MERTON Meadow has been signed off as the site for Hereford’s new fire station.

The cabinet level sign-off confirmed today is still subject to a call-in by Herefordshire Council’s overview and scrutiny committee.

And the site once controversially set to be the new fire station – the council’s Bath Street offices – is going on the market.

That decision, too, is subject to a scrutiny call-in.

The city’s current fire station is accepted as “beyond its useful life”.

Funding for a new facility has been secured for a scheme is awaiting delivery.

There is a strong likelihood that the site will be shared with West Mercia Police.

The need for a new city police station is widely acknowledged too.

Pre-planning advice and consultation with the Highways Agency identified land at Merton Meadow as an “optimal location” for a joint service hub.

Draft proposals have indicated sufficient suitable land to accommodate such a facility.

The council sees disposal of the site as providing capital to cut borrowing costs and release revenue.

There are also opportunities for land swaps to contribute to any disposal deal - which could free up re-development land in the city centre – and the district value has been engaged to provide market valuations of all the sites able to contribute to such a development.

The decision confirmed today sees cabinet member for contracts and assets Cllr Harry Bramer authorising council director of economy, communities and corporate Geoff Hughes to negotiate with Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service (HWFRS), and any other interested public service partners, regarding the identification of a suitable site at Merton Meadow.

Cllr Bramer has also backed the Bath Street Offices – or the former Hereford Working Boys Home – going on the market.

A refurbishment of the site, subject to significant planning constraints, has been ruled out by the council as “very costly” when an over-supply of reasonably priced office space.

But the council does acknowledge the site to be “potentially valuable” as a development opportunity to a housing or other commercial developer.

The buildings have been empty for over a year and a previous cabinet member report backed the site as a new fire station.

But that scheme was squashed by opposition from heritage campaigners and the planning constraints.

In May this year, HWFRS said it was no longer interested in the Bath Street site.

An independent valuation has established a market value for the entire site upon which open market disposal can be based.

The council says this valuation stays “commercially confidential”  so as not to compromise potential offers.

Already the site is starting to deteriorate due to lack of use, so early exposure to the market is recommended as security costs escalate.

The current annual cost of keeping the site is around £100,000.

This will create further pressure this year as the council’s insurers have insisted that the site is boarded up at an estimated cost of £80,000.

It is proposed that the site is marketed through a commercial agent procured through the council’s financial procedure rules.

The marketing costs, determined by competitive tender, will be recovered from the capital sale - indicatively they are 1-2 per cent of the sale price.

Any capital receipt will depend upon the intended end use by the purchaser.

The council sees the site as lending itself to a variety of uses, with any indicative value being difficult to estimate.

As an example, if the site was to be purchased for housing the council expects the gross receipt would be more than £1 million.

BACKGROUND

In March this year, the Hereford Times revealed that a shared police and fire station in Hereford could be built as part of redevelopment plans for the city’s Merton Meadow off Edgar Street.

 West Mercia Police and Hereford & Worcester Fire & Rescue Service subsequently confirmed that they were looking to develop a site “north of the football stadium” as an “innovative shared facility”.

Both services were working with Herefordshire Council on a site suitability assessment.

By then, HWFRS had ended its interest in the Bath Street offices site faced with resistance from heritage campaigners wanting to save what was the city’s working boys home.

The council and the fire service had reached a deal over the future for the site that saw the council getting the current fire station site in a land swap.

Alternatives put to the fire service at the time were disregarded as unsuitable.

The council also confirmed that the current County Bus Station off Commercial Road would not be available for development in the near future.

Several sites - including others in the Edgar Street area – had been investigated, some privately owned.

The council pitched alternative sites of its own.

But before an alternative site  could be pitched publically, practicalities such as the ability for retained fire fighters to reach it within target attendance times had to be investigated.

Hereford’s present fire station in St Owen Street is acknowledged as unfit for 21st century service.

The extensive refurbishment required is not seen by Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Authority (HWFRA) as viable at an estimated cost of £5.5 million including the setting up of a temporary fire station while the work was done.

A new police HQ to replace the present space-squeezed base in Bath Street has long been on the agenda.

The new fire station would need meet the criteria of a new shift pattern that keeps full-time 24-7 999 cover in the county.

HWFRA has backed the new pattern called “Day Crew Plus” as a response to proposed - and strongly opposed - service cuts that would have cost Hereford station one of its two full-time appliances.

At its simplest, the pattern has day cover provided by two full-time crews with the second crew then “living in” at the station on call overnight.

BACKGROUND – The Working Boys Home

Before becoming offices, the Bath Street site was best known as the Hereford and District Working Boys’ Home – effectively the county’s first vocational school.

In February last year, a submission made by the Woolhope Club – backed by Hereford Conservation Society -  urged English Heritage to list the site.

English Heritage rejected the request.

Founded in 1875, the Hereford and District Working Boys’ Home and Industrial School was supported by city benefactor John Venn.

Within a year, the Society for Aiding the Industrious had been persuaded to sell part of its allotment land for this purpose for £335 – with the architect willing to waive his fee.

The institution would “receive orphans and other voluntary cases of boys from nine to 14 years of age in a state of destitution or growing up under evil influences”.

Here, they would be “clothed, fed, taught" and employment found for them.