Things are steadily getting worse on Hereford's estates with not much activity on the ground.

 

 

Here on Newton Farm not only are Herefordshire Housing cutting the bulk of the grass, but also the Council's agents (used to be Amey and now Balfour Beatty), and in the case of our street, we pay a service charge for Muir Group Housing to cut the grass and keep the area tidy. 

 

There is no co-ordination between these bodies, so some grass gets cut and other areas are left to be cut at a later date. This results in an unkempt appearance and local residents not knowing who is responsible for which piece of land. There are pieces of land which have never been cut this year. The problems around the electricity sub-station in Sherborne Close still continue, with fly tipping amd split rubbish bags spewing their contents over the pavements every weekend. Not much hope of anything been done as this has been occuring and visible to anyone passing through this area since the first post here in June 2010.

 

This lack of co-ordination and co-operation to maintain our estates goes back to 2002 when the council handed over most of our green, open spaces to Herefordshire Housing and other Registered Social Landlords, when they got rid of their housing stock. Since then and several recessions later we were told these alterations and efficiency savings would benefit us the council tax payers and be easier to manage in the future. As we can now see this way of working has failed. There should be one contractor to cover the whole area by adopting all the open space. Balfour Beatty having got their £200 million contract with the council, and possibly a phone line connected in the near future, things could be different, but I doubt it.

 

 

 

The Visionscape Group brought the company in September and have now reinstated 50 jobs, with a further 20 positions planned by mid-2018.

 

The company now named Vision Gelpack Ltd is under the leadership of managing director Geoff Davis.

He said: “I am especially delighted that we have been able to restore production and employment at our Grandstand Road plant so quickly.

 

“I am also excited by the many new opportunities that the Visionscape Group represents, with its global closed loop philosophy, which ensures that the recovery opportunities for each product are fully maximized.”

 

Vision Gelpack manufactures polyethylene films, liners and sacks for the local authority, waste management, janitorial, clinical and medical and other industrial sectors.

 

“We are excited to welcome Vision Gelpack to the Visionscape Group," said Harry Ackerman, executive director at Visionscape. “With over four decades in profitable business, Vision Gelpack was a great strategic fit for us and value-added on all sides. We have made an excellent investment and Vision Gelpack’s established reputation will enable Visionscape to provide a more comprehensive range of services and solutions to the millions in the markets we operate.”

 

Visionscape is a global environmental utility group providing turnkey solutions in areas of sanitation, energy and waste water treatment. The company aims to reinvent waste management processes, specific to emerging markets, utilising cutting-edge technology and tools to address the waste management needs of megacities. Visionscape also offers services for commercial, residential, industrial, and healthcare clients.

Herefordshire Council News 13 October 2014 

Rotherwas Rail Proposal

 

Herefordshire Council hosted the first meeting with rail industry stakeholders to discuss rail proposals for Rotherwas on 7 October.

 

The meeting which included representatives from Network Rail and London Midland train operating company brought together a cross party discussion around how emerging proposals to re-introduce rail facilities into Rotherwas might be progressed.

 

Councillor Bob Matthews, leader of the Independent Group, set out the proposals which would include passenger services and potential for rail freight for the discussion, said ‘We have had a very productive and constructive meeting with key stakeholders and the next steps will be to get more detailed feedback on how the proposals should be developed. The Independent Group is committed to seeing this scheme delivered but appreciate that it will need a sound business case before funding can be secured.’

 

Cllr Johnson, Leader of the Council, chaired the meeting and commented, ‘The meeting was very productive and we have secured the support of Network Rail and London Midland (train operating company) to assist us with reviewing these proposals. Based on the advice and feedback from the rail industry experts, the production of a business case and the identification of funding sources, we intend to develop a plan for how the proposal might move forward.’

There is a misconception that all housebuilders are solely focused on churning out homes without thought for the communities they are establishing. If there are housebuilders out there with this singular, limited ambition then Redrow is certainly not one of them.

Sustainability and creating places where people want to live are not optional extras for Redrow, it’s firmly entrenched in our DNA. For us sustainability is not just about building with sustainable materials and protecting local wildlife. It means creating thriving communities that are fit for the future.

The starting point for each of our developments is our placemaking principles which are embedded in the design and layout of our sites. These include ensuring that schemes fit sensitively with the local area, that they feature large open spaces and plenty of nature habitats, that residents can easily make their way around the area and are well connected to public transport.

For example, 95% of our homes are within 500 metres of a public transport link. All this ensures a place that fosters a sense of wellbeing among the people living there – and the broader community too. As a housebuilder we invested £163m in facilities and infrastructure across the year ending 30 June 2017, to bring people together and foster a real sense of pride in place.

We are increasingly delivering large communities around the country. Often these developments are on former industrial brownfield land, from Colindale Gardens in north west London, to Ebbsfleet Green at Ebbsfleet Garden City in Kent and Woodford Garden Village in Cheshire.

These developments enable us to embed our placemaking principles at scale. These new communities offer residents swathes of green space, orchards, allotments, running trails, cycling infrastructure and the homes are constructed to the highest quality standards we can deliver.

Smaller sites, by their very nature, have less space in which to create these amenities and facilities. However, we work hard to ensure all our residents can benefit from clean, green lifestyles. All Redrow developments have a green travel plan, for example, and on some smaller sites we have instigated projects to create bee-friendly planting and have installed hedgehog highways to boost native animal and insect species.

Boosting biodiversity Harold the hedgehog at Redrow’s hedgehog highway at Glenwood Park, Barnstaple. The scheme was a winner at this year’s Big Biodiversity Challenge Awards.
Credit: Andrea Ormesby

We also pay particular attention to the impact our developments will have on the local area and the wider environment during construction. We have achieved certification to the international environmental management standard ISO 14001. Some 99.98% of the wood we use to build our homes is from sustainable sources. Our extensive use of sustainably sourced timber won us a coveted Three Trees Award, for the second time, from WWF.

We have set ourselves an ambitious goal to work towards achieving biodiversity net gain on our developments. Biodiversity net gain is a development that leaves biodiversity in a better state than before. We’ve already started work on achieving this goal by commissioning a project to evaluate our biodiversity position on three key sites.

The study revealed that, once completed, two of the three sites will achieve biodiversity net gain positions, with work being done on the third site to advance towards this net aim. The results of this study are helping to inform the development of a strategic biodiversity action plan in Redrow, encompassing net gain principles and partnership working.

The aim of achieving a net gain position also incorporates economic and social responsibility. We commission an annual socio-economic footprint report to obtain a robust, reliable and transparent assessment of the total impact of our activities. The report, for our most recently completed financial year, showed that we have contributed £1.14bn of gross value added (GVA) to UK economic output.

In respect to social net gain the footprint reported 13,200 direct, indirect and induced employment through Redrow, its sub-contractors and suppliers, equating to three jobs per every home built. Staying on the theme of social net gain we are also developing a social value calculator (SVC). This tool will help us to evaluate the social value, in monetary terms, of all our developments. The SVC, once completed, will also be used as a forecasting tool to help inform our decision making on the configuration of our developments to achieve maximum social value.

To challenge the negativity that envelops volume housebuilding, the industry must work towards developing strategies that deliver positive sustainability outcomes for society.

A key consideration in the development of these strategies is determining how to become smarter at measuring the social, environmental and economic impact of developments. We must then use this data and information to make informed judgements that support the delivery of net positive solutions.

Herefordshire Council will no longer permit the use of sky lanterns and helium balloons on council owned or leased land and at council run events. Their use will also be discouraged at licensed events across the county.

The use of sky lanterns (also known as Chinese lanterns) and helium balloons have become a popular way to mark a special event, yet their use poses a serious threat to wildlife and the environment as it is impossible to control where the released lanterns and balloons land.

Sky lanterns and balloons pose a serious threat to livestock – animals eat lantern debris which can be poisonous or puncture internal organs, and smaller birds can become trapped and killed. There are also environmental dangers with littering, the risk of fire to crops and trees and a significant danger to aircraft and helicopters.

Councillor David Harlow, Cabinet Member for Economy and Corporate Services, said:

“The use of sky lanterns and helium balloons pose a serious threat to the county’s environment and wildlife, so I am pleased Herefordshire Council has joined over 60 other councils across the UK in banning their use.

“The use of sky lanterns and helium balloons will no longer be allowed at licensed events, or at events run on council owned or leased land. We would encourage those celebrating special occasions or fundraising to consider more environmentally-friendly options, such as planting a tree, or using lighting, bunting and flags.”

 

 

 

We notified Balfour Beatty about our second action day weeks in advance, yet a week after all of our hard work I find myself picking up some of our own litter from the bags we left last weekend. 

 

Yes it is all still there! Nothing has been collected! 

 

All these volunteers have given up their day and time to commit to this fantastic project and it feels like we are unappreciated with this lack of response, not impressed at all.

 

I am also waiting for promised emails and the results from the tree survey which took place weeks ago, I am starting to realise why things take so long in this city, well I am not going away, on the contrary, I will just increase the volume!

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

 

 

The new branch is located at 109-111 Belmont Road, next to the existing Domino's and aims to attract new and existing customers in South Wye Hereford.

 

 

Hidden in the depths of the Town Hall in a small vault are the City's hidden treasures.

 

Accessible to only the abled bodied and in confined space allowing only a maximum of 10 people at any one time access to view them, the vault is dark and damp it is not the ideal place or conditions in which to display and preserve the City's hidden treasures.

 

At present there are up to 100 plate visits a year, a number restricted by the vaults accessibility. When school classes attend they must visit the vault quite often in three lots and any children who are unable to manage the steep curved stairs down to the basement below the Town Hall miss out completely.

 

Coaches of tourists are dropped off outside the Town Hall almost daily to view the historic buildings magnificent architecture, completely unbeknown to them are the City's treasures and deep seated history stored in the vault in the basement below them.

 

Every piece of silver, every charter, the oldest being 1189, older than the Magna Carta, makes up a piece of this City's history. Every piece tells a story or bequeaths something to the City and the people that reside here.

 

These treasures should be accessible to all; every school trip, every tour party and every group/organisation who visit the Town Hall should be able to see the City's fascinating collection.  

 

The land the Town Hall stands on was left to the people of this great City by the Johnson sisters, daughters of a former Town Clerk, to build a municipal building for the people of Hereford.

 

What better place to install a purpose built all accessible civic museum than in the Town Hall.

 

The no longer used Mayoress Parlour in the Mayoral Suite in the Town Hall will house this purpose built museum and will ensure the security and preservation of the City's ancient artefacts for generations to come. 

 

The tourists who visit the Town Hall will now not only be able to view the buildings fascinating architecture but also City's history and ancient treasures. 

 

Groups, organisations and schools will no longer be restricted to specialised visits restricted by numbers and accessibility. 

 

An underspend on the development of the new Tourist Information Centre for Hereford, a substantial application for a Heritage Lottery grant (if it is successful) and a saving on rent for the vault currently housing the City's silver and charter will all support the installation of the new civic museum.