PLANS to create an “urban village” and wetland park in an undeveloped and flood-prone part of Hereford near the football ground are still on track – despite little progress yet being visible on the ground.

Around 100 people attended a procession at the city site on September 7, led by Herefordshire Wildlife Trust, as part of an action day for rivers that also included a gathering in Ross-on-Wye.

Herefordshire Council set out ambitious plans in spring 2023 in a draft masterplan for Hereford including for the ‘Station Quarter’ north of the centre between the Edgar Street ground and the railway station.

“Redeveloping this quarter in phases would provide a valuable opportunity to help meet Hereford’s housing need within a sustainable urban neighbourhood,” it said.

Alongside this, on the former Essex Arms site, by the new City Link Road to the east, was to be a new “destination” urban wetland, to serve as “an informal, green, active travel route through to the urban village from the station”, according to the masterplan.

Supporters of the scheme marched from High Town to the proposed wetland site on Saturday, where they signed a pledge to “work together with urgency” on the plan.

Herefordshire Wildlife chief executive Jamie Audsley said the trust was “a key partner” with the council in bringing the wetland forward, with new funding from the Environment Agency now enabling a preliminary hydrological analysis of the site.

A council spokesperson said it is “looking to commission a masterplan to explore the potential to develop a mixed tenure multi-generational urban village” in the area.

This would seek to “integrate housing, alleviate flooding , and deliver a significantly enhanced local environment including the potential for open green space and a possible wetland”.

The council is meanwhile about to approve spending of a £2m government grant, first awarded in 2021, to design and implement a flood alleviation scheme for the adjacent Merton Meadow area, in order to ready it for social housing.

In Ross, as part of the action day, Holly Williams, Programme Officer for the Wye Adapt to Climate Change project was joined by over 20 people to learn more about testing water for pollution – and recruited some new citizen scientists.