the Link Road from the B4349 to A465. They are apparently boring holes to check water levels. The last I heard they had not got the money for this road.

 

The newly formed Hereford Transport Alliance HTA have submitted questions to be asked at the full council meeting at Hereford Shire Hall on Friday 25th at 9.45 am. One of the the questions is regarding the SLR. HTF are organising a demo prior to the meeting so please come along and support if you can.

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Amanda ....if the HTA is holding a demo on Friday will this be outside Shire Hall prior to the meeting and if so does the Hereford Times know?

 

I have to drop an email to Rebecca Cain regarding the CQC and could drop it into the mail.

Guessing though this base is covered?

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Thanks for that Jean. 

 Every campaign has its diplomats and negotiators but if these people in the Cabinet don't feel the cold wind of public disapproval blowing in, they will just dust us aside because, as Cllr Price so eloquently indicated, they "don't give a ****" what we think.   There doesn't seem to be much tradition of public protest in Hereford but the time has come to stand up and, as the Edgar Street trees campaign demonstrated, you don't need hundreds of people to make waves if there's majority tacit support. 

 The DfT has written to us assuring us that they will review what we know to have been an exercise in arrogant box ticking and corner cutting for the funding case for this road.  We can't rely on a call in but we do know that cash strapped government departments are looking to cull schemes that fail even on their own flawed criteria.  

 

Behind the scenes, the preparations will have continued and we don't have much time left.   The bulldozers are on the horizon.

Friday 25th September.  Shire Hall.  9.45am.  Placards and humour provided.  #GetYourFeetOnTheStreet   

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Herewith list of members of the Planning Committee.  I have not broken them down into parties but I am pretty sure that they are predominately Cons so the opposition will have their work cut out opposing this one!!  I trust there are some excellent speakers being lined up.  Mind you in my experience excellent speakers don't always win over the opposition.

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Thanks for that Jean. 

 

 Every campaign has its diplomats and negotiators but if these people in the Cabinet don't feel the cold wind of public disapproval blowing in, they will just dust us aside because, as Cllr Price so eloquently indicated, they "don't give a ****" what we think.   There doesn't seem to be much tradition of public protest in Hereford but the time has come to stand up and, as the Edgar Street trees campaign demonstrated, you don't need hundreds of people to make waves if there's majority tacit support. 

 

 The DfT has written to us assuring us that they will review what we know to have been an exercise in arrogant box ticking and corner cutting for the funding case for this road.  We can't rely on a call in but we do know that cash strapped government departments are looking to cull schemes that fail even on their own flawed criteria.  

 

Behind the scenes, the preparations will have continued and we don't have much time left.   The bulldozers are on the horizon.

 

Friday 25th September.  Shire Hall.  9.45am.  Placards and humour provided.  #GetYourFeetOnTheStreet   

 

Thank you for this information Amanda, I will do my best to attend.  :Thumbs-Up:

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Hope people will go. So many Herefordians are completely unaware of the implications. The SLR is not just a road, it's part of the Cabinet's grand plan to make Hereford an "urban powerhouse"! Would this really bring prosperity? Or just be a waste of money? (and destroy beautiful countryside)

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Rebecca sadly I did not go but I have got the Planning Committee Meeting marked so come hell or high waters I will attend that!  But not to demonstrate I am like Amanda suggests Herefordians are not prone to public displays of whatever!

 

I thought the Hereford Times would be doing a blog of the meeting they really need to wake up and stop cribbing their stories off other websites! 

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Pearls of wisdom from Here for Hereford - an extract from the Inspectors report on the Core Strategy (for some reason I am unable to copy the whole extract but it gives the general idea)

 
Here for Hereford
1 hr Â· 
NOW IT CAN BE TOLD – LOCAL PLAN WAS NOT SOUND
The Planning Inspector did not find Herefordshire Council's Local Plan to be sound, and even now (29/9/15) it is subject to more than 70 modification references before it can pass the tests of legal compliance.
All that Council talk of how essential the Hereford Relief Road was to the Local Plan can be condemned as wishful thinking. The Inspector state.
 
1 hr Â· 
 
port Plan [C46a] as planned infrastructure, the funding is not secure and it is not part of Highways England (HE) Road Investment Strategy for 2015 – 2020... The route has not been modelled or identified in detail and there is a high degree of uncertainty about whether the HRR is viable and can be achieved within the plan period... (#63): Notwithstanding this, inclusion of the HRR in the policy [sS4] would not be unsound as it remains a valid aim of the Council to bring this forward when possible as a means of improving the local transport networkâ€.
This opinion: “would not be unsound†should surely be challenged as the Inspector goes on to say (#91):
“... the submission Plan policy HD3 relating to movement failed to emphasise the importance of achieving and promoting sustainable transport to help address demand. MM016 adds text to the Hereford movement section to ensure that the focus of the policy … is to facilitate sustainable transportâ€.
These words from the Planning Inspector encapsulate the focus the Council should have on its transport policy - FACILITATE SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT.
Thank you, Madam Inspector."
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Just seen this on the Here for Hereford site

http://www.hereforhereford.co.uk/2015/10/housing-and-the-southern-link-road/ -  that the potential land available for housing inside the Southern Link Road route can provide over 15,000 houses!! The land owned by Herefordshire Council could be developed for over 2,000 houses alone. I knew they said that the road was not about transport but opening up land for houses and this certainly seems to be the case. A friend said that I shouldnt be surprised as apparently the Council will need the "New Homes Bonus" from the houses to help pay for the road cost and clear the debts they have run up. Does anyone else know anything about this? 

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The houses was always going to be part of the application since around 2004/5 and it was controversial then, remember when the Rotherwas Access road was built and they covered over the ' Rotherwas Ribbon'. Back then it was 800 houses and there was also a river crossing, road widening in Ruckall Lane to the river and the bridge would of come out in Breinton Springs.  but all that fell through because the council left it to late to go back to Advantage West Midland for the second stage money and objections about the housing. Now the application states the possibility of 15,000 houses and no river crossing, so another 'road to nowhere' is proposed.

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ADDITIONAL CONSULTATION ON THE SOUTHERN LINK ROAD PLANNING APPLICATION.

 

Herefordshire Council has added a further 19 documents to their Planning Application No. 151314. They include responses from the Council's agent, Parsons Brinckerhoff, (PB), to comments from statutory bodies such as Heritage England and Natural England. PB contend that their assessments of damage to heritage assets and ancient woodland should find favour with the Council's Planning Committee. Here for Hereford contend that the independence of the statutory bodies should be respected and endorsed, rather than challenged by an agent working for the applicant. PB has also provided further illustrations of landscape impacts from the scheme, such as the position of the tall radio mast located above the 9.4 metre high road bridge over the railway (Fig 2.2 rev A). There is a 'Water Framework Directive Assessment' dated September 2015 which makes no mention of the over-arching Nutrient Management Action Plan (November 2014); a report on the awaited archaeological survey which indicates evidence of an iron age fort which will be eradicated if the scheme goes ahead; a transport analysis which fails to highlight the increase in traffic flows on Greyfriars Bridge if the scheme were to be in place; a rejection of the proposal to protect trees at Pykeways, and so on – a lot to comment on. The Consultation period is scheduled to run from 8 October to 5 November. Send comments to kgibbons@herefordshire.gov.uk
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There were people in High Town yesterday giving information about the Southern Link Road. It was good to see the maps as I hadnt seen those properly before. I must admit I cant see the point of £27Million being spent on this road - a complete waste of money to me. Would much prefer that if they have all this money they built a new library and information point in Hereford. It might then make us look like we really are interested in improving educational opportunities and have the potential to be a new University city or City of Culture,( as mentioned on another post).

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I heard that at the Civic Society meeting last night that a Conservative councillor said that the South Wye Transport package (all the sustainable transport measures) didnt yet exist. The plan for a bus lane had been thrown out and they havent got any ideas about tackling the congestion except by building a road. 

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I was one of the people in High Town last Saturday making people aware of why the council are proposing building this SLR and not considering any means of more sustainable transport- better cycle routes, more reliable buses, subsidising school transport. All these things will reduce the number of vehicles on the roads and therefore will ease congestion. Building more houses along the entire route of the SLR will generate more cars on the roads so we are back to square one and all our good agricultural land woodland, and trees will be gone forever.

 

We had almost 100 letters signed and these are slowly being uploaded onto the website.

 

If you have any strong feelings about the building of this road now is your time to object PA 151314. There are a number of names on here that do not appear on the website. No good moaning about it after if you don't do something now.

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Jean I think you asked on another thread what councillor was at the Civic Society meeting talking about the SLR. My friend said that a few Herefordshire Councillors were but they didnt know all their names. One was Graham Powell from Ewyas Harold, who I think is on the Cabinet and also Anthony Powers. They also said that there was a new councillor who wanted a "motorway of the Marches" - a Welsh/English version of the M6 to go from South Wales up to North Wales right through the Marches borderlands. It was apparently a very interesting meeting so I think I might go along some time.

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