Progress on a number of spending milestones in Herefordshire announced

Progress on a number of spending milestones in Herefordshire has been announced.

Herefordshire Council’s Cabinet member for finance Pete Stoddart said it was currently investing in over 100 projects in the county.

Among these, the £20-million plan to transform Hereford’s museum and art gallery “will procure the construction contractor later this autumn”.

Coun Stoddart’s colleague, cabinet member for assets Coun Harry Bramer said in May that the project is expected to be complete in late 2026.

Likewise the design stage of the city’s Shirehall library and learning centre “is nearing completion” and this project “remains on track for opening in October 2026”, Coun Stoddart said.

This financial year the council has bought five properties to house single homeless people and is “in the process” of buying three more, he added, while £1.2 million has already been spent on a programme to repair and modernise the county’s schools.

A new fleet of council gritters costing £1.4 million “are now on-site in Rotherwas ready for use”, while new electric bin lorries “will be operational in the coming weeks” as part of a new waste collection contract in the county.

Six new vehicle charging points have been installed in Leominster out a target for the county of 60 for the financial year, while a design team has been appointed to progress plans for an enterprise park in Ross-on-Wye.

But a suitable site has not been found for a planned new “centre of vocational excellence” at Skylon Park, Rotherwas, announced last summer, for which alternative options are now being pursued.

Meanwhile a land agent has been appointed and a programme agreed to progress the southern section of city bypass plan, Coun Stoddart said.

But Independents for Herefordshire group leader Coun Liz Harvey questioned whether the council should be spending on large road infrastructure projects when it was unclear these would be supported by the new government.

Liberal Democrats group leader Coun Terry James responded: “If over £22m has been poured down drain, we would have the link road by now.”

New Green group leader Coun Diana Toynbee said take-up of a scheme to improve Hereford shopfronts “was low, because the threshold was set very high”.

“Walking round the city centre, that’s been a wasted opportunity,” she said.