Approval of transport plan an 'important step', says leader of Herefordshire Council
Herefordshire Council's Local Transport Plan for up to 2041 was passed at last Friday's (5 December) full council meeting
Herefordshire Council's leader has said the passing of the its local transport plan for up to 2041 now allows the authority to develop more detailed strategies for travel around the county.
The document, which is designed to give people more travel options and quicker journeys, whether driving, using public transport, walking, cycling or wheeling, was approved at a full council meeting last week on the 5 December by 36 votes to 13.
In it, it aims to set out a series of action plans for "both major capital infrastructure developments" and "innovative local projects" following consultation with more than 500 local people and organisations.
"The most important point about the local transport plan is to have a joined up strategic approach," councillor Jonathan Lester said, leader of Herefordshire Council.
"People tend to focus on one mode of transport over another but I see it as a whole package and all of the modes of the transport have to complement each other.
"This is an overarching document which will then allow more detailed plans to come through, like a plan for cycling, walking, wheeling and that will enable other modes of transport to come online, but you can't create these documents until you've got this overarching transport plan, which we've achieved."
The authority have said previously the plan covers a "wide range" of new developments over coming years across the county, including things such as Hereford’s Western Bypass and new walking and cycling routes.
Herefordshire Council’s cabinet is set to next week consider whether to begin the statutory process for making a Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) to secure land required for the first phase of the Hereford Bypass.
The council say that this step, if approved, would be a "normal and established practice for major infrastructure schemes across the UK", and would enable the council to deliver the project within the planned timescales, which is due to see construction get underway by the end of 2026.
It added its "preferred approach" remains to acquire the land required through negotiation, and discussions with landowners are continuing in "good faith".
Councillor Lester said the bypass would create things such as room to do more active travel measures in the centre of the city.
"One of the other aspects to the bypass is that the road infrastructure in Herefordshire has a regional significance, and without that extra investment and infrastructure it causes complications in other parts of the region, so it has a strategic importance," he said.
"It's right to get it right and then also once we've solved the issue of transport resilience by introducing a bypass, it opens up the scope to be much more inventive in the way that we can ease congestion and deal with the growth of Herefordshire and the growth of Hereford itself."