Harry Beynon

I know the conversion of retail premises to residential is now automatic. Surely, even though there is a presumption in favour of these developments, the Council must have some control over design? Opposite Steels, a ghetto of cheap conversions is fast creating tomorrow’s slum housing.

Thank goodness! Having seen e-scooters in action in Barcelona and Lisbon, I can safely say they are a menace to pedestrians. If we have to have them they must follow the same rules as cyclists - not use pavements.

Undeterred by the furore at Kingsland, seems someone has tried building a bund to prevent flooding of Westfields FC pitch. Is this a sensible move, bearing in mind the delicate eco-structure of the Yazor Brook and the many hundreds of thousands of £s spent on flood-amelioration measures to enable development of the ESG?

We will see more and more of this as retail units close now that retail to residential change of planning has become automatic. Surely, the Council has some responsibility in terms of approving design? Otherwise, we will have a growing cohort of slum-housing within the city centre.

I agree with Colin. The design of the Old Market neglected to merge it with the historic centre. However, those who were involved in the preliminary debates will remember we were promised BlueschoolStreet/Newmarket Street would be downgraded to a ‘leafy boulevard’ with vehicles tricking by at walking pace. We were told the bulk of traffic would be diverted along the new inner ring-road! Of course, none of this has happened and the Old Market exists as a separate entity. It will now wither as a severed limb unless those plans to bring it within the central core are revisited.

Read in other reports ‘the snowman was built by a three-year-old’. How is that relevant?! Would be interesting to know which element of this guy’s terms of employment he has been deemed to have infringed.

I have stayed away from this forum for a good while after taking abuse for opposing the Old Market development. However, although it gives me little pleasure in saying ‘I told you so’, I told you so! The clamour for The Old Market was predicated on the (perceived) need for larger retail units - something the city was deemed not to offer. The development was pushed through by a Council blind to the fact that retail was changing and online shopping was taking hold. Existing retailers were poached from the historic centre and the usual bunch of formula retailers and restaurants were assembled on a site virtually gifted to British Land by a Council desperate to produce a landmark project. Now, ten years later, we know large retail units and national restaurant chains are the last thing we need. As we tried to argue a decade ago, Hereford’s future lies with small, independent retailers and local restaurants and pubs. The challenge now is how to unravel the blighted Old Market development. The University? Hotel and Conference centre? New Library and Museum? New indoor leisure facilities? Definitely not ‘more of the same’ doomed lookalike retail and eating offers.

Three wrongs don’t make a right!

The Honours System is a joke - Sir Jimmy Savile, Sir Philip Green? Now a knighthood for someone who refuses to live in the UK for fear of paying his full share of taxation.

In the words of Maggie Thatcher, ‘ Rejoice at this news!’

Wow! Trees!

I've said it before and I'll say it again . . . this is the single most significant development to hit Hereford in the last 50 years!

At the risk of antagonising the trolls on here who refuse to accept that the Old Market has had a negative effect on the historic city centre and who believe 'Hereford has never been busier', the owner of Outback Records in Church Street this week announced their closure after 50 years. In the Hereford Times article she was quoted as saying the demise of Outback was directly attributable to a 30% drop in footfall since the OM opened! Anecdotal but a story being repeated throughout the city.

I was wrong about one thing. I had thought Hereford Voice was an open forum where everyone's opinion was respected - not a mouth-piece for abusive trolls like Ragwrt!

Oh really? Then why is The Maylord and Commercial St festooned with empty shops?