Those who are attracted to the apparently logical eastern route of a bypass might like to look at the history of previous attempts in the late 80s and early 90s.

I suggest the archives of The Hereford Times and perhaps the Herefordshire Nature Trust.

The first proposal, a route close to Aylestone Hill failed on safety grounds.

The second, a route across the Lugg Meadows was denied by the Secretary of State for the Environment on environmental grounds.

Subsequently a ‘Round Table Conference’ involving all interested parties and chaired by the Secretary of State for Transport devised an acceptable but long, circuitous and very costly way round.

In the financial circumstance of the moment this was parked in the ‘pending file’ to await better times but one of the first actions of the incoming 1997 Labour Government was to kill the project.

Sir Colin Shepherd

Ganarew