Much has been said about the brilliant news that the Stronger Hereford board have been successful in securing over £22 million worth of funding for projects in Hereford city, but there will need to be further investment and grants secured for every single project to reach its full potential.
Hereford’s Town Investment Plan provides details about each project and the total cost to deliver all 15 projects is estimated to be over £44 million, with plans for a world-class museum in Hereford making up a big chunk of the overall cost.
Here are the plans in detail, along with the estimated cost of delivering each project.
(Please note the wording is from Stronger Hereford)
PROJECT NO: 1 – Soil from the City
Soil from the City is a highly innovative, ambitious and achievable project, planning to divert commercial and municipal food waste from landfill and turn it into a resource to benefit the city. It will put Hereford at the heart of Britain’s emerging green technology sector and will contribute meaningfully to levelling up the city.
By using emission-free modes of transport, reducing vehicles on the road and reducing emissions by recovering resources, Soil from the City will contribute directly to the national Government’s 25 Year Environment Plan ‘Clean air’ target to reduce harmful emissions by 2030.
By using emission free modes of transport, reducing vehicles on the road and reducing emissions by recovering resources, Soil from the City will contribute directly to the Government’s 25 Year Environment Plan ‘Clean air’ target to reduce harmful emissions by 2030.
By developing a brown-field site, generating jobs in the green sector and using zero emission transport, this project aligns with the Government’s Ten Point Plan goals for green industrial growth. This project will help achieve our priorities around a sustainable green agenda for Hereford and deliver the following Towns Fund Intervention Framework outcomes:
- Increased number of enterprises utilising high quality, affordable and sustainable commercial spaces
- More sustainable city centre with lower carbon footprint
Total Cost: £1,500,000 | Towns Fund: £1,000,000 | Matched Funding: £500,000
PROJECT NO: 2 – Electric Buses
Hereford “City Zipper” is an electric bus service connecting Hereford’s transport hubs with its cultural, retail and hospitality quarters as well as the city’s principal health facilities.
The “City Zipper’s” aim is to showcase quality zero emission public transport which, through its accessibility and convenience, will encourage people not to use their cars when accessing the core of the city. A ‘frequest’, turn up and go service will minimise the need for users to consult a timetable.
The service will be for a diverse ridership: residents (as 75% of trips into town are from other parts of Hereford), scholars and students, visitors seeking out the cultural sites, and those accessing retail and hospitality venues. A person arriving on a rural or inter-urban bus would find it easy to interchange for the hospital, saving time and avoiding parking hassle. Visitors arriving by train would hop on and off the service to reach attractions, shops, inns and cafés in different parts of the city.
By targeting several markets the service will not only deliver real social value but also increase footfall and visitor spending without contributing to congestion and C02 emissions. The bus service’s bespoke brand will promote the city’s core values and heritage on its vehicles, in its literature and through its city stops. Driver training will include a thorough knowledge of the city and customer care. The “City Zipper” will be part of the welcome, adding to the urban fabric of Hereford. The route will include the Station Medical Centre, Hereford Transport Hub and Railway Station, student accommodation, County Hospital, the Country and City Bus Stations, the Town Hall, St Owen Street (for Castle Green and Riverside), Maylord Shopping Centre, High Town, Broad Street (for cathedral and library), Hereford leisure pool and Old Market retail complex.
This project will help achieve our priorities around a sustainable green agenda for Hereford and provide access to key tourism and retail assets in the City Centre and enhance the travel options for residents. It will deliver the following Towns Fund Intervention Framework outcomes:
- Enhanced townscape that is more attractive and more accessible to residents, businesses and visitors
- Improved affordability, convenience, reliability and sustainability of travel options to and from places of work
- Enhanced high street and town centre experience that prioritises the health, safety and mobility of pedestrians
Total Cost: £2,400,000 | Towns Fund: £1,800,000 | Matched Funding: £600,000
PROJECT NO: 3 – Greening the City
This project will seek to change the face of Hereford and significantly improve the appearance and attractiveness of the city, linking it to its rural hinterland. Key elements include interrelated greening, public realm, and cycling/walking and digital connectivity initiatives, significantly enhancing Hereford as a place to visit, learn, live, work and invest.
The overall physical appearance and public realm of Hereford has been neglected, contributing to the long-term underperformance of its visitor economy, and needs urgent contemporary refreshment. The project seeks to improve perceptions of Hereford city for visitors and to instil pride of place for residents. This project will help achieve our priorities around a sustainable green agenda for Hereford and deliver the following Towns Fund
Intervention Framework outcomes:
- Enhanced townscape that is more attractive and more accessible to residents, businesses and visitors
- Improved affordability, convenience, reliability and sustainability of travel options to and from places of work
- Enhanced high street and town centre experience that prioritises the health, safety and mobility of pedestrians
Total Cost: £1,500,000 | Towns Fund: £1,500,000
PROJECT NO: 4 | SKILLS FOUNDRY 1 – NMITE Future of Work Hub
NMITE Future of Work Skills Hub will be located in a technology-rich, flexible site in High Town and will support Hereford residents, from school leavers and NMITE learners to businesses and mid-career shifters. It will help individuals to understand and identify career opportunities as well as offering flexible support to enable them to reach their full growth potential. Young people transitioning into the labour market will be given help to secure high-quality, meaningful work placements, whilst employers will be empowered to develop structured, age-appropriate content with SMART learning objectives. NMITE will work with the award-winning Skills Builder Partnership who have supported over 700 organisations to build high quality support and training.
The Future of Work Skills Hub is a core element in our mission to address Hereford’s skills gap. Even prior to Covid, Herefordshire was a cold spot in the social mobility index, with wages below the national average. With a weak economy and high competition for jobs (particularly in South Wye), Hereford’s young people have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic. This project will help achieve our objective to make Hereford a fairer city and will deliver the following Towns Fund Intervention Framework outcomes:
- Increased share of young people and adults who have relevant skills for employment and entrepreneurship
- Increased number of start-ups and/or scale ups utilising business incubation, acceleration and co-working space.
Total Cost: £2,867,000 | Towns Fund: £2,331,000 | Matched Funding: £536,000
PROJECT NO: 5 | SKILLS FOUNDRY 2 – HCA School of Creative Digital Futures
This flagship, industry-standard, teaching base on the Hereford College of Arts’ College Road Campus will turbo-charge the expansion of HCA’s new School of Creative Digital Futures. Curriculum areas will include film, animation, interface design, games design, social media content and creative digital marketing, Adobe training, app design and build, website creation, motion graphics, projection mapping, virtual and augmented reality and all other areas of digital innovation.
Capital investment will include hardware, software, upgraded campus connectivity, a new motion capture studio, and portable equipment such as free-range Virtual Reality equipment. There are Multiple connections between the partners within the Skills Foundry but in particular the School of Creative Digital Futures will have a fundamental collaborative partnership with the Foundry’s new city-centre Digital Culture Hub.
Total Cost: £850,000 | Towns Fund: £650,000 | Matched Funding: £200,000
PROJECT NO: 6 – Maylord Library and Learning Resource Centre
Maylord Shopping Centre is a strategically significant site, with a footprint of 145,000 sq ft in the heart of Hereford’s city centre. Herefordshire Council secured control of the site through a £4.0 million acquisition in June 2020 to enable its redevelopment to support the regeneration and the diversification of the city centre as a whole. The project will provide a master location for the relocated library which will evolve into a resource centre, creation of a new community re-use café and it will host expanded performance space for Powerhouse and a new Digital Culture Hub.
This initiative will provide:
• Re-purposed mixed use development at the heart of the city centre, regenerating the city by diversifying reasons to visit and encouraging visitors to spend time and money in Hereford (hosting the Powerhouse and Digital Culture Hub).
• A Learning Resource Centre that includes a new public/higher education library. Located in a prominent city centre location will provide the whole community with a wide range of services to support the development of their skills, advice and support in seeking new career or personal development opportunities. We are also exploring opportunities for alignment of activity with the other related projects such as Skills
Foundry and the Digital Culture Hub.
• A community re-use café that would generate an income to support the Learning Resource Centre and other social value activities. The not-for-profit community enterprise would provide facilities for visitors and students. This could, for example, provide opportunities for young people (such as through the Kickstart scheme) and/or those with learning difficulties to gain work experience working in the café.
It will deliver the following Towns Fund Intervention Framework outcomes:
- New, upgraded or protected community centres, sports or athletics facilities, museums, arts venues, theatres, libraries, film facilities, prominent landmarks or historical buildings, parks or gardens
- Delivery of quality residential or commercial space in key locations (town centres, gateway areas, employment sites)
- Delivery of new public spaces
Total Cost: £7,000,000 | Towns Fund: £3,000,000 | Matched Funding: £4,000,000
PROJECT NO: 7 – Holmer Extreme Sports Hub
To create and improve the current outdoor sports facilities located on Hereford’s Holmer Road.
Access to the hub will create a focus for a number of wheeled sports in the city and wider county and will be almost entirely free of charge, optimising accessibility and community physical and mental health benefits and employment opportunities and wheeled based businesses in the area.
The skate park is regularly at full capacity and needs expansion to service growing local, regional and national demand. The cycle track will significantly enhance Hereford’s sports offer creating a local, regional and national visitor attraction, supporting the city’s tourism offer.
This project will address Hereford’s underperforming visitor economy, providing scope to enhance retail engagement and boosting the city’s footfall. It will also help to deliver the Towns Fund Intervention Framework outcome by creating a stronger sports component to the economic development of Hereford that is more visible and easier for residents/visitors to access.
Total Cost: £1,959,000 | Towns Fund: £1,184,000 | Matched Funding: £775,000
PROJECT NO: 8 – Castle Green Pavilion
This project will enhance a much-loved but neglected community asset, open up access to the River Wye and add significantly to the infrastructure of Hereford’s visitor economy. The refurbished pavilion will provide a revitalised home for the Youth Canoe Club, cafe facilities, a multifunctional and flexible community meeting space and a gallery celebrating local arts and heritage. The Pavilion has the potential to become the heart of creative and innovative youth development in the city.
Developing the Pavilion brings a “whole day offer” to people visiting Hereford. We will add to commercial developments in the city by balancing the strong retail development on the north-west of the city with an art and heritage offer on the south-east side; all in walking distance, giving visitors a chance to enjoy the essence of the city’s rural/urban feel.
There is also huge potential for Castle Green to become the Festival Village for Hereford, having successfully hosted large scale events with up to 3,500 people on site. The green is a natural amphitheatre and with the transformed Pavilion as the anchor point, Castle Green can become nationally recognised as a vibrant space of culture, commerce, and community activity.
This project will support Hereford’s creative sector and underperforming visitor economy, delivering the Towns Fund Intervention Framework objective of: Improved arts, cultural and heritage offer that is more visible and easier for residents/visitors to access.
Total Cost: £1,560,000 | Towns Fund: £1,560,000
PROJECT NO: 9 – The Marches Experience (Museum)
The project will establish a transformational world-class contemporary facility in the heart of Hereford with the capacity to accommodate our globally and nationally significant heritage assets such as the Magna Carta, Herefordshire Hoard and collections of antiquities dating back to the Ice Age, in addition to hosting national and international exhibitions. The redevelopment will embrace the latest technologies such as Virtual Reality to tell the story of Herefordshire and the wider Welsh Marches region.
The new museum will aim to attract progressive funding for heritage, culture and the arts to facilitate educational and cultural activity in the city and county, to strengthen community cohesion and engagement and to support the development of job opportunities in Hereford’s cultural sector.
Hereford’s visitor economy has significantly underperformed for decades, at great opportunity cost to the city and the existing museum is an asset with huge unrealised potential. Development of the city’s heritage offer is a core element of our levelling strategy and this project will create ripple-out benefits across the city centre and enhance physical connectivity between the high street and the River Wye.
This project will support Hereford’s creative sector and underperforming visitor economy, delivering the Towns Fund Intervention Framework objective of improved arts, cultural and heritage offer that is more visible and easier for residents/visitors to access.
Total Cost: £15,000,000 | Towns Fund: £5,000,000 | Matched Funding: £10,000,000
PROJECT NO: 10 – Meadow Arts (Station Approach)
A new gateway programme of contemporary public art commissions to animate the Hereford College of Arts’ student accommodation building in Station Approach. This bold project will act as a vibrant statement of intent, signalling the city’s commitment to creativity and innovation. Significant commissioned artworks from high calibre artists will be generated, produced and installed on and around the building, potentially reaching into the city itself.
Our Town Investment Plan is committed to repurposing Hereford as a creative and connected city. This highly original approach to public art, delivered by a respected Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation, will contribute to Hereford’s identity as a cultural destination. Station Approach is ideally situated between Hereford College of Arts’ two existing sites at the College Road/Folly Lane Campus, and its new presence in the city centre, enabling the community of students and staff to more easily connect with the wider community and social and cultural resources of Hereford.
This gateway project will significantly improve the access experience of visitors to Hereford and will deliver the Towns Fund Intervention Framework commitment to:
- Enhanced townscape that is more attractive and more accessible to residents, businesses and visitors
- Improved affordability, convenience, reliability and sustainability of travel options to and from places of work
- Enhanced high street and town centre experience that prioritises the health, safety and mobility of pedestrians
Total Cost: £160,000 | Towns Fund: £90,000 | Matched Funding: £70,000
PROJECT NO: 11 – Encore Music Hub
A Music and Skills Hub in the heart of Hereford meeting the needs of the whole community, including those with disabilities or those who do not engage with music and the wider arts. Encore delivers an extensive range of services to the community. These include a County Music Service, a wide range of well-established music ensembles and a developing range of adult services. The Music and Skills Hub will regenerate a large retail unit in the city centre, giving opportunities for skills development and qualifications, and creating apprenticeships and jobs and attracting footfall. The project is low risk, as 60% of the services are already well-established and it offers the opportunity for significant growth.
Hereford has no centre for community music and these proposals will fill that void, as well as expand the broader and under-developed cultural offer in the city. Although it has never had a permanent base, Encore provides activities for nearly 5,000 people and a new home will meet unfulfilled demand from our young people and adult community.
The project will strengthen Hereford’s cultural landscape and will deliver the Towns Fund Intervention Framework commitment to:
- Improved arts, cultural and heritage offer that is more visible and easier for residents/visitors to access
- Enhanced townscape that is more attractive and more accessible to residents, businesses and visitors.
Total Cost: £800,000 | Towns Fund: £200,000 | Matched Funding: £600,000
PROJECT NO: 12 – Powerhouse
Transforming under-utilised space at Maylord Shopping Centre will result in the creation of Powerhouse: A centre for culture and the creative industries. The redeveloped space will stimulate creative, heritage and visitor economies, and connect community through live experiences and cultural programming, contributing to a renewed and reshaped city centre in a way that drives footfall and economic growth, through tourism and community engagement. Powerhouse, a theatre-making company, has developed cross sector partnerships with local independent businesses, Dakin Events and The Beefy Boys, to generate footfall and economic growth to the area. The ground floor will consist of bookshop and social hub.
The upper floor will be a large multipurpose space, allowing community classes and workshops, rehearsals and creative development resources, including breakaway digital studios and workspace.
An improved Hereford cultural offer. An urgent re-imagining and repurposing of long-abandoned retail-centric assets addressing the ‘nothing to do here’ complaint. Space that brings people into the city centre for cultural experiences, learning and leisure. Opportunity for experiential and cultural tourist programming of national and international status. High Street regeneration through a new model of community, commerce and culture. More visibility and access of learning, with increased cultural interactions with harder-to-reach groups. Growing employment opportunities and halo-effect for surrounding businesses.
This project will strengthen Hereford’s cultural landscape and will deliver the Towns Fund Intervention Framework commitment to:
- Improved arts, cultural and heritage offer that is more visible and easier for residents/visitors to access
- Enhanced townscape that is more attractive and more accessible to residents, businesses and visitors.
Total Cost: £1,004,000 | Towns Fund: £300,000 | Matched Funding: £704,000
PROJECT NO: 13 | SKILLS FOUNDRY 3 – Digital Culture Hub
The Digital Culture Hub (DCH) led by Rural Media in partnership with Hereford College of Arts (HCA) will create an ecosystem of digital creativity and innovation, marking the city/county out as a cultural leader in rural regeneration and social mobility. The DCH will aggregate in a single, contemporary space the creative technologies, tools and expertise to inspire and raise the skill levels in the county, to take advantage of the booming, post-Covid digital economy.
Capitalise on the growth (turbocharged by Covid) of creative industry micro-businesses choosing to locate outside urban conurbations. Benefit public, private and VCSE sectors and the county’s zero-carbon targets by building digital skills. Inspire and transform the way residents and visitors experience Herefordshire, and businesses reach out to new markets and investors. Attract start-ups from further afield to relocate to Herefordshire. Address the critical issue of ex-migration of young people. This project will help achieve our objective to make Hereford a fairer city and will deliver the following Towns Fund Intervention Framework outcomes:
- Increased share of young people and adults who have relevant skills for employment and entrepreneurship
- Increased number of start-ups and/or scale ups utilising business incubation, acceleration and co-working space
Total Cost: £1,745,000 | Towns Fund: £1,195,000 | Matched Funding: £550,000
PROJECT NO: 14 – River Wye Infrastructure
Enhancement of the river and its surrounding infrastructure. This will include wide promenade style pathway that will enhance accessibility for walking and cycling. Lighting and power points alongside Bishop’s Meadow and King George’s playing fields for community events, pop up cafés and markets. The project will involve a ramp leading onto the Great Western Way to connect the south and northside pathways for cyclists and the disabled. Pontoon at the Left Bank Village and Sea Cadets facility to increase utility and access, will provide a crane based at the Rowing Club/Sea Cadets for disabled access to vessels and boat removal from the river. Digital signage will be provided, giving directions and information about events, local amenities and other community based offerings. Installation of seating along the north and south stretches of the river will encourage family engagement. This project will provide infrastructure that will support camping, tourism and “staycation”
Transformation of key tourist attraction, building on the heritage offer. Enhancing a key site in Hereford and the beauty of the most visually accessible section of the river. Increase local business opportunities. More footfall into Hereford. Contributes towards levelling up i.e. improves opportunities for disadvantaged and quality of life for residents. Towpath improvements creating better access and connectivity. Pontoon enables river cruiser access. Better connections between north side and south side of the river. Mobilisation of outstanding riverside “staycation” camping and caravanning offer. This project will support the Towns Fund Urban Regeneration Intervention agenda and will lead to:
- Enhanced townscape that is more attractive and more accessible to residents, businesses and visitors
- Improved affordability, convenience, reliability and sustainability of travel options to and from places of work
- Enhanced high street and town centre experience that prioritises the health, safety and mobility of pedestrians
Total Cost: £1,612,000 | Towns Fund: £1,500,000 | Matched Funding: £112,000
PROJECT NO: 15 | SKILLS FOUNDRY 4 – Southside
Southside will provide a vibrant, inspiring and inclusive sports, food and skills community focal point for the people of South Wye, the most deprived element of Hereford’s population. Southside is a collaboration between two highly energised established community organisations Growing Local CIC and Belmont Wanderers CIC, and NMITE, all of whom share a common goal to improve the future health, well-being, life-chances and employment skillset of the people of South Wye and Hereford. The heart of the project will be the creation of a single physical building – Southside – which will accommodate all partners.
The Southside project will be located in Newton Farm in South Wye, all of which falls in the bottom 10 – 20% most deprived neighbourhoods nationally. There are very few opportunities to engage children, young people, families or adults in this area. The hub, sports pitches and gardens will provide a destination and will be accessible seven days a week.
This project will help achieve our objective to make Hereford a fairer city and will deliver the following Towns Fund Intervention Framework outcomes:
- Increased share of young people and adults who have relevant skills for employment and entrepreneurship
- Increased number of start-ups and/or scale ups utilising business incubation, acceleration and co-working space
Total Cost: £4,257,000 | Towns Fund: £3,644,000 | Matched Funding: £613,000
MORE DETAILS – S20098D-Hereford-TIP-Document-NEW-FINAL-1.pdf (strongerhereford.co.uk)
