A proposed new combined police and fire station for Hereford has been formally scrapped, and a new base for either service in the city is unlikely any time soon.

The planned dual-use building, first put forward in 2015 by Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service, was to be next to the Hereford FC ground, at Merton Meadow, Edgar Street.

But this month the withdrawal of the application was formally confirmed by Herefordshire Council's development manager Kelly Gibbons.

The fire service’s application said at the time that Hereford’s current fire station on St Owen Street, built in 1951, “is in a poor condition, on a constrained, poorly configured site”, and “fails to comply with a number of current legislation requirements”.

Refurbishing it would cost about £5.5 million, and yet would not address all the issues with it – making a new larger purpose-built facility “more economical”, the application said.

The fire service’s area commander and assistant director for assets Adrian Elliott has now said: “We are currently working on feasibility studies for a new fire station in Hereford, and one of those feasibility studies is that we build a new station on the same site in St Owen Street.”

Meanwhile, the city’s current police station, nearby on Bath Street, is also “not conducive to modern police working” and fails to meet regulatory requirements, according to the proposal for the new station.

Combining the two in a single, more energy-efficient building would have better met the needs of each, reduced maintenance and running costs, and enabled the two services to work better together from a location with improved vehicle access, it said.

The office of the West Mercia Police and Crime Commissioner has now likewise said: “In Hereford, feasibility studies were undertaken to identify suitable options for collaboration with fire and rescue services, but at this current time we are no longer exploring a joint venture.”

After an initial flurry of consultation following its publication, the project drew little opposition and appeared to be on track, even though the Merton Meadow site has flooded several times in recent years.

The Environment Agency said at the time that it did not object to the plans on flood risk grounds, but urged that a study be prepared and approved to the show it would “not increase flood risk to third parties”.

However since then the plan appears to have languished, with both emergency services continuing to use their existing facilities in the city.

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More recently, Herefordshire Council has earmarked the Merton Meadows site for social housing – though this prompted renewed concerns about its susceptibility to flooding.

The council did not comment on the fate of the joint station proposal.