From this weeks printed Hereford Times.....

"Readers will have the chance to quiz some of the county's most influential decision makers during a debate next month!

The leader of Herefordshire Council, Cllr. Tony Johnson is among four panellists chosen to debate issues that matter to Herefordshire residents during a Question Time style debate.

He will be joined by Lucy Hurds,the Lib Dem candidate, Cllr Anthony Powers, leader of IOC and Liz Morawiecka,fron the Here4Hereford group."

"We hope it will be a bit like the TV programme," said John Bothamley, chair of Hereford Civic Society which has organised the event.

The fun and games will take place at St Johns Methodist Church on St Owen Street, on September 18th. Start time - 7.30pm.

Some of us will remember that a similar event took place last year....the now infamous Kindle Centre Debate....with Jonathon Bretherton and Patricia Morgan. (Bus shelter slide show anyone????)

Anyone who wants to ask a question on the night, needs to first submit it to HT editor Clive Joyce.

Sooooo.......What would we like to ask then????????????

The incinerator proposed as the future for the county's waste, with people claiming the PFI funded plan (look what happened to the hospital that was PFI funded) with costs well into nine figures - is now thought to be wasteful itself and can no longer be sustained by Herefordshire council. At the Overview and scrutiny committee on September 3rd  the committee heard some compelling evidence that the proposed incinerator at Hartlebury was now out of date, expensive  and inefficent.

At a meeting this month  we heard from Dr David Slater ( a former director of the environment agency and head of polution control) who presented the opportunity for Herefordshire to make use of a state of the art and proven pyrolysis based treatment plant to be based at Rotherwas. This plant would not only deal with all our biomass streams, but would produce 13mw electricity  and provide a district heating system for the complete Rotherwas Industrial Estate. This would be at no capital cost for the county, and would only cost the equivalent of landfil for the actual processing of the biomass. This plant could be up and running within two years.

Herefordshire Independent councillors were given a full  presentation of the system and process, we were all impressed!

Let us hope the Conservative administration will take careful notice, millions of pounds could be saved, and we would be masters of our own fate - for a change!

Whats with all the power cuts in St James (and beyond for all I know)? It went off last night about 11pm for 10-15 minutes, stuttered back on, went off, came on, went off and finally got back to normal about midnight. Street lights out as well. It's just gone off briefly again about 15 minutes ago. Plays havoc with the computers!

You'd think that ordering Stationary from a local firm would be bloody easy for the Council wouldn't you. I mean, you employ someone who, every so bloody often phones the local company up and says, 'send me a box of your finest A4 paper my dear good man' and the local company says,'Yes, we'll deliver it. That'll be ten pounds thank you very much'.

And until very bloody recently,this was the way in which this paper eating bureaucratic beast of burden the Council acquired their paper. They'd phone up, the local firm would say, 'hoorah! More paper for the Council to eat through and ten bloody quid from our pile of wealth was taken and paid for the endless piles of paper this parasitic beast consumes each and everyday of the week.

Well, not anymore! No bloody Sir'ee. They've outsourced that little head scratching excercise. Now, the Council employee phones the little local firm to be told, 'We cannot deal with you directly. You must phone the company who now deal with the Stationary, tell them you want a box of paper, they'll phone us up, place the rotten order and they'll say how much it'll cost you, when it'll be delivered and that's all you now need to know.

Course, the sting in the tail is, because the agent acting for the Council likes a lump of bloody sugar that box of A4 paper that we once paid ten quid for,now costs us fifteen bloody quid. The local firm still get their ten quid, the Council still get their bloody paper but now, because of an outsourcing firm that may be Balfour Beatty, they get five quid for arranging the transaction.

It makes you want to hurl phlegm. A curse on this Council!

I would like to ask Cllr Johnson,

Since January 2013

How many new management positions have been created and what is the combined salary?

How many new posts have been created which command a salary of £30,000 but with no line management responsibility?

How many existing managers received a pay increase?

How many front line staff were made redundant and what was the salary savings?

Finally how much money did the Council save by reducing the grass cutting?

At least 6 large Caravans with their towing vehicles have set up camp on Widemarsh Common

The Common on a weekend is full of young children playing a football match or being trained . It appears that due to these travellers the weekend will be spoilt for a large number of children and their parents .thats a great pity because it's right and proper that children of all ages need to be participating in sport.

http://www.heart.utest.thisisglobal.com/torbay/news/local/torbay-child-sex-abuse-claims/

No dates given yet.

50 officers working on case.

Major inquiry involves 20 children of 12 and upwards.

It's true and I'll fight any man who says it ain't. Last night I was laid on the bed, flat on me back dressed up in one of my wife's collection of uniforms. As she writhed, wriggled and generally thrust about upon me, I lay there nibbling upon a platter of Cornish Clams dressed from head to toe in an undersized World War Two Japanese Naval Admirals uniform. Minding me own bloody business, eating me Clams and swigging back the Ale, her right knee hit the hilt of my Decorative Sword causing discomfort to my left ********. I said, 'Sweet Lord! Take care. You'll give me a Torsion of the Testcle. At the very least writhe around and display some care and consideration toward me you brazen and wanton strumpet'.

Course, this then develops into a pointless conversation doesn't it. Wished I'd never bloody mentioned it. She says, 'what's a torsion of the ********'.

I said, ' I'll tell you what that is. It's something you wouldn't want. That's what that is.'. Course, she wants to know more doesn't she. I said, 'fair enough. You're thrusting up and down in pursuit of personal gratification, your knee forces the hilt of this fine sword into my scrotum and me testcles can get all knotted up. That's what that is'. Course, the bloody woman then says, 'I wouldn't want that' leading me then further into this pointless conversation explaining that the last time I checked she hadn't developed a scrotum and therefore it was highly unlikely shed ever suffer the whole torsion of the testicles thing.

Happily, this bag of boll.ocks of a meaningless and pointless conversation was disturbed by a tap, tap, tap on the bedroom window. Keen to end this physical violation of my human dignity, I shouted, 'dismount. I'll see who it is tapping on the window'. And I did. I opened the curtains to see Bill Norman clinging onto me window sill. I said, 'clear off Norman. Im a diligent recycler of rubbish and I'll be damned if I tolerate you scurrying up my bloody drainpipe, disturbing the brackets that affix my drainpipe to my wall and have your bloody feet and knees scraping off my rendering'. I told him, 'be gone or I'll come outside and box your ears'. Wasn't going was he! Determined wasn't he! Said, 'you want to fight me. Get out here now Emperor Horihito and I'll kick your head in'.

Anyway, I popped me little Admirals hat on, hurtled down the stairs, opened the door, slammed the door, which, given the benefit of hindsight was a huge mistake, to find Bill Norman stood there in the company of Geoff Hughes, Jonathon Bretherton, Alistair Neil, Tony Johnson and Pat Morgan. I thought, 'hi up. I shouldn't have slammed me door shut.'

To cut a long story short, they all gave me a kicking, beat me with short pointy sticks and dragged me away for questioning. Course getting dragged up Commercial Road dressed as a World War Two Japanese Naval Admiral was'nt the easiest of experiences, particularly the scorn and ridicule that poured out from the Ale houses that all had the phrase ' you stupid tw.at' incorporated into them.

Once in Plough Lane, they got to work on me. Tied and bound and wired up to the domestic electricity supply the questioning began. 'Give us Paul Cardin'. Over and over again, 'Give us Paul Cardin and the agony of this encounter will end.'Course, being a black plastic bin bag man, a man who refuses to shop within the new development or eat produce that was purchased from within the new development and being someone who's not intimidated, I said,'Get stuffed. Never. I'll never give Cardin up'.

Then after three hours of being head butted, thumped, slapped, pinched, electrocuted, shot, stabbed, poisoned and having my fat face jumped on, Hereford Councils Chief Legal Officer Bill Norman cried, 'we've gone to far. We've abused our positions of power. We'll release him and buy his silence with a generous Compromise Agreement'.

And they did. With a Tax Free Lump Sum of sixty two thousand pounds tucked inside me tight white Naval Britches I staggered back home richer than I was before vowing that I'd never talk about my beatings within Plough Lane. And I won't. Never!

Tiger UK is opening in the new OLM shopping Centre, check out their website here

Power cut puts more than 650 Hereford properties in the dark

Hereford Times

It was approx. 12.30 ... I am in HR1 ... Had to get the candles out! 

@wpduk

Licensing Application in for consideration ... 

Application

Seems to be applying to offer a 0900 - 2400 venue as a general rule ... 

Does anyone know anything about the guy selling £3/£5 raffle tickets on behalf of The Happiness Foundation outside the HSBC in Hereford town centre. Claims to be raising money to provide mobility scooters to people with various disabilities, but details appear to be very hard to track down on the internet. He seems to be there regularly and I hate to think of people being ripped off if he's not a legitimate street trader.

Dippy , for info , they are , at last spending money on our road !

Works on Whitecross Road, Hereford

31 August to 3 September 2014

Whitecross Road will be resurfaced from the entrance to Homer Street to the entrance to Plough Lane as part of a £40 million investment in Herefordshire’s road network over the coming year. The work taking place requires heavy plant and machinery and a large enough space to ensure staff on site can work safely. For this reason a full road closure is required.

Works duration

Works are scheduled to start on Sunday 31 August 2014 and to finish by Wednesday 3 September before the start of the new school term. To minimise disruption all works will start at 6pm and finish at midnight each day.

If weather conditions are good, it may be possible to complete the works a day earlier.

According to a report on The Hereford Times, 13 police officers have been investigated for inappropriate use of social networking sites.

(Sorry I cannot provide a handy link!!)

Thoughts please!

Wish to advise you all that the Military Charity SSAFA will be in High Town from 1000 on Wednesday 3rd September . This is in support of the Hereford City Mayor who has nominated SSAFA as one of his Charities . UBIQUE and Mrs UBIQUE will be there - it would be great to meet other Posters !

SSAFA is the oldest Military Charity formed in the 1890 's . At the start of WW 1 the Govt. of the day were not prepared for all the losses - it was this Charity who for two years paid widow pensions to the wives of the Fallen. For over 125 years SSAFA have been supporting our Forces , their families and Veterans and their families .

Under the Herefordshire Armed Forces Community Covenant the Charity operate a Military Charities Help Desk jointly with The Royal British Legion . The Help Desk is based at Herefordshire CC Customer Services at Franklin House , Hereford , SSAFA volunteers are on duty from 1100 - 1500 on Tuesdays , TRBL cover the same times on Thursdays. Herefordshire CC are also a very supportive part of this initiative .

Free confidential help and advice wil be available on a range of issues - veterans will also be signposted to furthe sources of help where needed

You do not need to book an appointment , just call in to see if the Charities can help you.

The local SSAFA telephone number is 01432 273932 ( 24 / 7 )

SSAFA -LIFELONG SUPPORT FOR OUR FORCES AND THEIR FAMILIES

It appears that Herefordshire Council have plenty of money what with this recent £90k per annum job and now these two jobs, almost £200,000 in wages for just 3 people!