Top

Hereford Outer Distributor Road        

Route of ODR, south of the river ODR Route proposed by Bloor and the Church Commissioners; 2009.   large scale map

Some members of Herefordshire Council have proposed an 'Outer Distributor Road' since 2005.  At the moment the ODR is a Herefordshire Council Cabinet proposal, it has not been voted through by Full Council.  Indeed the Council have not yet decided, according to them, whether it should go to the west or east of Hereford.  The beginning of July 2009 saw the end of the West Midlands Regional Spatial Strategy inquiry though the conclusions and report are awaited (July 2009).  At this inquiry 19,000 new houses were proposed for Herefordshire, 9,000 in Hereford.  A number of documents to do with the housing and ODR were submitted.  Some of them are available below. 

Herefordshire Council applied to the West Midlands Assembly for £60m from the Regional Fund Allocation of the Department for Transport to part fund the ODR.  They were refused in July 2009 on the grounds that they had not given a route with their application.  They were advised to consider transport solutions that would reduce carbon dioxide, not increase it and apply again for the funding period beginning after 2014.  Read the letter here (page 4 for Hereford)

According to the Hereford Times (see May 5 2009, 20 Feb 2009) and a Herefordshire Council Press Release the cost of the ODR has been assessed at £130 million.  The 2003 TPi Multi Modal Study put the cost on 2002 figures at £40m (see Table 8.2 and 8.3).  The Bloor/Church Commissioners report (document below) has costed the western route and bridge at £49 million, (see Bloor Non Technical Summary below) but this does not include land purchase.  We wonder why there is such a huge discrepancy?

Bloor Homes and the Church Commissioners submitted a number of documents to the Regional Spatial Strategy proposing housing on the south and west of the city where they own land.  They did this through the consultants JMP, the same consultants used by Herefordshire Council for their Multi Modal Study.  See documents below.

In May 2010 a Conservative-Lib Dem coalition was formed.  One of the first actions they did was to abandon the Regional Spatial Strategies, and to leave the decision of housing numbers to Local Authorities.  Herefordshire Council have stated both before the national elections and after them that they will keep to the 18,100 houses.  However, it does put the consultation process to question which was carried out with a given that we had to have 18,100 houses.  Shortly after (June 2010) they wrote to every council advising them that the Priority Road Schemes that Local Authorities present for funding would no longer exist.  Even more, they said that Council's should not raise expectations by consultations and advertising of road schemes, as funding wont be there.  Leader Roger Phillips, in answer to a question at Cabinet June 2010, said he would press ahead with spending £100,000 exploring private sources for the road.  Achievable?  seems unlikely even at the lower (unrealistic?) figure of £40m. 

Rail for Herefordshire believes a reduction in traffic congestion in Hereford can be achieved without building a road through beautiful countryside by investing in buses; for £2 million a year Hereford could have an hourly bus service to Leominster, Bromyard, Ledbury, Holme Lacy, Ross, Ewyas Harold and Kington and places in between from 7.00 a.m. to 11.00 p.m. Another £200,000 would provide a constantly circulating bus around town.   This would take 10% to 20% of traffic off the roads in Hereford, which is all we need. 

Rail for Herefordshire questioned the need for19,000 houses in the County.  See our letter here.

ODR and Housing Documents

Home

Top