A BUILDING merchants has revealed its enforced downsizing plans to make way for a multi-million pound road in Hereford.

Jewson’s is set to lose a “significant area” of its Canal Road site when work begins on the controversial £25 million route connecting Commercial Road with Edgar Street.

This follows a compulsory purchase order by Herefordshire Council which is behind the 800-metre road for which work is set to begin later this spring.

As a result the building firm, which has branches all over the country, has been forced to rethink its site access including new entrance gates, signage and services relocation.

A planning application for the new work, on behalf of Jewson, has been submitted to the council.

It says: “The compulsory purchase order means that Jewson’s will lose a significant area of the site which provides staff parking, the warehouse which stores all the timber products, doors and joinery items, bathroom and kitchen storage facility and some bulk storage facility.

“In order to retain viability with this significant reduction of site area requires rationalisation to the overall layout.

“The overall site rationalisation has been created to maximize the quantity of ranges that Jewson’s can carry on the reduced area of the site.”

Other work will include reconfiguring the internal layout and re-cladding the building.

A timber treatment shed will be part demolished and reconfigured.

The firm will lose almost 20 car park spaces.

Meanwhile, part of the application is for a sign close to the link road to “mark Jewson’s presence”.