Solution to ‘hazardous’ kerbs on Hereford street pledged

Action could soon be taken to fix kerbs on a Hereford street that have been tripping people up for over a decade, according to the area’s councillor.

Widemarsh Street between Newmarket Street (the A438 inner ring road) and High Town was resurfaced at a cost of £1.3 million in 2010, as part of a move to pedestrianise it between 10:30am and 4:30pm daily.

But complaints have been made ever since that the small kerbs edging the remaining single-carriageway road cause trips and falls to shoppers.

Central Hereford councillor Jeremy Milln said: “It’s a high-quality scheme that looks beautiful but unfortunately it trips people up.

“Dealing with it has been top of my list since being elected two and half years ago. I can only apologise that it hasn’t happened yet.”

He said his preferred solution would be to “level up” the roadway, with “resin-bound compound of a suitable colour and texture”.

This would be greatly preferable to “digging the road up again”, which “would be awful, take forever and cost a fortune”, he said.

“It will happen, but quite how has yet to be agreed. Some funding is coming from the local enterprise partnership’s (LEP) city centre improvement scheme which I want to see used to deal with the kerbs as soon as possible.”

He added that he will meet council officers at the street to discuss a way forward next week, while cabinet member for transport Coun John Harrington “is sympathetic” to his proposal.

But “quite a lot of cars” still use the street after 4.30pm, when they have to share the space with considerable numbers of pedestrians, he added. “So you still need some sort of distinction between the two – you have to keep pedestrians safe.”

Meanwhile, one victim of the kerbs has begun a Facebook group to draw attention to the problem after she recently broke her wrist in a fall.

“I was helped by some very kind passers-by who got me to my feet,” said Anna Gardiner, of Bredenbury, near Bromyard.

“I posted a public thank-you on Facebook, and was really surprised when a number of people recounted that either they or friends and family had experienced falls and injuries too.

“It beggars belief that nothing has been done to remedy this by Herefordshire Council.”

A freedom of information request in 2018 found that over 100 trips and falls had been recorded since the kerbs were installed.