Plans to create a transport hub in front of Hereford station have been slammed as inadequate on many counts.

In its formal objection to the scheme, Hereford City Council said the proposed four bus bays are “insufficient for future development of a genuine transport hub” and would “undermine the [county] council’s published policies on public transport”.

In particular the lack of a space within the forecourt for the new Hereford Zipper electric buses, which launch next week, is “irrational and inconsistent with the declared intention of creating a unified transport hub”, councillors said.

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Instead, the new buses will stop on the City Link Road in front of the new hub.

The three spaces for taxis and 11 for cars picking up passengers in front of the station building were also “inadequate”, the city councillors said.

And they felt too little consideration had been given to the impact on the existing Victorian railway station building, which is grade II listed.

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The overall design “appears confused between a transport hub or a community garden”, given what they called its “excessive planting”.

Of particular concern to councillors were the trees intended to grow in planters rather than in the ground, which have proved difficult and costly to maintain on the adjacent road.

Meanwhile Carole Protherough, on behalf of Herefordshire Women’s Equality Group’s Disability Working Group, said the plans “do not go far enough to meet the needs of the approximately a quarter of the county’s population who are older and disabled”.

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The scheme offers “no help to people arriving by train wishing to explore Hereford who could benefit from the use of a wheelchair, or mobility vehicle”, she said.

Network Rail has said it has “no objections in principle” to the planning application, consultation on which ends tomorrow (November 17).

Herefordshire Council has already invested £3 million in the plan, expected to cost £10 million overall with most coming from central government funding.