Large section of Merton Meadow car park closes for good

The northern section of Merton Meadow at 7.38pm on Tuesday 21st October

A large section of the Merton Meadow car park, next to Hereford's Edgar Street Stadium, has closed for good as the area is turned into a wetland.

The £2 million flood alleviation scheme will unlock land in the area for around 400 homes.

Your Herefordshire reports that the lower section of the 650-space car park, north of the link road and generally referred to as the overflow area, is now closed.

Earlier this month, Herefordshire Council leader Jonathan Lester said the goal was to have the project finished “towards the end of the year”.

As Hereford faced AFC Telford United on Tuesday 21st October, the overflow car park - which earns Herefordshire Council £2,512.08 a day on average - was in use, as usual, as 2,583 football fans headed to Edgar Street.

The Southern section of the Merton Meadow car park at 7.42pm on Tuesday 21st October

During 10th October's full Herefordshire Council meeting, Polly Andrew, the Liberal Democrat councillor for Widemarsh, said she had been told several times that there would be no loss of Merton Meadow car parking until a new car park is built elsewhere. As Bulls News has reported previously, this is generally mooted as being a multi-storey on the Country Bus Station site in Commercial Road.

Cllr Andrews added that a loss of parking “is a great anxiety to many people who use it regularly, not only the football club but who park there on a daily basis”.

Leominster South Green Party councillor Mark Woodall said football fans fear the loss of the car park and how it could “kill off attendances", as well as affecting businesses who get a matchday boost.

Cllr Lester said: “Merton Meadow is a substantial car park and any development will have an impact on parking provision.

“So it’s part of a wider strategy that we must adopt to make sure that we have sufficient parking provision, and we’re working on schemes to make sure that that is seen as a greater whole.”

The weland that will be created in Merton Meadow car park. Picture: MOOWD/Herefordshire Council

As first reported by Bulls News, during the 30th July planning committee that approved the wetland scheme with conditions, Independents for Herefordshire councillor Matthew Engel (Golden Valley South) said he was “very dubious” the lost parking could be replaced.

Cllr Engel feared the wetlands could also hamper Hereford FC, adding: “We have to take into account that Hereford United FC were, in their day, the most famous thing this county had. I think this will have an adverse effect on them ever being such a thing again.”

Planning officer Heather Carlisle’s report said that while spaces would go, Hereford’s car parks had capacity to absorb them, with surveys showing Merton Meadow averaged just 38 per cent occupancy between April 2022 and April 2024. She added that land north of the link road would be retained for coach and lorry parking.

During that same meeting, Castle's Conservative councillor Robert Highfield feared the wetlands could prove too popular as a visitor attraction and become a victim of its own success.

Hereford fan Colin Butler has also been vocal in his opposition to the plans for Merton Meadow, saying he has great concerns over the baffling housing vision and the thought of a new multi-storey on the bus station is flawed.