To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from Councillor P Rone.

Councillor H Bramer gave apologies as it was necessary for him to leave the meeting by 12 noon to fulfil civic duties in attending a funeral.

It was reported that Councillor TL Bowes, who had submitted a written statement in respect of item 6 on the agenda, had declared a schedule 1 interest and had received a dispensation to participate in the meeting.

To approve and sign the minutes of the meeting held on 28 June 2018.

Resolved:       That the minutes of the meeting held on 28 June 2018 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairperson.

To receive questions from members of the public.

Deadline for receipt of questions is 5:00pm on Monday 23 July 2018.

Accepted questions and the respones to them will be published as a supplement prior to the meeting.

Please see https://www.herefordshire.gov.uk/getinvolved for information on how to submit a question.

Questions received and responses given are attached as appendix 1 to the minutes.

To receive questions from councillors.

Deadline for receipt of questions is 5:00pm on Monday 23 July 2018.

Accepted questions and the responses to them will be published as a supplement prior to the meeting.

Questions received and responses given are attached as appendix 2 to the minutes.

To consider: feedback to the HTP Phase 2 consultation, assessment of the shortlist of possible bypass route corridor options, the recommended preferred bypass route corridor, the development of associated walking, cycling, bus and public realm (active travel)improvements and to confirm the scope of the Phase 3 consultation.

The cabinet member infrastructure introduced the item. He highlighted that:

·         the Hereford bypass was a key infrastructure project and a priority in both council and regional transport policies;

·         the Hereford Transport Package would enable delivery of essential future housing and employment;

·         the bypass would provide an alternative route for traffic which currently travelled through the city;

·         significant improvements to the city’s public realm and active travel measures would be delivered alongside the bypass to encourage walking, cycling and use of public transport;

·         the report presented to the meeting set out the response to the consultation on the approved short-list of route corridors for the bypass and technical work which had been completed, culminating in a recommendation that the red route be selected as the preferred route for further development;

·         subject to approval of the recommended route the next phase of work would see more detailed proposals developed and a further round of public consultation;

·         the council continued to engage with relevant Government departments and agencies regarding the funding for the scheme; and

·         the cabinet member and officer team were available to meet with any directly impacted property owners or those close to the route.

The head of infrastructure delivery and the project director from contractors WSP gave a presentation on the phase 2 public consultation and technical work undertaken, and summarised the reasons for the recommendation of the red route as the preferred route for the bypass.

It was noted that:

·         the recommendations from the general scrutiny committee discussion of the draft report were set out in paragraphs 58 to 61 of the report and each recommendation had been accepted;

·         there were a number of technical reports which formed appendices to the report, the hierarchy of these documents was explained and their purpose summarised;

·         a pairwise methodology had been used, which split the bypass corridor into three sections and then further sub-sections before comparing the performance of the shortlisted routes through each sub-section, this was an established approach endorsed by Highways England and other national agencies;

·         the main differences between the performance of the shortlisted routes were environmental and social impacts, the other criteria assessed did not vary much between the shortlisted routes.

Councillor Bramer left the meeting at this point

Views from the General Scrutiny Committee

The chairperson of the general scrutiny committee gave feedback from the committee’s consideration of the draft report. He stated that the committee had discussed the matter very thoroughly and noted that the recommendations made to cabinet had been accepted. The committee had not considered whether there should be a bypass as part of the transport package as this had already been agreed by full council and did not form part of the decision before cabinet in this report. Following its discussions, subject to the recommendations made, the committee felt that it could support the red route as the best performing of the shortlisted routes. The chairperson concluded by thanking members of the general scrutiny committee and all those who had given their time  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.