The 19/20 Capital Programme funding was approved by Council 15 February 2019, and included a provision of £3.5m in 19/20 for the Hereford Transport Package.

The 11 March 2019 decision taken by Cabinet Member Infrastructure to approve spending of the £3.65m budget through delegated authority to the Director for Economy and Place.

A Record of Officer Decision was taken by the Director for Economy and Place on 4 June 2019 to authorise commissioning of the 19/20 programme of works through the public realm contract with an initial value of up to £1.7m.

To date £971k has been spent of the £1.7m budget. Costs associated with the continuation of the stated pieces of work are anticipated to be £26k and will be funded from the remaining balance of £729k of the authorised budget of £1.7m.

A decision was taken 9 August 2019 by Cabinet Member for Infrastructure and Highways to pause all work on the Hereford bypass and a review of the project be undertaken to determine next steps. This decision was called in and a General Scrutiny meeting was held 9th September in which recommendations were made.

The Cabinet Member took a further decision 22 October 2019 which took into consideration the recommendations made by General Scrutiny Committee and confirmed a review of the bypass project to determine next steps.


The 22 October 2019 decision recommendations also included the continuation of the following pieces of work whilst the review is undertaken:

• Phase 2a consultation report completion
• Geophysical survey report completion
• Ground Investigation Report (GIR) completion
• Walking and Cycling (WCHAR) assessment completion
• Traffic Modelling
• Large Local Major Bid completion

These works are to be commissioned through the public realm contact within a budget envelope of £71k.

Proposals are assessed for value for money by Herefordshire Council’s Infrastructure and Public Realm contract management teams through due processes before being approved as acceptable.

Public Realm contract commissions can be varied, through the change control contractual mechanism, if priorities change and additional or alternative options would be explored.