A Ross-on-Wye County Councillor has suggested that Herefordshire should flag up to the Government its readiness to take millions of pounds of investment in defence industries - including once again making munitions.

Liberal Democrat Councillor Ed O’Driscoll (Ross East) told fellow members that following the Government’s Strategic Defence Review, which last month set out plans for billions of pounds of investment in the sector including at least six new munitions factories and said: “The question is whether Herefordshire will play a meaningful part in it. The county is not starting from scratch,” and stated that the UK’s only defence and security-focused enterprise zone is in the county and it was previously a centre of wartime munitions production,

Cllr O’Driscoll added: “The county also has an engineering focussed university, the New Model Institute for Technology and Engineering.

Under a motion Cllr Driscoll proposed, the authority must write to the government to highlight the county’s strategic readiness to host defence-related investment, including a munitions facility.

“If we want better services, we need a stronger economy,” Coun O’Driscoll urged.

Cabinet member for economy and growth Cllr Graham Biggs said: “Herefordshire has already been proactively seeking to develop opportunities in defence and security, including with international firms looking to base themselves in the county.”

Cllr Aubrey Oliver said: “The essential thing in a war is ammunition and munitions, and we are absolutely short of munitions factories as the UK’s efforts to support Ukraine militarily have shown.”

But while fully supporting the motion, Green councillor Stef Simmons pointed out that the local munitions factory ceased operation 80 years ago and added: “I would be astonished if we managed to attract one of the six factories proposed in the Strategic Defence Review,” which offers many more opportunities at the high-tech end of the sector, she said.

The motion was subsequently passed.