City master plan, anti-terrorism bollards and centre improvement fund
Case reference FOI2024/00342
Published 18 March 2024
Request
I make the following requests under the act.
1. Hereford City Masterplan - A Vision for our City in 2050
I refer to your letter of 3 April 2023 detailing the costs invoiced at that date. I assume that this figure has now increased and request the updated figure and additionally the sources of the funding for this exercise.
2. Installation of anti-terrorism bollards
I note sums totalling in the order of £300,000 for these works, funded in part by the Council and in part Marches Local Enterprise Partnership. Unfortunately the source of the information did not mention the amounts to be contributed by both parties. Please advise these.
3. Hereford City Centre Improvement Fund
What exactly is this and again where has the money come from?
Response
I make the following requests under the act.
1. Hereford City Masterplan - A Vision for our City in 2050
I refer to your letter of 3 April 2023 detailing the costs invoiced at that date. I assume that this figure has now increased and request the updated figure and additionally the sources of the funding for this exercise.
A) The costs for the Hereford City Masterplan project have increased by just over £77,000 since April 2023, and now amount to: £949,065.54.
The sources of this funding are detailed below:
Resource implications
22. As a draft long term vision document, the masterplan does not specifically commit the council to future expenditure at this point. However, following consultation and completion of the final masterplan it will be necessary to develop a delivery strategy based on short, medium and longer term deliverables and their indicative costings and possible funding sources. Whilst the masterplan is a vision for 2050 the speed at which this is delivered will be determined by the availability of council and government resources.
23. To realise the full ambitions set out in the draft master plan by 2050 the county will need to secure significant long term Capitol public and private investment. Having a vision and strategy aligned to government's ambition puts the Council in a good position to seek government funding as relevant bidding opportunities come forward over the next 25+ years. As demonstrated by the successful £25.288million 'Levelling Up Fund' transport bid for Hereford which was recently announced.
24. The council will also need to work with government to identify long term sustainable revenue solutions to support the public transport and demand management aspirations of the masterplan which will be necessary to deliver on the governments decarbonising transport agenda.
25. Cabinet agreed on 24 June 2021to allocate £1.24m of New Homes Bonus and £250,000 from the Settlement Monies Reserve to progress this Hereford Transport Strategy. This funding has been allocated as below:
Hereford City Masterplan = £1,028,000
Eastern River Crossing = £400,000
Local Transport Plan Development = £62,000
Total = £1,490,000
2. Installation of anti-terrorism bollards
I note sums totalling in the order of £300,000 for these works, funded in part by the Council and in part Marches Local Enterprise Partnership. Unfortunately the source of the information did not mention the amounts to be contributed by both parties. Please advise these.
3. Hereford City Centre Improvement Fund
What exactly is this and again where has the money come from?
A) To answer both questions 2 and 3 above; Hereford City Centre Improvements are a £6m programme of projects funded 50% from the Government Get Building Fund as administered by Marches LEP and 50% from Herefordshire Council capital budget. A variety of projects have been funded including the hugely successful public art project and the Widemarsh Street improvements. Another project element is the installation of safety bollards to ensure that the public are protected where there are larger groups of pedestrians e.g. at events/festivals.
Documents
This is Herefordshire Council's response to a freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) request.
You can browse our other responses or make a new FOI request.