WHY WE ARE AGAINST THIS DEVELOPMENT

The traffic chaos at Belmont in the summer of 2006 is still fresh in everyone’s memory.

Hereford Council now has plans to build houses at Bullinghope. They have scaled down their original plan for 2,000 to 300.  However, like the Stirling Lines development, once the are project starts it will grow to fill the entire 300-acre site.

Four thousand cars will come on to our roads from the 2,000 houses, most of which will cross Greyfriars Bridge each way, every day.  We believe that the chaos of 2006 would pale into insignificance compared with the extra traffic the Council’s plan would generate at Belmont.

We believe the council’s lack of foresight was the cause of the summer of 2006 problems at the Belmont Roundabout.  Councillors blame the Highways Agency for the 2006 situation.  However, as the enabling authority the council could have applied penalty clauses and controls that would have motivated the contractors to be more efficient.

Based on their performance in 2005/06 we do not trust the councils judgement in relation to their Bullinghope/Rotherwas road  proposals

A new Rotherwas road will make no difference to most people in Hereford.  This road will not take a single vehicle off Greyfriars Bridge.

In our view the councils proposals are pandering to vested interests, such as contractors and landowners who stand to make enormous profits at the expense of the residents of South Wye.  They can cut and run, leaving us with the detritus they will leave behind.

There are now two Supermarkets south of the river selling food medicines and a limited selection of clothes. For everything else the 15,000 people who currently live in South Wye have to cross the Greyfriars Bridge or go to Ross or Abergavenny.

Some traders in Hereford are claiming that they have suffered a substantial loss of trade since the start of the Belmont roundabout construction.

This housing is to fund the Rotherwas road, which the Ministry of Transport has said is not value for money.

The government has refused funding for this road on three occasions, as not being value for money.

Hereford in general and South Wye in particular will have to carry an even bigger burden of traffic.

No major construction project has ever come in under budget. When this one doesn’t you will be paying, through your council tax, for another Herefordshire Council bad judgement.

Two thousand more homes at Bullinghope would destroy an area of outstanding natural beauty and would compound the housing density in South Wye caused by the old “Stirling Lines” development.

If Hereford needs more houses then there are very suitable alternatives, which the council chooses to ignore.

To avoid its residents having to cross the Greyfriars Bridge, South Wye needs more amenities not more traffic.