On Friday June 14th at 7pm at the Three Counties Hotel, Belmont, a select group of residents were invited to attend a meeting, as a follow up to a meeting held in March 2013, about the Southern section of the proposed Hereford Relief Road. For some reason the meeting was apparently by “invitation only”, from Cllr Russell B Hamilton who has responsibility for Environment, Housing and Planning.
People not on the Council’s invitation list, but who will be directly affected by subsequent sections of the Relief Road, including residents in adjoining parishes, were refused entry. Even the local ward councillors of Belmont, where the meeting was held, were not permitted to attend the meeting and only heard about the meeting indirectly. Cllr Hamilton commented afterwards: “This was a meeting to which people were invited; it was not a public meeting. No one who was invited was turned away. I am sorry that some don’t understand what “by invitation” means”.
Cllr Hamilton is responsible for delivery of the Core Strategy for Herefordshire which plans the future of the whole county for the next 20 years. During the most recent Consultation period he said he would listen and learn from Herefordians about what they wanted for their beloved City and County. It seems Cllr Hamilton does not extend this promise to comments on the southern section of the proposed Hereford Relief Road. At the meeting, it did not matter whether those who were turned away were equally affected by the proposed route, as those who had been invited, nor did it matter if they were people who knew something about road infrastructure who could have made positive contributions to the meeting. They were refused entrance.
What happened at the meeting? We don’t know because the individual charged with letting us know what happened was turned away.
Here for Hereford will post another report on this “private” meeting costing “public” money, when they have been advised of the content of the meeting. Watch this space.
