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Plans for a new multi-storey car park in Hereford are back on track.

Tucked away in papers for a full meeting of Herefordshire councillors on October 11 is an update on a council motion agreed in December 2022 to “urgently consider the construction of a multi-storey car park on the present bus station site”.

The council is now calling on its officers to “explore the construction of a new multi-storey car park on the current bus station site to serve the needs of hospital staff, visitors and contractors, [and] to provide additional car parking capacity to support the railway station and town centre”.

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It is expected that much of the current bus station, off Commercial Road northeast of the city centre, will be freed up by the new city transport hub in front of the nearby railway station, on which work is due to start shortly.

The council’s update says that last month it engaged transport planning consultancy Phillip Jones Associates (PJA) “to deliver a report detailing existing and a proposed car parks strategy”.

This is to “include any mitigation provision required to release the Merton Meadows surface car parks for development”, it added.

Last month the council agreed to spend up to £800,000 to work up a plan to prevent flooding in the Merton Meadows area north of the city centre, in readiness for building on it.

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This would lead to the loss of around 800 spaces at the current car park.

PJA’s final report on car parking in the city is due in December. The firm is already involved in developing the transport aspects of the forthcoming masterplan for the city.

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The 2022 motion, put forward by the late leader of the True Independents Coun Bob Matthews, said locals and visitors to the city “frequently complain that at times it takes them an excess of an hour to find suitable parking”.

A new car park would also increase safety for staff coming to and from the adjacent county hospital at night, for whom a floor of the car park could be reserved, his motion added.

The idea of a multi-storey car park on the site dates back at least to 2018, during the previous Conservative administration.