Local Elections 2023: Where the parties stand on the city bypass

A western bypass around Hereford remains perhaps the county’s most controversial and divisive issue over the last decade.

And more than two years after the current coalition formally cancelled a previous plan, the idea remains a live one as local elections approach.

AGAINST

Independents for Herefordshire leader Coun John Harrington, also cabinet member for transport in the county, has long opposed the planned crossing, saying that those supporting going back on the decision to cancel it “are not going to solve any of the problems – they’re not responding to national government requirements for us to do things differently”.

The party’s new website claims any revived plan “would still take another 10 years to do and cost another £250 million-plus”, and “would simply enable thousands more car-dependent homes to be built”.

Its coalition partner the Greens “have consistently campaigned and voted against the construction of a western bypass, because it will not actually solve the congestion problem”, its leader Coun Ellie Chowns said.

Both parties point to surveys showing that only 7 per cent of Hereford’s traffic is crossing the city, the rest is getting into, out of and around it.

“To tackle congestion we need to give the 93 per cent other options,” Coun Chowns said.

Coun Bob Matthews, leader of the True Independents group, and through whose Credenhill ward the bypass road would have passed, confirmed his long-standing opposition to the plan.

Labour’s candidate for Bobblestock ward Anna Coda also said that her party does not support a revived western bypass scheme.

FOR

Liberal Democrat leader in Herefordshire and former council leader Coun Terry James has backed the city bypass plan for over 20 years, claiming that according to the party’s own polling, “around 85 per cent of people in Hereford want the bypass”.

“They are angry about councillors blocking it,” he said. “It’s the foremost issue in Hereford.”

Conservative group leader Coun Jonathan Lester has said that has it not been blocked, part of the scheme would now already have been completed, and has claimed the cancellation has cost the county £22 million.

“After the Green Independents go, it must be put back on the agenda as the only viable way to create economic growth and ease traffic congestion,” he said.