Tensions were flying high at Hereford city council's quarterly meeting this morning.
The city is gearing up for its largest development in a millennium, and the council probably thought it would never, in a thousand years, see quite so much opposition to it.
As I wrote previously local Councillor Mark Hubbard is leading the campaign group It's Our City, born solely out of opposition to developer Stanhope's proposed 382,000 sq ft shopping mall to be built in two phases in the city centre.
Hubbard attended the meeting, as did ESG Herefordshire, the regeneration body steering the city's revival. He presented a petition to the council of 9,800 signatures supporting his motion to "suspend, defer or delay" Stanhope's current plans.
Around 300 local residents also turned up in support, despite having to wait outside the council offices. But the voting didn't go in their favour.
Recently in Herefordshire Category
For once it is not the recession that is threaten curb ambitious retail plans but local opposition.
EG reported (15th August) that frustrations were brewing amongst locals in Hereford over a 382,000 sq ft retail quarter (pictured) to be developed by Stanhope in the city centre.
Since then, local Hereford councillor Mark Hubbard has set up a campaign group called It's Our City, calling for the original plans to be torn up and redesigned as a smaller scheme.
The campaigners believe current proposals will be detrimental to the existing city centre shopping which is struggling with vacant units.
The group, which formed nine weeks ago, have collected nearly 9,000 signatures - nearly a fifth of city's population - so it has clearly ruffled feathers.
The petition will be presented to the council and ESG Herefordshire, the regeneration body steering the project, at its quarterly meeting on Friday 13th November.
Hubbard says he hopes that this will be enough to reopen negotiations about Stanhope's proposed scheme. The developer, on the other hand, is adamant that the development will go ahead as planned.
Alistair Shaw at Pendower Developments, which is managing the project for Stanhope, says that the scheme will not be scaled back and that a development agreement will be signed imminently.
It sounds like the council is in for a tough time at its meeting next week but not as tough as steering the scheme through planning could be if applications are submitted on schedule next year.
Hannah Brown continues her guest blog during her weeks work experience.
Today is my birthday and I arrived to be greeted by Stacey with a box of donuts and brownies and a card which was a great start to the day. Then I was swept off by Melanie to an interview with Nick Young of Strutt & Parker for a feature she is writing on Hereford.
The office was posh with lots of gadgets and impressive art. The interview with Nick went well and he was very kind and witty.
This afternoon I prepared for an interview I'm going to with Nadia for a feature about agents holiday homes. I've come up with a list of question and generally thought about what I want to say. The Focus team has offered help with my questions though and so I am sure I will be well prepared.Feel I've learnt a lot today about the variety of things a journalist does and the technology surrounding blogs.
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