Cloudberry

I am appalled that accommodation for young people is being crammed into space at the junction of two busy roads, plus diesel trains on the other side, where the AIR POLLUTION and NOISE is likely to be much greater than almost any other place in Hereford. This at a time when the life-threatening effects of air pollution on health are constantly in the news. One or two trees won't make any difference. Students will be at risk every time they open their windows. So many practical things in this application have not been thought through. For example, students are all expected to use bikes, but there seems to be a narrow entrance to the bike store room. They will all have to queue to get in and out at busy times! And that will take time they shouldn't have to waste! If I was a prospective student this would not encourage me to come to Hereford.

The Office of National Statistics has recently published new figures that show the projected rise in number of households is not nearly as great as previously thought. I think that means that the total number of new homes Herefordshire Council wants to get built doesn't need to be so high. But we do need so-called "affordable homes". We definitely need more flats/apartments/small homes close into town so people can easily walk or cycle to shops, jobs, schools etc. and not spend their wages on transport. Developers don't make their usual huge profits on those though! See: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationprojections/bulletins/2016basedhouseholdprojectionsinengland/2016basedhouseholdprojectionsinengland#the-number-of-households-is-projected-to-grow-in-nearly-all-local-authorities-by-2041

I would be sorry to lose Hereford Voice, but it does need more people to use it, like there used to be. It is an ideal platform for sharing information and comments, and I look at it to find out things that are going on that are not reported in the Hereford Times. I hope this slow down in use doesn't mean that folks no longer care?

Yes, I distinctly remember Cllr Harlow telling us that when Prezzo and Chimichanga closed there were other restaurant chains "queuing up" to come to Hereford! I've never been in Swarovski, but sorry to see any newly empty shop.

Thanks for digging this out, Ragwert. I hate to be critical but this location does not seem to be the best idea. This car park is well-used for the station, and if folk reach Hereford on a train late at night (especially women) then having a car close by for getting home can be very important. If the Uni campus is built here it will also increase demand for parking considerably, in other nearby car parks. This site is on a busy junction, and increased traffic and pedestrians are likely to slow the flow of traffic from Aylestone Hill into town still further. They have said that all students will use bikes. But where are the cycle paths that would make this work well? I can see that this site is "available" and easy to build on, but isn't there a better option? I think I have heard that they may build a multi-story car park on the country bus station site. In my opinion this wouldn't suit many people, especially the elderly and disabled. Too far from the station, too far from town, - although good for the hospital and, I suppose, the proposed uni campus building.

Good to hear that so many (at least 41%, those who responded to that particular consultation question) realise that Cllr Price's claims won't work for Hereford. Many more folk are beginning to realise that because it is only to open up more land for housing, this road will just make Hereford a horrible urban car-dependent sprawl with congestion much worse than it is now. What a waste of money. I really can't see all these planned new houses selling. And we all know how reluctant developers are to provide the "affordable" homes we really need.

Does anyone know how much this Enquiry will cost the Council? I have read that to pay for this Southern Link road the Council have to stump up £8million and hope to get £27million from the Marches Enterprise Partnership. But I don't think that covers the active travel measures they have also said they will provide in South Wye? There are no cycle lanes on the plan for the Southern Link Road, but I think there may be some new ones planned on other roads? If so I hope they don't make such a horrible mess as they did with all that silly road marking that doesn't help on Holme Lacy Road.

We need to address congestion and air pollution right now, yes? But you will have to wait up to ten years for all the negotiations and a bypass to actually be completed? Just imagine what could be achieved to improve traffic flow in Hereford in other ways (much quicker, much more effectively, much cheaper) with £140million! Spending £140 million on a bypass just to remove 15% of traffic from Greyfriars Bridge does not sound good value for money to me.

Yesterday at a public meeting in Breinton, even Cllr Price admitted that a bypass will not reduce congestion. (With so many new homes to be built, all generating more traffic, how could it?) People are being conned. These claims that Hereford will be free of congestion and air pollution only if a bypass is built cannot be substantiated. Measures to encourage walking, and cycling, and improving public transport need to happen now, not only AFTER a bypass is built, as is the current plan.

Please can you tell us where it is written that 50-55% must be affordable homes on the Three Elms site? Sounds very unlikely. As you say, what developer would build 1200 homes on that basis? Not enough profit for them. I think it's the other way round, they need to build the houses at Three Elms to get levies from the developers to help pay for the bypass. But its true that the bypass is planned to open up even more land for housing. And all that extra traffic will make city congestion and air pollution much worse than it is now. We won't get the nice fast bypass that some people seem to be imagining, it will just be a road through housing estates. Just like they've done to ruin Worcester.

The land for development argument may not stack up either. They are nowhere near a planning application for the Three Elms site west of Hereford because of serious issues that make building very risky. This is an Environment Agency groundwater protection area. Heineken and Cargill depend on water from boreholes here, and that water must be pure and lots of it, no risk of contamination. Building roads and houses is a big risk, so it is all being monitored very closely. Hereford can't afford to lose these businesses.

I see on the Hereford Times website article comments there is a link to a picture of an Eastern Enterprise bridge that was planned for Rotherwas, quite recently! Why didn't it happen? https://herefordenterprisezone.wordpress.com/page/3/ Herefordshire Enterprise Zone will have Eastern Access Across the River Wye It’s looking increasingly certain the Hereford Enterprise Zone at Rotherwas will have an Eastern river crossing as well as the planned Hereford Western bypass bringing the number of Wye crossing points to 5 within four miles of the City. Wye Enterprise Bridge While there may be concerns from green campaigners, the access brought by a road on columns across the valley floor leading from Rotherwas will take as much as 45 minutes off the journey time to the M5 Worcester South Junction 7. Minimal damage will occur to wildlife as due to the flood plain the road will be a magnificent structure sitting around 5 metres off the vally floor well away from plants and animals including livestock in the fields below. It will also give access out to Gloucester via the B4224 and serve for quick routes for local traffic on the under used lanes and B roads on the East of the City of Hereford. This development could be delivered in as little as 3 years and should be seen as a serious development in infrastructure connectivity between the Herefordshire Enterprise Zone and the Midlands From 2011: Hereford Enterprise Zone – River crossing and Hereford By-PassHerefordshire Council meet tomorrow to agree the poll to go to the county to determine the link of a Hereford bypass to the Hwreford Enterprise Zone. While local councillors promote a full Western bypass, local MP’s have strong support from a rich vein of conservatives promoting an Eastern crossing of the river directly into Rotherwas and the Enterprise Zone. Connectivity is already excellent from Rotherwas with a new relief road taking heavy traffic South to the A49 with its direct links into South Wales, the M4 into Bristol, the South West and South East and the M50 to the Midlands and the North.

Consultation exhibition starts on 6 February in a "pod" on Old Market https://www.herefordshire.gov.uk/consultations/article/10062/hereford_transport_package_htp_-_hereford_bypass_consultation Hope they have some better maps of proposed routes than those I've seen so far. Many old folks in bungalows along Kings Acre Road are very distressed, not sure if their home is in line to be demolished.

Halo Leisure already run Bromyard Library http://haloleisure.org.uk/activities/herefordshire/childrens-activities/library I know funding from the Council is reducing to zero soon, but I'm uncomfortable with the museum having to concentrate on generating revenue to survive. Museums can be places of inspiration, and they have a value that is much greater than money. Herefordshire has some wonderful stuff, important at a national level, but it's mostly locked away in the Museum Resource and Learning Centre in Friar St.

I am appalled by this!! They just want to increase use of individual cars to increase congestion and pollution, to justify their plans for building a so-called bypass. I would much rather they used this funding to e.g. hire out bikes for free. That would contribute to a much more effective "Choose how you Move" scheme.

It will depend on how democracy is defined! Will all sides of an argument be presented with equal weight? Is unbiased reporting possible? The priority for the Hereford Times is to sell newspapers, so it is in their interest to provide more controversy in their headlines and stories, that generate extra readers and contributors.

I am sure that many people will come to Hereford to see this, and that it will be a big success. However, what about all the assets we already have in Herefordshire that we don't make the most of to attract visitors? I have heard that from April 2018 the whole budget for the museum service (covering the Museum and Art Gallery, the Museum Resources and Learning Centre and the Black and White House will be reduced to only £67,000 a year. So spending £120,000 on this single event seems a bit of a smack in the teeth for all those struggling to provide any sort of service for Herefordshire, not only in museums, but in our libraries and archives too.

Because of all the turns you can't make, it looks like a lot of people will have to drive greater distances than before to get to some places if they use this road? How is that supposed to help "congestion"? And where is the "transport hub" at the station? The obvious thing to do was to make it easier for rail passengers to walk to the city centre, take a bus, or hire a bike. Do we not welcome tourists, shoppers, students, etc. arriving by train or bus?

I have learned this week that the continuing cuts to Museum staff mean that after the end of September, the main Museum above the Library can only be open if there are volunteers available. The Black and White House remains the main attraction, but almost all the extensive museum collections, that surely belong to all the people of Herefordshire, will remain out of view holed up in Friar St. for the foreseeable future.

The press release from the Chair of Herefordshire Library Users Group was very odd and unexpected, as he had been kept informed about how plans were progressing for many months. Something funny going on or a big misunderstanding. Things are not as they seem. HMSSG News Bulletin - Update on the ‘Resilient Heritage’ project. 25 September 2017. This Heritage Lottery funded project is now underway, with internationally respected consultants Prince and Pearce commissioned to investigate all feasible options for a sustainable future for Herefordshire Council’s Museum Service, in the light of the Council’s decisions on budgetary priorities. This investigation is being carried out with links to the other Council Cultural Services which are also being hit by funding cuts – the Archives Service and the Library Service – and their respective Support Groups, all of which will be involved in this project. The Museum Service consists of five inter-dependent aspects - the valuable County Heritage and Art Collections (100,000 precious and fascinating objects that are held in trust for the people of Herefordshire); the specialist storage and learning centre at Friar St; the Black and White House in High Town; and the Museum and Art Display Galleries upstairs in Broad St; along with the various professional staff skills needed to meld everything together and enable the public to have access to the wonderful collections. This HLF Resilient Heritage project has been long in the planning – as has been reported in HMSSG Newsletters and through other channels since last year (2016). It is a Herefordshire Council project in which HMSSG is a partner. (HMSSG is a registered Charity consisting entirely of volunteers, which is committed to preserving the Collections and ensuring continued and improved public access to them.) This project is one among a number of steps being undertaken by the Council to find best ways forward for all their Cultural Services, and HMSSG consider it to be a responsible approach for a Local Authority to explore as wide a range of options as possible for the Services for which they are reducing or withdrawing funding. The Resilient Heritage project is complementary to the 31 Broad St Development Group’s work to investigate the potential for re-developing the Library and Museum building in Broad St. Taking account of that work is among the priorities of the Resilient Heritage plan that was submitted to HLF, and is part of the Consultants’ brief. There is also an income generation strand to the Resilient Heritage project which is looking into effective fund-raising methods at a time when public Council funding is on the wane, led by experienced arts-sector income generation consultant Annabelle Elletson. Significant and challenging changes are already underway for the County’s Cultural Services (Museum, Library, Archives) and this project will help to assess some realistic next steps to identify future models that will work. It’s now an urgent question - how to ensure a future for the Museum Service and the other affected Services? HMSSG is committed to working collaboratively with all Cultural stakeholders to work towards viable ways forward. HMSSG Committee/Trustees

"All renovation works continue to be delivered within allocated funds, with part-funding from an underspend in the accommodation budget and a DWP revenue contribution. This will bring the total estimated cost to £1.92million." This is the "version" of the story from Herefordshire Council News yesterday: Joint customer services hub will open Monday 4 September Herefordshire Council’s central customer services team will move from Franklin House to the newly-refurbished Blueschool House, opening to customers on Monday 4 September 2017. The joint customer services hub will welcome the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), Jobcentre Plus and housing services, meaning customers will save time and travel less when needing access to a variety of service providers. Herefordshire Council will achieve a saving of over £1million over the next ten years by investing in Blueschool House, receiving rental income from DWP and saving on property costs for Franklin House. Councillor Harry Bramer, Cabinet Member for Contracts and Assets, said: “I am pleased to announce that the Blueschool House joint customer services hub will open on time in September, despite the challenges we have faced along the way from discovering asbestos to improving the IT infrastructure. “By sharing the space between Herefordshire Council customer services, Jobcentre Plus and housing services, we can provide a fully-accessible city centre hub with an improved experience for customers, including those with multiple needs.†All renovation works continue to be delivered within allocated funds, with part-funding from an underspend in the accommodation budget and a DWP revenue contribution. This will bring the total estimated cost to £1.92million. The refurbishment of Blueschool House marks the completion of the council’s current accommodation programme, although Herefordshire Council will continue to review its corporate premises and consider future opportunities when they arise. Published: Thursday, 20th July 2017 Who can reveal and challenge all the inconsistencies we are hearing here?

Or of course it could be a Council drone? An easier way to survey for bypass routes etc.?

I edit a website in which there are (were) links to all sorts of Council documents, especially about the natural environment. Now we have the new Council website I find that many of the links I had included no longer work. I will need to check them all and change them if I can, where they still exist in another form. Some links seem to have disappeared completely. How many other local or community websites may be affected, and how long will it take people to realise what has happened? No-one at the Council thought of the implications for others, did they?

I agree, it makes me angry too. 1 Ledbury Road is not a luxury like a website. It's a necessity. There is no other functional way to provide families with the support and respite that they can't manage without. Can Councillors not stop to imagine, for just a few minutes, what they are putting these families through?

Here's a Woodland Trust/ Ancient Tree Hunt map of ancient, veteran and noble trees around Hereford.