Light rail train made in Ross, and working in Stourbridge
Herefordshire Council Conservatives must be looking with hope at George Osborne’s Tuesday budget, its surely got to have something in it for them. Council’s to be allowed to borrow against future receipts – can we get our bypass that way, £5 billion for infrastructure projects, something for us there perhaps, or in the £20bn of cheaper lending, that will help house builders, and therefore the Council through its great white hope, the CIL, the new Community Infrastructure Levy on each house. Or perhaps they can use the £250bn ‘National Infrastructure Plan’ to divert pension funds into the road. Good, good, potentially lots of new ways to get a bypass then – or not.
The Council may get something, but not that. A pension fund wont put money into a road, unless it was a toll road that is, they have to have a return. And as far as the £5bn extra money is concerned, the bypass isn’t even off the starting blocks. Government has consistently sent Herefordshire Council away with a flea in its ear with its requests for money for a road. First they have to prove that they have tried everything else – like more buses and bike lanes, which of course they haven’t. As for borrowing against the CIL, that seems too financially risky. The CIL will have to pay for so much, water, sewage, schools, parks, village halls, affordable housing, and, more to the point, will they ever get it? Will house builders really pay £40,000 per new house as the Council is proposing? They may say they will, but when it comes to it, they wont, they will bargain and reduce it, my guess is to about £10,000. So the Council will be left carrying the can.
It’s a shame because Osborne’s budget does actually offer a lot for Herefordshire. If, for example, we were to propose a light rail system from the south most point of Hereford, along the Great Western Way (easily can be shared use with bikes and walkers), and through to Holmer, with a branch east to the Station, that could provide a return for investors. Gareth Davies at November’s Rail meeting costed just such a system at under £20m. At a £1 flat fare, it would pay for itself within a few years, and provide some good connectivity for everyone and ease traffic congestion as well. Or investment in a county plan of solar energy, or a county network of riding and cycle routes past heritage attractions, connected to B and Bs, these would actually provide a return on investment, and create jobs, and make the place better.