A group of residents and property owners at Symonds Yat West have formed an action group and enlisted the help of their County Councillor, Paul Newman following the closure of the single-track C1257 road due to a stone wall and the adjacent road collapsing. The only alternative access to 40 properties is via Ferrie Lane Byway WC2/3 alongside the River Wye to the rear of The Old Ferrie Inn.

At a public meeting on September three months after the road closure, with Hereford Council and Balfour Beatty, the residents were told that it would be probably be closed for another six to nine months.

Local Ward Councillor Paul Newman told the Ross Gazette: “With the passage of time I’ve become increasingly shocked and disappointed by the apparent inactivity and lack of urgency shown by Herefordshire Council and their subcontractors Balfour Beatty, in response to clear evidence of substantial loss of earnings, isolation and inconvenience suffered by this previously-thriving local community.

“Action needs to be taken now, both to deal with the long term closure of the C1257 and to improve the currently very limited and frankly dangerous access via Ferrie Lane.”

This byway is narrow (maximum vehicle width 1.9 metres), unlit at night and dangerously potholed with some steep drops to the river – at its lowest point it sometimes floods when the river is high.

It is nearly 1,000 yards (900 metres) long and with no actual passing places except for the sometimes unoccupied private drives or parking

areas belonging to residents.

The action group SWAG (Symonds Yat West Action Group) hope that Herefordshire Council and Balfour Betty will realise the distress being suffered by local residents and will to repair and reopen the C1257 road urgently.

Action group chair, John Blows is one of those affected by the road closure. He said: “On one occasion I passed a family group trudging out dragging suitcases along Ferrie Lane – they were obviously visitors unable to bring in their vehicle. Another day I passed an elderly couple, one in a motorised wheelchair, trying with great difficulty to get along Ferrie Lane, again they must have been too frightened or unable to drive their vehicle in."Herefordshire Council told the Ross Gazette that they have started legal action to resolve the road closure. Herefordshire Council is seeking an order from local magistrates to require the owner of a property, next to the C1257 road, to remove a wall erected without consent.The spokesperson said: "In January 2018, cracks began to appear in the C1257 road and movement was also observed in the adjoining private wall. Movement continued during the spring and the road had to be closed on safety grounds in June."Councillor Barry Durkin, Cabinet Member for Transport and Regulatory Services said: “We are working with local residents and businesses to move this issue forward but have reached the point where enforcement action is necessary and proportionate. We consider the wall to be in a dangerous condition and it needs to be made safe before we can proceed to fix the road.“Our primary goal has always been, and remains, public safety, to reopen the road and provide some vehicle access as soon as it is safely possible to do so, although it may not be possible to reopen it to large or heavy vehicles again at all due to instability in the area.”During October, following a meeting with residents, some surfacing improvements to Ferrie Lane were attempted but without significant success. Although some work to repair road defects and pot holes has been completed by workers using hand tools, the extent to which it may be possible to improve the road for the period of time the road is likely to be closed is under review.