£7m works to make part of city bike- and walker-friendly

Seven million pounds is to be spent making part of Hereford easier and more appealing to use by non-car traffic.

Herefordshire Council has opened a tender for a principal contractor to install active travel improvements along Holme Lacy Road and the Straight Mile, running from Ross Road in the south of the city to the Rotherwas industrial zone.

It values the contract at £7 million and says it expects it to be carried out between this June and March of next year. The tender closes to bids on April 7.

The work will be partly paid for out of Herefordshire’s £20-million award from the government’s Levelling-Up Fund, from which a larger share is earmarked for the city’s new Transport Hub in front of the railway station, where is expected to start imminently.

Herefordshire Council said at the time of the award announcement at the start of last year that the Holme Lacy Road scheme was intended to encourage local residents and workers at the zone to walk or cycle to work.

“There will be a series of improvements along the Holme Lacy Cycleway to encourage more and safer active travel to work and local services,” it said.

A consultation on the scheme among residents and businesses was carried out in summer 2022 but little had been heard of it since.

Among proposals made at the time were:

• A continuous cycle track, partly segregated from pedestrians, part shared, running partly on the north, partly on the south side of the main road, with additional “quiet zones” further from the road;
• A diagonal signal-controlled crossing for cyclists under the railway bridge, with a “raised speed table” to limit vehicle speeds;
• Similar raised tables at the Hoarwithy Road roundabout; between Hinton Road and Winstone Road; between Dinedor Avenue and Norton Avenue; and at entrances to Goodwin Way and Thorn Business Park;
• Priority crossings for cyclists at Putson Avenue, Hinton Road, Chestnut Drive ad Hinton Avenue;
• New two-metre-wide stretches of footpath;
• A new pedestrian crossing on the stretch between St Clare’s Court and Lower Bullingham Road;
• Bus stops relocated where necessary;
• New “rain gardens” in green areas alongside the road.

Herefordshire Council was asked to what extent the work being tendered for resembles these original proposals.