Bridge Sollers Road (C1098) · Madley · Bridge Sollers · Lulham
The Southern Link Road and the unresolved problem
Herefordshire Council is about to build the first phase of the Hereford bypass. Its own business case admits the new road will push traffic onto the Bridge Sollers Road and through Madley — and no measures are in place to deal with it. The evidence on this site comes from the council’s own files.
Come to the meeting Monday 31 August · 7:00 pm · Madley Parish Hall
01Two bridges. One shortcut.
The Southern Link Road is fully funded and construction starts in December. The western bypass that would complete the route — with its new river crossing — has no start date and needs central government money that hasn’t been won.
West of Hereford there are exactly two ways over the River Wye: Greyfriars Bridge in the congested centre of the city (opened 1966), and Bridge Sollers Bridge — our C1098. The moment the new road opens, every sat-nav in the country will show a shorter route from the A438 to the A49 for Ross and the A465 for Abergavenny: over our bridge, down the Bage Pitch, through Madley. Cars, vans and HGVs will follow the arrow.
02Why that’s a problem
The Bridge Sollers Road cannot take it
Between 4 and 7 metres wide, blind bends, no footway, no lighting — and already signed “Unsuitable for HGVs”. The council’s own consultants wrote that it is “not wide enough in many places for 2 HGVs to pass”. Farm traffic must use it; through-traffic doesn’t have to.
The shortcut runs straight past the school
Madley Primary School, Nanny Pippins Nursery and the Parish Hall all sit on the B4352 through Madley — a road already crowded twice a day with parents and children on foot. More through-traffic in both directions means more danger at the school gate, and more traffic past every home along the Bage Pitch.
03The road, in the council’s own figures
- 2,290 vehicles a day across the Wye at Bridge Sollers ATC Site 1, November 2016 — the bypass’s own survey
- 4–7 m carriageway width over the 4.3 km national-speed-limit section Council-commissioned review, January 2018
- ~21 through HGVs over 7.5 t in a single 12-hour survey ANPR surveys, November–December 2017
- 6 personal-injury collisions in five years on and at the road June 2012 – May 2017
04The council already knows. Its own files say so.
This is not speculation and it is not new. Every item below is a Herefordshire Council document, obtained from its own records and releases:
Residents first ask for protection
Madley Parish Council formally requests speed limits on the road. The council’s later consultation records residents of Madley and Bridge Sollers “almost to a person” wanting both a speed limit and a weight limit.
Source: ADL review ref 3409 & consultation responses, released under FOIThe bypass’s own surveyors count our bridge — first
Building the traffic model for the bypass, the council’s consultants make Bridge Sollers ATC Site 1 — the very first counter of the programme — recording ~2,290 vehicles a day with a textbook commuter tide over the bridge.
Source: Hereford Transport Model — Report of Highway Surveys, WSP, 2017A weight limit is refused — for one reason only
The council accepts the road is unsuitable for HGVs but refuses a 7.5-tonne limit solely because no alternative route existed — the only other lane crosses the Wye at Bredwardine on a 3.7 m single-track bridge. The bypass they are now building is the alternative.
Source: Officer decision, 2 May 2018, released under FOIThe business case admits the traffic — and commits nothing
The council’s new Full Business Case, from its own updated traffic model, acknowledges traffic will increase on roads near the new route as drivers re-route. For the Bridge Sollers Road there are no published figures, no monitoring plan, and no mitigation measures.
Source: Full Business Case & draft CPO Statement of Reasons, para 5.2605What we’re asking for
Not a fight against the bypass. A commitment, in writing, before the diggers start in December:
Measure it. Publish it. Act on it.
Measure: independent traffic counts on the Bridge Sollers Road before, during and after construction — checked against the council’s own 2016 and 2017 baseline surveys.
Publish: the council’s forecast for our road, so everyone can see what it expects.
Act: if real traffic exceeds the forecast, a pre-agreed package kicks in — through-traffic restrictions and the weight limit the council accepted in principle in 2018 — funded by the scheme, using the same legal tools the scheme already uses on Belmont Road.
We are not against the road. A restriction on our lane pushes traffic onto the new bypass — exactly where the council wants it. We’re asking the council to make its own scheme work as intended, and to keep faith with fourteen years of its own findings.
Founding meeting of the residents’ group
- See the evidence — the council’s own documents, counts and decisions, laid out in full
- Form a constituted residents’ group, so our objections and questions carry formal weight
- Agree the ask before the council’s Cabinet decides the scheme’s business case on 10 September
Everyone on or near the Bridge Sollers Road, in Madley, Bridge Sollers and Lulham — and every parent at the school. Be there — please care.