Herefordshire council to pay Lidl to make city spot more cycle-friendly
Work to improve road and pavements is expected to begin shortly at the new Lidl store in Belmont Road
Herefordshire Council is to pay nearly £50,000 to Lidl to make the layout in front of its new Hereford supermarket more cycle-friendly.
The discount retailer had already undertaken to make alterations to the A465 Belmont Road to the southwest of the city as part of its ongoing development of a new store on the adjacent site of the former Three Counties Hotel.
This is to include a new traffic island west of the store entrance, and a 3-metre-wide footway for pedestrian and cycle use up to the junction with Goodrich Drive.
New plans now show this work will also include a new toucan crossing at the current traffic island to the east, allowing pedestrians and mounted cyclists to cross the busy road at the same time.
There will also be a short new section of cycle path to the immediate west of the store site, linking Belmont Road with the residential area between it and the river Wye.
The record of the council’s decision says it will pay Lidl £48,333.45 to install these, “that are over and above the consented Lidl highway accommodation works”.
According to a spokesperson for the council, it has some “Levelling Up” funding from the Government available to improve walking and cycling in this area as part of its Quiet Routes project.
“We have asked Lidl to undertake the cycleway improvements as a part of their Section 278 agreed highway improvement works, with a contribution from our project, as it will be more efficient and cost-effective for the works to be delivered at the same time,” they said.