UPDATE: Herefordshire Council Street Works in Hereford

Hereford BID, as well as many of our businesses, have been asking for an update on promised street works in Widemarsh Street and St Peter's Street. In addition, we have received feedback that many business are keen to learn more about the Cathedral and River Quarter consultation, as some were unable to feed in.

Below is an edited response from Herefordshire Council, but further clarification has been requested, such as the forward plan for St Peter's Street.

Widemarsh Street kerb

A decision to include enhancements to Widemarsh St into the HCCI programme (which is part funded by Marches LEP) was made in October 2021 following the number of complaints regarding trips and falls on the street. 

A scheme was agreed and reached the detailed design stage, at which it was identified that it was unlikely to meet disability compliance guidelines due to the gradients of the cross-fall.  The scheme was paused while a design review took place to assess options. All options have been identified and an estimated cost applied with issues discussed in detail. A recommended option has been agreed internally and we are now providing elected members the opportunity to review this and give their guidance on how to proceed.

It is anticipated that Herefordshire Council should have a decision for the approach in the next week or two on this matter and an update will follow. It has been further complicated by the fact that a number of the options exceed the current available budget and so we have needed to also identify how/where to re-profile the funding if necessary.

Cathedral and River Wye Quarter (CRWQ) Design

Any responses sent in the last week or two to Mark Edwards, Project Manager, may be delayed due to Mark retiring from the Authority. Our partners, Burroughs, have been working hard on this project to pull all of the strands together and we are now in a position to take the draft design to public consultation. Herefordshire Council received Cabinet Member consent to do so last week, and the wider public consultation is due to commence Friday 29th July.  A press release will be provided shortly for BID members and affected businesses, who will be able to provide further comment at this time.

St Peter’s Street

There was an aspiration to address some of the dipping/ponding issues in St Peter’s Street as part of the High Town Minor Works project set out in the Cabinet Member decision of October 2021.  Through the design process, it has been identified that St Peter’s Street requires a far greater intervention than was initially considered and unfortunately the budget is insufficient to carry out the works required at this time.