More than £12m reallocated for Hereford's link road

Herefordshire councillors have reallocated more than £12.3m for the revived southern link road scheme as part of a package of agreed measures.

In May last year, the council's chief executive apologised over the project which went over budget under the last Conservative administration.

But the cost of the scheme was questioned at a meeting on Thursday given the last calculation was in 2014.

The Conservative-led council will decide whether to proceed next month.

Plans for the Hereford bypass and southern link road were approved in 2018 but then put on hold after local elections the following year and ultimately scrapped in 2021 by the then incoming Independent for Herefordshire/Green coalition.

A benefits-to-costs ratio for the link road - between the A49 and A465 - was last calculated nearly 10 years ago, and Ellie Chown, leader of the Green group on the council, told the meeting "costs have gone through the roof since then".

She asked on what basis the £12.3m figure had been calculated "as there is zero paperwork to justify it", adding that without a business case "you don't yet know how much it will cost or whether it will be worth doing", she said.

But Tories responded to say the sum had been allocated "so we can do the necessary work to get the business case brought forward for what is a priority for this council", with a pledge the road would not be built until funding was secured.

Council leader Jonathan Lester said: "Had things been different, that route would have been built by now, and we would not now have to allocate money to get it back on track."

The council is set to next discuss the matter on 23 November.

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