Hereford urgently needs better buses, better support for cycling and walking, 20mph speed limits, and safe routes to school. You intend to delay these much-needed improvements until the Hereford Bypass is built in 2025.
Traffic congestion and air pollution in Hereford is a problem NOW. It will get worse as more houses are built. A £200m bypass, which you acknowledge will 'not on its own reduce congestion,' is not the answer. We need lower cost, proven solutions now, not in 7 years time.
Please scrap plans to develop the Hereford Bypass before any sustainable measures have been tried.
This is the follow on from the Southern Link Road, which was always a stealth precursor to the bypass plans. We will be updating this with more info in the coming days, meanwhile tell all your friends and relatives to get on board with this new campaign specially if your property is affected.
Highways England have said "under current guidance the building of new road infrastructure could only be justified in policy terms when other avenues such as travel planning and sustainable travel modes had been developed and shown not to address the transport needs and issues identified" (2014).
Following public consultation in 2017, Herefordshire Council acknowledged that "improving pedestrian and cycling routes were a priority" for respondents, and that "more reliable and quicker bus journeys were among the top five improvements that should be made a priority in Hereford".
One may legitimately ask why they are not acting on this feedback. They obviously have a different agenda that doesn't fit with the electorate's views.
We have been aware of the presence of way too many traffic light controls which rather than facilitating smooth transit around the city, are badly timed to seemingly snarl the city traffic on a daily basis ... 18 sets of lights on one junction being the perfect illustration of our point, and if you're a pedestrian you need to be amazingly nimble ... not a city for the weak and slow.
We also doubt there is anyone out there who believes this next item was a right way to behave ... Apologies don't cut it when people's homes and lives are at stake. PEOPLE living on the proposed routes of Hereford’s new bypass were not given notice that their houses could be demolished.
Many of the residents living on Kings Acre Road only discovered their homes were in the firing line of the western bypass when they saw reports in the Hereford Times or were told by neighbours.
http://www.herefordtimes.com/news/15998820.Hereford_residents_left_in_the_dark_about_proposed_bypass_through_their_street/
Maps © Stamen; Data © OSM and contributors, ODbL
You can also complain to The Advertising Standards Authority
The consultation literature is misleading.:-
1. It offers a choice of yes or no to a bypass but this is not a real choice as Cllr Price has effectively said he will ignore any “no” choices.
2. The journey time savings on page 8 are misleading and there is no evidence available to support the claims made by Herefordshire Council.
https://www.asa.org.uk/make-a-complaint.html
More things you can do:
Write to the Dept for Transport
Explain that the proposed bypass and the new housing at The Elms the road is supposed to “unlock,” both risk the loss of over 3,000 jobs at Cargill and Heineken, as well as risking further jobs in the supply change. The letters from Cargill and Heineken solicitors to Herefordshire Council objecting to the Three Elms development confirm this in black and white. In addition, the cost of developers funding this new “bypass” means that any housing development at Three Elms will deliver NO affordable homes. The Church Commissioners agents Nathaniel Lichfield and partners made it clear in their letter to Herefordshire Council (8th Feb 2017), that if developers have to pay for a new road they cannot fund affordable homes at the same time. The Council have to decide on one or the other, they can’t have both affordable homes and a new road.
(Department for Transport, Great Minster House, 33 Horseferry Road, London, SW1P 4DR)
Some things you can do:
1. Respond to the consultation before 20th March 2018.
Respond either online (https://www.herefordshire.gov.uk/HTP ) or by post. Hard copies of questionnaires and free post envelopes are available in Hereford library or council offices.
You may well be saying "I've signed the petition, what else can I do?"
The consultation forms are available at the Central Library along with their exhibition so be sure to fill in the consultation and beware the tripwire we have already pointed out (and will continue to do so) on Questions 2 & 3. Particularly the latter.
2 is simple tick NO.
3 is designed to mislead you into offering them the choice of routes so in the box below (as illustrated here) be sure to say you want NO ROAD. Consultation ends 20th March. Be sure to fill that in too.
https://www.facebook.com/1641955076069089/photos/a.1649577801973483.1073741834.1641955076069089/2020463004884959/
Councillor Price revealed his idea of democracy in his answer to the first public question at last Friday's Full Council ....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCO_kkd7CAo
The County Council is pursuing a flawed Core Strategy against Government Guidelines, and against the wishes of its key employers on the West of the City to build large housing estates on AQUIFERS and flood plains against the wishes of its constituents using its Cabinet structure to bulldoze through outdated policies.
LOCAL TRANSPORT PLAN ANNUAL PROGRESS REPORT 2016/17
In our earlier post (5 March 2018) we thought the delays to the publication of this Report were suspicious. We had been told its publication was held up by delays to website design (a strange excuse) and now we have been told that it will not be published. The Local Transport Plan (2016-31) obliges the Council to tackle climate change, reduce car use, carbon emissions, noise levels and accident rates, and to increase public health benefits from walking and cycling. Does the Report show the Council is missing its targets?
Here is the link to the Council’s re-worded Decision Status - note the word ‘Abandoned’ in bold red type.
https://councillors.herefordshire.gov.uk/mgIssueHistoryHome.aspx?IId=50025072&Opt=0
You may well be saying "I've signed the petition, what else can I do?"
The consultation forms are available at the Central Library along with their exhibition so be sure to fill in the consultation and beware the tripwire we have already pointed out (and will continue to do so) on Questions 2 & 3. Particularly the latter.
2 is simple tick NO.
3 is designed to mislead you into offering them the choice of routes so in the box below (as illustrated here) be sure to say you want NO ROAD,
We will also be in High Town on Wednesday (28th February) so come and find out more on how you can help.
https://www.facebook.com/1641955076069089/photos/a.1649577801973483.1073741834.1641955076069089/2020463004884959/
1,000 signatures reached
At the same meeting, businesses leaders from Rotherwas, (Hereford's Enterprise Zone) challenged Councillor Price’s assertion that Rotherwas businesses supported a bypass to the west of Hereford. They explained that they supplied Birmingham, the Midlands and areas to the east of Hereford and so they would not be using the new bypass as it went the wrong way."
http://www.herefordtimes.com/news/16043295.Emotions_high_at_packed_public_meeting_about_western_bypass/
The Council cabinet and local MP Bill Wiggin's claims that the bypass will reduce traffic and improve journey times & increase business were challenged. The representative from Balfour Beatty was asked - 'Taking the main proposals together - that is the bypass, the 6,500 new houses, and economic growth, what is the effect on the volume of traffic [on Whitecross Road].' "He said, 'It goes up.'" Due to the number of new homes proposed at Three Elms, the traffic into the city will more than outweigh the reduction in traffic using the bypass.
The consultation documents clearly imply that the bypass will reduce traffic and improve air quality, but the answer from Balfour Beatty suggests it will make it worse.
http://www.herefordtimes.com/news/16043295.Emotions_high_at_packed_public_meeting_about_western_bypass/
On bypass routes around Hereford, you will see more and more coloured ribbons and NO BYPASS signs.
These trees are at Warham just where the Olive and Black 1 routes would cross the River Wye on a high level viaduct bridge. They are a London Plane and a Turkey Oak and they are very special because they feature in a painting (The Lawns, Warham) by internationally acclaimed artist Brian Hatton. Brian Hatton lived at Broomy HIll before his untimely death in WWII, and this scene he painted has not changed since long before the date of the painting, 1908.
A bypass would destroy this important heritage legacy forever.
https://www.facebook.com/wyeruinit/posts/286780978518637
We have been joined in this campaign by The Woodland Trust ...
Woodland Trust representatives met with supporters and members of the press, following a meeting with Herefordshire Council to express concerns about their plans to build an ill thought out and largely unwanted bypass.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2vt9zgPmLQ
500 signatures reached
For those with a more forensic interest in the behaviour of Herefordshire Council, this recent meeting will provide an insight into the cabinet's behaviour.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdoobtmN-Hc
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