Last chance to stop the bypass, send a message
This is the very last chance to help stop the Hereford Bypass. On 21 January the County Cabinet will reveal the write-downs of past capital expenditure on these road schemes. On 2 February Full Council will vote on the Recommendations of County Cabinet to scrap them in favour of sustainable developments.
Were urge you to email your Herefordshire County Councillor and copy it to the head of Transport Infrastructure John Harrington and the Council leader David Hitchiner. Copy it to your MP.
Find your councillor here:
https://councillors.herefordshire.gov.uk/mgFindMember.aspx
Send a copy to these people
John.Harrington@herefordshire.gov.uk
David.Hitchiner@herefordshire.gov.uk
officeofbillwigginmp@parliament.uk
Please use this draft letter to make your own points.
Dear County Councillor
It has come to my attention that the council plans to take the final decision on the Hereford Transport Strategy in early February. I am writing to you to express my support for the difficult decisions you must now make for the benefit of our County. I understand that the previous Council failed to develop the Western Bypass after many years, due to lack of funding from Government because they failed to develop a plausible final business case, despite many years and millions of pounds spent on consultants reports. We elected you to represent us because they failed to develop better transport infrastructure.
I believe that you took the right decisions to review the failed transport strategy in the light of the Climate and Ecological Emergency. Following the extensive work of the World Wildlife Foundation and Global Meteorological Organisation, the public is now fully aware that major road building projects are both damaging to our fragile ecosystems and add greenhouse gas emissions, both during construction and for decades afterwards from increased traffic.
The track record of the previous Council on projects like Blueschool House and the City Link Road gave you, the new Council, every cause for concern about the inadequate capital spending controls. The poor systematic controls and lack of accountability over tens of millions of pounds spent already could not be allowed to continue especially given the proposed increase in scale to hundreds of millions of pounds on future infrastructure investments like the Hereford Transport Package and the South Wye Transport Package.
The public inquiry over the compulsory purchase orders for the Southern Link Road raised may more issues of great concern. In particular, the lack of transparency in capital budgets, poor financial controls leading to cost overruns and lack of open tenders for procurement. In addition, the omissions in environmental impact analysis for ancient woodlands, heritage landscapes, protected species in the River Wye and Wye Valley and totally inadequate mitigation raised substantial public awareness.
The previous Council was reduced to raiding funds from the County’s Pothole Repairs and Flood Relief Reserves to further these inappropriate developments. The actions of the Marches LEP (Local Enterprise Partnership) in withdrawing funding for the Southern Link Road during the strategic review process emphasised the inadequate pathways for funding modern sustainable infrastructure developments.
I wholly endorse your approach to faster, more efficient measures to address the traffic congestion in our City with a broad range of sustainable developments. It is just a pity that central Government funding for infrastructure is managed and potentially withheld through the Marches LEP (Local Enterprise Partnership).
The public was misled by the previous Council to believe that the proposed major urban expansion of Hereford was a bypass. They now understand the proposed urban expansion on flood plains west of our City would add far more traffic. Thank goodness you stepped in to review and hopefully stop this highly dangerous and destructive development proposition.
I look forward to the modern Countywide transport infrastructure commensurate with our current and future needs for the health of the new university students, City residents both young and old and all City workers. Herefordshire constituents deserve sustainable transport infrastructure that promotes better health, protects our heritage landscapes and preserves biodiversity.
The economy of our region will thrive as more professionals relocate here to work online and the new university takes off. You have already demonstrated a new approach by capitalising on our natural assets rather than destroying them. I trust that that you will now secure the support of our local MP’s to expedite the proposals in urgent response to the declared Climate and Ecological Emergency.
Please support the sustainable infrastructure developments recommended by the Cabinet and build a better Countywide infrastructure for generations to come.
Yours sincerely
Herefordshire