A FORMER Mayor of Hereford has said the city doesn't need the Rotherwas access road.

Councillor Marcelle Lloyd-Hayes told the Hereford Times the money Herefordshire Council wanted to invest in the road would be better spent on getting the Edgar Street Grid going.

Concern at the rising cost of the council's Rotherwas project - soon expected to top £20 million from a £3 million estimate for a road six years ago - dominated a meeting of the strategic monitoring committee on Monday.

The committee, which oversees and questions cabinet decisions, called for more detail on how the council could cover an estimated £8 million shortfall in funding for the project and guard against inflation.

After the meeting, committee member Coun Lloyd-Hayes said the council and city needed to ask whetherthe road was really worth it.

"I talk to people working at Rotherwas who say the road won't make much difference. The Edgar Street Grid is far more important to Hereford's future and needs to get going if it is to retain any credibility," she said.

In August, the Hereford Times revealed that the council was working with regional development agency Advantage West Midlands (AWM) to raise around £12 million to have the Rotherwas road built by 2008.

The paper then revealed how cabinet committed the council to underwriting an £8 million funding gap so the project could meet agreed timetable with tenders out now.

This plan depends on developers interested in building 300 new homes at Bullinghope coming up with a cash contribution to the road.

Coun Lloyd-Hayes, Mayor of Hereford last year, said such a strategy was far too risky with so much of the project still to be put in place and South Hereford "saturated" with homes without the community facilities to match them.

"If the council wants to make cash commitments to Hereford then it should look at ways of kick-starting the Grid and spending the £2 million made each year out of city's carparks on a real overhaul of the centre - not wasting as much on re-paving High Town," she said.

Overall, other committee members ageed with the principle of the road and the related Rotherwas Futures project. But there was worry at what parts of the plan might be beyond the council's control.

Councillor Terry James, who chairs the committee, said members did not want to see council tax raised or reserves raided to cover the shortfall if any deal with a developer went awry.

"Cash is tight enough as it is, and covering project costs doesn't play well when there's already a £3.4 million shortfall in social services funding," he said.