Councillor hits back at 'outrageous' bypass claims

A member of Herefordshire's ruling cabinet has hit back at claims that the £45m first phase of Hereford's bypass is being rushed into for political reasons.

It comes after councillor Liz Harvey, leader of Independents for Herefordshire, said phase one, between the A49 and A465 southwest of the city, needed "more work to demonstrate value for money".

Harvey added that the Conservative-led administration's desire to "get spades in the ground" by December, ahead of local elections the following May, "risks turning a major infrastructure decision into a cynical electoral calculation".

Councillor Dan Hurcomb, from the Conservative group, said the accusation was "outrageous".

Harvey was part of the previous coalition between her group and the Greens, which cancelled the scheme in 2021 - which was then known as the Southern Link Road.

Hurcomb, cabinet member for local engagement and community resilience, said that decision had "cost the council millions in cancellation fees, lost investment, jobs and transport benefits that the bypass would have brought".

It also meant the loss of government grant funding, "which is the reason we now have to borrow the funds to build the scheme ourselves", he said.

Reinstating the project was a key promise of the county's Conservatives and also Liberal Democrats.

It led to a majority of pro-bypass councillors being elected in May 2023.

A cabinet meeting scheduled for 10 September, at which a decision was expected to formally give contractors the go-ahead to begin work on the project, has now been postponed to the 24 September.

Harvey made the comments in the Hereford Times, in which she also said "the land is not yet secured, and design issues remain unresolved".

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Local Democracy Reporting Service