Twenty-one weeks after it delivered its 10,000-signature petition to Herefordshire Council, the all-county It’s Our City campaign is mounting a major day of action in Hereford on Saturday 10 April.
Based in High Town and Maylord Square, IOC’s Campaign Day aims to renew its pledges to the people of Herefordshire to halt planned retail development on the site of the city’s present Livestock Market, north of the Ring Road.
IOC founder Independent Councillor Mark Hubbard concedes that the recent decision to go ahead with the so-called Link Road is a set-back. “The two key issues on which we originally campaigned, and which over 10,000 Herefordians signed up for, were opposition to the costly Link Road and opposition to the expansion of the city’s existing shopping centre northwards,” he says. “The true regeneration of Hereford should not start with shops and internal roads, but proper access into the city.”
Visitors to the IOC Campaign Day will be encouraged to create and mail off letters of objection to their local councillors, MP, central and regional government ministers. They will also see a major ‘outdoor installation’ recording the names of all those who signed the historic 13 November 2009 petition.
Other IOC targets
As well as continuing to campaign against the Link Road and the Stanhope plc Retail Quarter, IOC intends to fight for more city-based affordable ‘green’ housing for the young, a state-of-the-art Multiplex, a much-needed new City Library, a top-to-tail modernisation of the historic Butter Market, and the comprehensive redevelopment of the blighted land lying behind the Green Dragon Hotel.
Cllr Hubbard says that IOC now intends to set up volunteer groups in the county’s five market towns (Bromyard, Kington, Ledbury, Leominster and Ross-on-Wye) in order to broadcast the campaign’s message more widely. In the first instance, anyone wishing to help the campaign should email them on info@itsourcity.org to register their interest.
“Let’s use our 10 April Campaign Day to give notice to the authorities that we’re in this one for the long haul: right up to May 2011, if necessary, when every voter in the county will have a chance to express their views on these issues,” says Cllr Mark Hubbard.