Doubt has been cast over whether part of Hereford’s western bypass scheme, controversially cancelled in 2019, can lawfully be restarted. And it comes down to a potato field.

Jeremy Milln, a former county councillor with the Green party who with their coalition partners Independents for Herefordshire (i4H) previously pulled the scheme, believes the whole exercise of gaining planning permission may now have to be rerun.

“There is no ‘material start’ to the southern link road (SLR) such as is required to preserve the planning permission,” he told a meeting of councillors.

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“Where the (council’s) New Roads Strategy says there is a 150-metre section of the new road, there is a fine crop of potatoes,” he said, and called on cabinet member for transport Coun Philip Price for the strategy to be corrected “to tell the truth”.

Running from the A49 to the A465 southwest of the city, the SLR is to be the first phase of the restarted bypass project.

But Coun Price replied that work carried out, and photographed, near the village of Grafton in July 2019 “cannot be seen in any other way (than) as the start of building a road”, despite its apparent reinstatement since.

A section of road was previously built in the field - but it can no longer be seenA section of road was previously built in the field - but it can no longer be seen (Image: Rob Palgrave)

The condition with the planning permission requiring it to start within three years “has been discharged”, he said.

Cancellation of the entire bypass project was achieved by the votes of a bare minimum of 27 councillors in 2019, Coun Price pointed out.

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“I would hold every single one of those councillors personally responsible for the additional £20 million cost to this council from the cancellation of this project,” he added.

Former council leader Coun David Hitchiner of i4H responded: “I am terribly concerned that I and several others are being threatened with personal liability for several million pounds.”

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But chairman Coun Roger Phillips said the council’s monitoring officer “doesn’t view it as that”.

Council leader Jonathan Lester said of the project, a factor in the Conservatives’ return to power in the county last year, “I am ambitious about the speed with which we should ensuring that parts of the road infrastructure can be commenced as soon as possible.

“It has to be the best way forward to deliver the housing, the growth, and to tackle the congestion that we have.”