It appears that we have yet another idiot camper in our midsts...only this one must a thrill seeker to be camping right on the edge of the dual carriageway.

You see, if you do not move these people immediately it just encourages more idiots to follow. 

The West Mercia Police have put up for auction Vehicle Registration Mark .... AB1 , the VRM was issued to the Worcestershire Chief Constable in 1908 . They hope to raise £250,000.

It appears that this had not gone down well with a number of people including retired Police Officers - they have signed a petition urging the Force to keep the plate. More than 700 people have signed it.

If I were an Officer placed on high within any Council or other public service body in Britain, I'd be very concerned about the tipping point of public tolerance that's been reached following the devastating events at The Grenfell Tower.

Make no mistake, in the months and even years that follow, many public servants in positions of authority and power are going to be arrested, they will be prosecuted and in due course will be required to serve custodial prison sentences as punishment for the part they played in the procurement of unsuitable materials and the failure to protect the lives of their tenants.

Like ducks in a line, the Council, the Housing Association, probably the Fire Service and a host of other public bodies involved in the grandiose scheme of Partnerships that, driven by Common Purpose, have infected all our public services, if they've got any sense at all they'll be twitching and wondering whether or not some tragic event takes place that places them in the firing line.

Whilst we in Hereford have no sizeable high rise apartment blocks, we most certainly have other, in plain sight life threatening problems that have been created by poor public service delivery. Take for example the disgraceful condition of our roads. Is it possible that a motor cyclist can hit one of these holes, lose control of their bike, slide, perhaps into the path of an oncoming school bus and many lives are lost as a result of the collision? Is it so far fetched to imagine such an event? Given what's happened to the poor people at Grenfell Tower I'm not so sure it is that far fetched.

Make no mistake, this awful event at Grenfell Tower will herald a new era of public service accountability and if my hyperthetical Road Traffic Accident ever happens and it's the result of a pot hole then every single public body connected to the Herefordshire Safer Roads Partnership that includes the Council, the Police, Balfour Beattie and anyone else that hides behind the Partnership arrangement will be held to account for their failure to do their jobs and protect the people.

The era of ignoring the people is over, as is public service Reputation Management and their usual raft of excuses that allow the truth and facts to be secreted that were once a guaranteed certainty that nobody in an investigatory position would ever rock the boat and want to lift up the stone to see what lay beneath. As a result of Grenfell Tower and the publics reaction to what was a completely avoidable national tragedy, those days are now gone and anyone in public service who has involved themselves in poor service delivery that places the public at risk now has their neck in the noose of public accountability.

http://www.youtu.be/VSIQAKpaR20

A truck has crashed into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin, according to German police.

The Guardian is reporting (ok, ok Ragwert - I know we shouldn't believe everything the sandal-wearing muesli-eaters read) that one-in-five of all High Street estate agents face extinction, due to growing internet sales. So what will the city's Broad Street / Bridge Street area look like in a few years time, where there are currently 17 estate agents? Room to shoehorn in a few more coffee franchises and a couple of tattoo parlours perhaps?

Car crime in Herefordshire

Find out what the car crime rate is where you park your car.

With the help of government crime data, the Park Smart tool helps you to see where vehicle crime is most frequent. Pop your location or postcode in to help decide where to leave your car.
 

Ok.

So this evening I received an email from a very good friend of mine - I've known her for years. They are the sort of person that would do anything for anybody, and is always relentlessly cheerful! (Unlike myself!)

Today she took her daughter in law for a birthday lunch at Thai Gallery. ( I've been on a number of occasions myself - the food is great.)

They went in, and although it was very quiet, were shoe horned onto a tiny table. They ordered. My friend deliberately chose a dish containing no mushrooms, with noodles and a few other bits and bobs. When the food arrived, my friend could see mushrooms...and also bits of egg. A waitress was called over, and my friend explained very politely, that this was not the dish ordered. The waitress insisted it was. My friend pointed out the mushrooms, the eggs and the ribbon like noodles ( not the rice ones expected.) The waitress was having none of it.

Her daughter in law then asked to see the menu again. One was duly produced, and the meal description was read out. At this, the waitress did concede - rather reluctantly - that the mushrooms should not have been there. She said the plate could be returned to the kitchen, the mushrooms removed, and the meal reheated.

"And the egg?" My friend asked. Only to be told that there were 'no rice noodles.' My friend asked for the plate to be taken away. This was not a meal that could be eaten.

Her daughter in law ate hers at my friends insistence. Just then, another dish was bought out from the kitchen to go to another table.......containing rice noodles! The waitress was called over again.

"We thought you said there was no rice noodles?"

The reply was beyond belief. "There are no rice noodles in the dish you ordered." My friend pointed out that had they produced the actual dish that was ordered in the first place, the situation would not have arisen. This logic fell on deaf ears.

So.......a dish is ordered, it's not what was on the menu, no real attempt is made to rectify the situation, and the waitress was unbelievably rude!

My friend went to pay, (Still £25. for one dish, a glass of wine, a glass of water and a pot of rice - uneaten - it's rather bland by itself.) and had one final go at getting through to the waitress just how bad the service had been. By now, the waitress looked bored. She did respond - however, the first word she uttered was 'But...'

My friend was in no mood to listen to excuses and left.

This got me thinking.....

Has customer service got better, worse or has it become indifferent?

Any members have any examples of good, bad or downright ugly?

This MEP is absolutely correct. 

http://www.youtu.be/T7fs-91kDH4

'An embarrassment to the city': what went wrong with the £725m gateway to Cambridge?

Initially planned by Richard Rogers, CB1 was to be a world-class arrival point, with park, piazza, heritage centre and affordable homes. Instead, it’s ‘a future slum’ plagued by antisocial behaviour and sex-trafficking.


This article deserves to be read as it looks a carbon copy for what could happen to our city when the developers and planners get together for the Edgar Street Grid.

The BBC Radio Hereford & Worcester reporter Nicola Goodwin has done some sterling work in her personal campaign to get to the bottom of the true number of fatalities and casualties that occurred following the German bombing of the Rotherwas Munitions Factory, 75 years ago. At a service of commemoration at Rotherwas (attended by three 90-year-old survivors of the raid), the figures given were 16 killed and 27 injured, though there is a suggestion that the true fatalities figure could have been as high as 40. It was Hereford's worst wartime disaster. Ms Goodwin recently discovered that the 16 known fatalities were buried in an unmarked grave at Bullinghope's St Peter's Church. BBC war correspondent Kate Adie will be talking about the brave Rotherwas women at The Courtyard on 8 September. The event will be followed by a book signing.

Nicked from someone else, but a point I have been making for a while.

There are nigh on two hundred thousand Meditteranean migrants currently languishing in camps in southern Italy.

Italy is going the same way as Greece. High unemployment, a Banking system near to collapse and an emergence of populism that wants out of the European Union. Like Greece, Italy is one of western Europes cultural jewels in its crown and yet, despite all that Italy has given the world, nobody wants the migrants and nobody now wants or can help.

Worse, the migrants are going to still keep coming in the hope that they can get a better life in the West and if you take any notice of the socio political and economic forecasts, the movement of people from Asia and Africa to the west of Europe will continue for decades to come. This problem is not going to go away.

I fully appreciate that many of the East European countries will never ever accept these people into their closed societies and whilst this reality is uncomfortable to deal with and problematic to understand to modern western countries, its left to the West to do what needs to be done. And it can be done. Britain as much as any other nation has proven that it can absorb high numbers of migrants within a very short space of time. Difficult yes, but not beyond the extraordinary talents of the British.

You only have to see that since 2004, which is only a short time ago, Britain has received somewhere between three and four million migrants from the EU. Despite it all, despite our limited housing, we have been good hosts to these millions of people allowing them free and immediate access to housing, education, health care, employment and all our other public services. Yes it's a strain and yes at times it's a burden but Britain did it. We managed to achieve its aims and welcome people who wanted to escape their poverty and get a better life in the West.

And so, if we can do all these wonderful good and kind things for that group of migrants, we can most certainly do it for the people now languishing in Italy. Italy needs Europes help and unless we provide it Italy will be destroyed. Like Greece they've enough problems to deal with and we in Britain should help them.

Germany provided the lead on this issue. It's been at a cost I know but better to try and fail than turn your back and do nothing at all. Britain should extend the hand of friendship to our Italian cousins and accept willingly and freely without the use of any leverage or bargaining chips, all the Meditteranean migrants currently left in limbo in southern Italy. Despite the high numbers we in Britain could achieve wonderful things. We've done it with the millions of EU migrants and we can most certainly do the same thing for the two hundred thousand in Italy.

We have just returned from yet another wonderful week in Poland. As in this topic here are we to believe that here are less disabled people in Poland compared to the UK? Or is it that we just have more scammers making a mockery of our benefits system...I took photographs virtually overtime we passed a car park and as you will see, there are only one or two disabled designated bays and guess what, each time they were empty! 

SSAFA Forcesline

Since 1997, we have offered our confidential, free and non-judgemental helpline for the Armed Forces Community. During 2016, the team answered more than 25,000 calls and emails. Contact Forcesline on 0800 731 4880 - lines are open between 09:00 and 17:30 Monday-Friday.

SSAFA also have a drop in Help Desk at Franklin House Council Customer Services . This is covered by SSAFA Volunteers on a Tuesday between 1000 and 1400 . The volunteers are there to help and assist Serving members of our Armed Forces , their families and of course Veterans and their families.

If you know of somebody who needs SSAFA help please tell them to phone the FORCESLINE or phone the County SSAFA. 24/7 help line on 01432 273932

Belmont Rural Neighbourhood Plan referendum
 

Information statement

Herefordshire Council gives notice that a Referendum relating to the Belmont Rural Neighbourhood Development Plan will be held on Thursday 7 September 2017.

The question which will be asked in the referendum is:

Do you want Herefordshire Council to use the neighbourhood plan for Belmont Rural to help it decide planning applications in the neighbourhood area?

I had trouble trying to load up documents. To see all click on link above.

'Stay In Lane' Signs Would help here.

Note: The NEW 3rd lane in Edgar Street is for traffic heading for Whitecross or for traffic wanting to go all the way around the roundabout and back down Edgar Street ONLY! It is NOT for people to cut back across to go over the bridge! Traffic for Ross Road needs to be in the left lane and traffic for Belmont or Abergavenny please use the middle lane.

 

What a shambles - of course it is only our money. 

Blueschool House was after all a perfectly useable building for the previous occupants - if slightly shabby. Now it seems it will be a monument to muddled thinking, poor decision making and failure

http://councillors.herefordshire.gov.uk/documents/s50048737/Cabinet%20Report%20-%20JCSH%20Budget%20Update.pdf