Step-In-Time Line Dancing Herefordshire has launched.

Learn to line dance with a qualified UKDC Instructor.

New modern line dance classes have started in Hereford and Leominster. The venues are Fridays - Saxon Hall Hereford and Mondays - Lion Ballroom Leominster.

All classes run from 8pm-10pm and cost £5. Beginner level dances are taught in the first hour with improver / intermediate levels from 9pm-10pm.

We dance to all types of music from Country to Pop, Latin to Irish and anything in between. 

All levels and abilities are accommodated. No previous dance experience is necessary. 

If you have not danced for a few years (or more) why not come back, refresh the steps and learn some new dances. 

Open to all ages but children have to be accompanied by an adult at all times.

No booking required, just turn up and have fun.

See attached poster for more details.

Step-In-Time Line Dancing Advertisement.pdf

He's blocked me on Twitter. The President of the European Commision has bloody blocked me from insulting him ever again.

Its a disgrace! That's what it is and worse, it's a bloody personal attack on my inalienable right to tell him what I think of him and his ungodly force for bad, the bloody European Union.

Who does he think he is? Doesn't he know who I am? I'll be damned if I take this lying down. I'll be damned if I take it standing up. In fact, I'll be damned if I take it at all in any position I choose to position myself in. He's bitten off more than he can chew because I ain't having it. 

I know what I'll have, what I won't have and what I'll be made to have if I'm beaten senseless and told, 'have this', and I'll be damned if I have it. It's not as if I deserve his bloody Twitter response that reads, 'you are blocked'. After repeatedly telling him that I despised the European Union, him, Verhofstadt and bloody Tusk and getting no response from him, I bloody found an Internet Search Engine that translated me bloody insults into French and I pressed the 'Send' button.

Course, after translating me insults back into English I found that bloody French is a complicated language that's full of bloody unhelpful masculine and feminine words that can quite easily make my heartfelt insults worse in translation. Besides telling him, ' I hope your Marigolds wilt in the broad Strasburg mid day sun, I accused him of being drunk, hating British people and their domestic pets and having a close allegiance to the Germans who bombed my local chip shop.

In only 140 characters, I've managed to get myself blocked by Juncker, probably got myself into someone's intray at GCHQ and it's all because of the bloody French and their bloody unreliable language. It's to complicated. French should be banned. It's a menace to the Free World.

Well I ain't for stopping. Never! I've got that wild eyed gap toothed crazed federalist Verhofstadt in my sights and this time I'm not using that bloody French Translation Tool to send him me EU insults. I'm sticking with English. English is a good and fair language that doesn't distort your words and their intended meanings.

And I won't stop! Juncker can get the remaining 27 Member States together and get them all to agree that I should be banned from entering their air space, travelling by land or sea to Calaise and starved from eating any French Brie, Wine, Ale or smoking their tobacco that I purchase twice yearly from Adinkerke, it won't stop me. Never!

This blocking that I've been given is going to create an escalation between me and this dreadful Union that's intent upon destroying my Country. It's inevitable. By the time I'm finished I fully expect NATO forces to get dragged into this dispute and begin a bombing campaign on my three bedroom Semi Detached that's now located South of the Wye. This is what happens nowadays. You get bombed! To stop it, end this conflict and compel me to moderate my insults  they'll have to get Jean Claude Juncker to unblock me on Twitter.

i must be the only person in bloody Europe that's been blocked by Juncker and I say it's wrong, unfair and bloody niggling to someone like me who likes to excercise their inalienable rights and question why the EU would ever wish to destroy a nation of people who freed them all from German occupation.

HEREFORDSHIRE’S MPs and county councillors are among the lucky few who do not have to pay to park at county council car parks, a freedom of information request has revealed according to this article in the Hereford Times

Access to information officers also revealed that Herefordshire Council has allocated a total of 547 staff business passes for the last financial year.

County MPs Bill Wiggin and Jesse Norman have been given permits for use while on business along with the Countess of Darnley, Susan Bligh, who is the Lord Lieutenant of Herefordshire.

All 53 county councillors are issued with free parking permits which the council says can only be used while on council business but one member admitted it could be open to abuse.A councillor, who did not wish to be named, said:

Quote

“Personally, I wouldn’t particularly mind if we had these passes removed.

“I expect some councillors stretch it to some extent as the allowance is very low for councillors in Herefordshire, the parking permit is one of the few perks of the role.

“You could attend a meeting that is three hours long and use a car park for five and go about doing other things.”

An information access officer said the 547 staff business passes had been allocated can only use them when on council business. 

She said:

Quote

“It should be noted that some of these are issued to council fleet vehicles and some of these passes have been returned by staff who have left and a replacement issued to the new staff member.”

The officer explained that the parking permits were issued to remove the necessity of claiming back car parking charges while on business.She added:

Quote

“A parking permit pass may only be issued where there is an expectation that an employee needs to have continual access to their own vehicle on each day they are contracted to work, in order to deliver off site planned or reactive council services to clients, residents and businesses.

“This definition is very specific and there must be no deviation from the intention.

“When deciding if staff have a need for a parking permit in each case, the service manager must expect this particular member of staff to have their own car with them at work every day and that if they did not have their own car, then services could not be delivered as there is no other way to do so, for example by using a pool vehicle, without significant inefficiencies.

"They must also be able to explain the rationale.”

I meant to post this last night, but forgot!

I see that Freedom Church is making headlines once again, for all the wrong reasons. Over at HT an article states that they have been asked to leave Swansea University Campus, after blitzing it with leaflets, and holding religious services on site.

Not the first time their recruitment methods have been questioned. Anyone else remember the campaign which saw lollipops handed out to children outside the school gates? Tactics which at best could be described as showing a complete lack of judgement, at worst, rather sinister.

I also seem to recall being told that at one point in the not too distant past, a company whose staff consisted of  several leading lights within this church, had been given a contract to deliver sex education to pupils in some Herefordshire Schools. 

I have real concerns about this pay to pray organisation. 

How do others feel?

In 2020 central government are stopping funding to local authorities…so how are this LA's going to fund service? Where will the money come from? How many of them will go bang? & if that happens what then?…after Theresa May's pathetic attempt at Brexit?…you have to wonder at the governments thinking,behind cutting the local LA's funding too?!…will this be the straw that breaks the camels back?

It is probably fair to say that over the next eight days of the Three Choirs Festival, more people will admire the front elevation of Hereford’s 144-year-old City Library on Broad Street than at any other time of the year. This handsome Grade II-listed building, overlooking Cathedral Close, has just undergone a second emergency building operation. Two years ago it was dreaded asbestos removal. This time it is the steeply-pitched slate roof that needed fixing (‘joined-up-writing’ has never been practised at Plough Lane).

But when the huge and costly (probably no change out of 30K) scaffolding structure was removed just four days before the festival opened, keen-eyed conservationists noted that the 10 stone gargoyles which line the roof’s parapet had been left uncleaned and are seriously stained with grime and algae. The decorative friezes which run across the four-storey building’s main façade are also intricate and unusual. And filthy.

Using the existing scaffold platform, an extra two days expert water washing could have restored these unique carvings in time for the City Library’s 150th anniversary celebrations. That’s if Harry Bramer hasn’t sold it off as multi-storey car park.

As a frequent walker to town, I have noticed that, probably due to a wet spring and a magnificent summer, the hedgerows are more prolific than ever. Thus reducing a 5ft pavement to a little over 2 ft wide in places. This is extremely hazardous when meeting other pedestrians with pushchairs and children. Someone usually has to step into the road. I believe there is a local bye-law against allowing hedges to project beyond your boundary. I am afraid that this does not seem to be enforced.

Open Day - Herefordshire Light Infantry Museum

The Three Choirs Festival has begun in Hereford and is a week-long programme of choral and orchestral concerts, cathedral services, solo and chamber music recitals, masterclasses, talks, theatre, exhibitions and walks, rotating each summer between the beautiful English cathedral cities of Hereford, Gloucester and Worcester. It is the oldest non-competitive classical music festival in the world, which celebrated its 300th anniversary in 2015.

At the heart of the modern festival are the large-scale evening concerts featuring the Three Choirs Festival Chorus and the Philharmonia Orchestra, which has been resident at the festival since 2012. The main festival’s packed schedule of daytime events is augmented by a community programme which varies slightly in style in each city.

The Three Choirs Festival is run by dedicated voluntary committees in Hereford, Worcester and Gloucester, supported by a small professional management team based at the Three Choirs Festival Association’s office in Gloucester.

The Three Choirs Festival, which was first held in 1715, is probably the oldest music festival in the world. The Festival is held in turn in one of the three cathedral cities of Gloucester, Hereford and Worcester. This year the Festival takes place between 28 July and 4 August and, by rotation, it will be hosted by the cathedral and city of Hereford.

Click HERE for tickets and more details.

This is how High Town Hereford looks and this is the scene that visitors and tourists will remember about our city...

'Stop The Drop' they say, how about we start our own campaign called 'Rid The Trash' to encourage the council to start emptying the bins more often throughout the day, particularly at the weekends.  

Where has the pride in our beautiful city gone? 

ENFORCEMENT

We have wonderful community groups all volunteering their own time to clean up our city, but rather than cleaning up AFTER people have dropped the litter maybe we should concentrate efforts more towards encouraging the council to start issuing fines and using the CCTV facilities in order to catch these people. We are also in favour of 'Naming and Shaming' people who drop rubbish and litter.

A former Hereford trader has been jailed for 25 months after Herefordshire Council’s Trading Standards Officers seized a record haul of counterfeit tobacco

A former Hereford trader has been jailed for 25 months for selling illegal tobacco.

Hemin Jamal, 37, the former owner of the Hereford shops, Supersam on Eign Street and Mila on Belmont Road, pleaded guilty to eight offences in June, and was sentenced at Worcester Crown Court on Monday 23 July for selling illegal tobacco and for being in possession of a large amount of counterfeit tobacco products.

The case was taken to court by Herefordshire Council, after the illegal tobacco was discovered at Mr Jamal’s shop premises in November 2016, by the council’s trading standards team.

Officers seized a total of 360,000 illegal cigarettes and 25kg of fake hand rolling tobacco.  The fake and smuggled products were found hidden in containers hired by Mr Jamal and were concealed in instant barbecues in a bid to avoid detection.  The record haul equated to £130,000 in duty tax evasion.

Investigations unveiled that almost half of all customers entering the Supersam convenience store at Eign Street, were purchasing illegal tobacco products, which were retrieved from the flat above the shop by members of staff.

Mr Jamal owned both shops for over a year, until new owners took over both premises in February 2017.

Marc Willimont, Head of Development Management and Regulation, said:

Quote

 

“The sale of illegal tobacco severely damages honest local businesses, as well as costing the tax payer £2 billion nationally.

“We will continue to work in partnership with the Police to clamp down on this organised criminal activity.

“This sentence sends out a strong message to others who may be selling or could be considering selling illegal tobacco, that the trade will not be tolerated, and if caught legal action may be taken against you.”

 

If anyone has any information regarding the sale of illegal tobacco within Herefordshire, please contact trading standards on 01432 261761.

Plans have been submitted to build a single three storey residential building containing 6 no. 2 bedroom apartments, together with associated infrastructure and access, new car parking, bin and cycle storage facilities and landscaped amenity space.

The will be parking facilities for 12 cars, 2 disabled bays and also space provided for 18 bikes

Planning Application P182431/F

College park has been cordoned off by police this morning after the body of a 17 yr old was discovered this morning.

Update.old school lane at the end of kingswaY by railway bridge has been cordoned off inc part of playing field.

Plans have been submitted to convert the upper floors of Steamer Trading cookshop in Commercial Street into

10 no. flats.
The shop on ground floor will remain.

https://www.herefordshire.gov.uk/info/200142/planning_services/planning_application_search/details?id=182521&search-term=registered in the last 7 days&
search-service=recent&search-source=items&search-item=registered in the last 7 days

A planning application has been received to erect a commemorative statue of Lance Corporal Allan Leonard Lewis VC 
in Garrick Lane on the Old Market site next to Wildwood restaurant.

Herefordshire Council’s Cabinet is due to consider reports and recommendations regarding the Hereford Transport Package.

This will include considering a preferred route for the bypass at a meeting on Friday 27 July 2018 at 10am.

In advance of this, the council’s General Scrutiny Committee has called in the decision for pre-decision scrutiny; and will consider the issue on Wednesday 18 July 2018 at 10am.

Both these meetings will be held in public at the Shire Hall in Hereford, and anyone is able to attend to observe the proceedings. Members of the public will be able to ask questions in advance of these meetings and the audio of the meetings will also be broadcast live. Details of how to submit a question and how to attend or listen to the meetings online are available on the council’s website

These meetings follow Cabinet approval of a short list of route options for the bypass in January this year which was the subject of public consultation in February and March. The reports detailing the results of the public consultation and the technical work undertaken to assess the options will be included within the agenda papers for the meetings. The agenda papers for the first of these meetings, General Scrutiny Committee, will be published on the council’s website on the evening of Tuesday 10 July 2018.

The council is ensuring that potentially affected residents and landowners are made aware of these meetings and how to access the agenda papers and reports.

Plans for a new multi story car park on the Country bus station site in Commercial Road look to have been scrapped.

https://councillors.herefordshire.gov.uk/mgIssueHistoryHome.aspx?IId=50026347&Opt=0