Scrapped city masterplan cost £981,000

The cost of a shelved plan to transform Hereford has been called a "disgrace" after nearly £1m had already been spent.

The former administration led by Independents for Herefordshire (i4H) and Greenspublished a draft city masterplan for consultation shortly before they lost power three years ago.

The current Conservative administration decided to abandon the plan, but a Freedom of Information request revealed the council had spent about £981,000 on it before it was dropped.

Herefordshire Council said a new draft masterplan would be issued for consultation "in the coming months".

Terry James, leader of the Liberal Democrats on Herefordshire Council, described the figure as "an absolute disgrace".

"It was obvious the London-based consultants they got to do it didn't know Hereford," he said. "We employ our own staff to do this sort of work. This is the problem with the public sector. That money could have done something for the people of Herefordshire."

He also said some proposals in the draft plan, which would have radically cut car use in the city centre, were "pie in the sky".

Although the current administration said it was now revisiting the process after its decision to progress a bypass for the city, James said many of the traffic-cutting proposals in the previous plan "couldn't be done until the bypass was built".

He said a more recent consultation on a replacement plan had been "half-hearted". A separate FOI request found it received just 11 responses.

"Most people sigh at the word 'consultation' and they fear it will make no difference," he said. "Only a handful of people with agendas, not answerable to the public, respond."

Liz Harvey, leader of i4H and a former cabinet member, said the draft masterplan had "covered all possible options – not just the ones that suited us" and "was intended to support 'what-if' type explorations of planning scenarios to identify the optimum mix for the city".

Former Green cabinet member Jeremy Milln added that the earlier consultation had attracted more public engagement with nearly 400 survey responses and more than 2,000 comments submitted.

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.

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