As Hereford bids farewell to the Knife Angel, the official figures have just come in and during the month that the National Monument Against Violence and Aggression was on display at Hereford Cathedral there were 102,000 visitors.

£9,200 raised from the generosity of visitors filling the charity boxes - these funds will go toward the continuation of supplying educational resources and workshops for schools and youth organisations.

Knife Angel Statue on the lorry heading back to the British Iron Works Centre in Oswestry, photo courtesy of our friend Jon Simpson (official knife Angel Hereford photographer) 

284 knives, 2 guns were surrendered and there is still a surrender box at Hinton Community Centre, so we don’t know what is in there yet.

Alison Davies looks at the hundreds of weapons and knives handed in.

What a fabulous achievement by Alison Davies and Meryl Cain who have worked tirelessly for over 2 years just to bring the monument to Hereford. 

Alison Davies lost her son Mark to knife crime in December 2018 and together with Meryl Cain and a small group of friends wanted to raise awareness of the catastrophic impact violent crime has on individuals, families and communities. The team’s involvement with this project was carried out on a completely voluntary basis. The group are known as The Knife Angel Hereford Team.

Hereford Voice is so proud to have been able to promote and support the Knife Angel Hereford project as an official 'Working Partner' for the many months leading up to the arrival of the statue in Hereford last month and would like to thank Alison Davies, Meryl Cain and the whole team behind the scenes for being hugely successful in highlighting the devastating impact violence has on all our lives and for boosting tourism in Hereford by bringing this fabulous statue to our city.

Today (Sunday 11 July) is the final day to see Knife Angel Hereford before it returns to The British Ironwork Centre

The project has truly had a massive impact on our community - as of this weekend we are approaching 100,000 visitors, 250+ weapons have been handed in and the project has worked with over 600 schoolchildren.

So many people have been involved in bringing the Knife Angel to Hereford so we have spoken to just a few members of the team to share their experiences.

Embrace Hereford | It's the last weekend before the magnificent Knife Angel Hereford leaves us.

Have you visited this magnificent ‘National Monument Against Violence and Aggression’?

The fabulous thought-provoking Knife Angel Hereford has had a huge impact on the city with plenty of daily visitors.

Hereford Voice is so proud to have been able to promote and support the Knife Angel Hereford project for many months leading up to the arrival of the statue in Hereford last month and would like to thank Alison Davies, Meryl Cain and the whole team behind the scenes for being hugely successful in highlighting the devastating impact violence has on all our lives and for boosting tourism in Hereford by bringing this fabulous statue to our city.

Even after the Angel has left us, Hereford Voice will continue to support the Knife Angel Hereford project who are hoping to continue with a programme of legacy events, so that important messages regarding the futility of violent crime are continued into the future.

For further information about the Knife Angel’s visit to Hereford, please visit the website https://knifeangelhereford.co.uk/.

Donate to support Knife Angel Hereford 👉 https://hfd.news/u4c

#EmbraceHereford and please make time to visit this thought-provoking 'Knife Angel' statue before it leaves us.

📷 Official Knife Angel Hereford photographer Jon Simpson

#herefordvoice #positivehereford #herefordnews

Row Sentinel Ian is one very happy football fan and he’ll be cheering England on from the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

Is he England’s most socially distanced fan?! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

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"Despite the weather throwing all it has at him and an unexpected swim, Ian Rivers is making good progress on his journey to be the first person to row 3400 miles unsupported from New York to the Isles of Scilly. He's raising funds for the SAS Association's charity and St Michael's Hospice - Hereford"

Follow his journey and donate here 👉 https://rowsentinel.com

Freehold Disposal of the Town Hall, St. Owen Street

Any background information about this?

Elevate Property Group (developers of Alban House) have purchased the Booth Hall.
 

Work will soon begin to build 18 residential dwellings and two ground floor retail units.

Initially, The Booth Hall will be used as a site office and storage facility for the overall project, once completed the developers will then look to restore the interior and bring it back to life.

Below is an illustration of how Alban House will look once completed.
(Photo courtesy of Elevate Property Group)

Full details can be found here on the developers website: 

Unsafe building St Owen's Street, Hereford, cordon in place, please avoid the area.

The building is the Tattoo Parlour which has substantial structural damage, of which the cause is still unknown but early reports suggest that the building was hit by a vehicle a few days ago.

Emergency services and structural engineers are at the scene.

Photo courtesy of Google Maps & Simon Sloan 

WOW What a superb aerial photograph captured 100 metres above the Victoria Bridge in Hereford.

Thank you to our friend and regular Hereford Voice Photo Studio contributor Steve Norgrove for this fabulous shot.

Embrace Hereford | There are plenty of superb things to celebrate about our wonderful city.

The fabulous thought-provoking Knife Angel Hereford has had a huge impact on the city with plenty of daily visitors.

The National Monument Against Violence and Aggression will be on display until 12th July and there is a month-long programme of events.

Hereford Voice has drawn up a complete and comprehensive list of interactive medical workshops and creative activities, venues, dates and times etc 👉 https://hfd.news/em9

Hereford Voice is so proud to have been able to promote and support the Knife Angel Hereford project for many months leading up to the arrival of the statue in Hereford and we would like to thank Alison Davies, Meryl Cain and the whole team behind this fabulous project for all of their hard work for the past two years leading up to this fabulous event.

There is more good positive news! We have more new shops that have opened recently! Ga&Bi Polish Shop have been open for the past few weeks, check out their delicious fresh Polish cakes! you will find their shop in Bewell Street.

En BBQ Hereford have recently opened their superb new Korean restaurant within the Hereford Old Market Shopping Centre where you will also find other fabulous restaurants, coffee bars and shops.

Wonderful to see Saxtys Bar & Club thriving once again and if you have not been yet it is a must visit!

A new Tapas restaurant is also on the horizon and with the fantastic winning bid from the StrongerHereford team our brilliant city has a lot more new and exciting projects on the way!

We love our city and county and we like to shout about it and promote everything positive.

It's all too easy to moan but we are privileged to live in such a beautiful part of the World.

We will continue to promote local business and encourage people to visit Hereford and Herefordshire.

Join us in our campaign and 'BE POSITIVE' about this fabulous city of ours. 'Positive Hereford' and 'Embrace Hereford'

#PositiveHereford #EmbraceHereford #HerefordNews

We have to keep congratulating the fabulous Stronger Hereford team for their excellent campaign and winning bid securing over £22 million for some wonderful projects for Hereford.

To put into context just how incredible it is to achieve £22.4m, Hereford MP Jesse Norman said

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“This is the largest amount awarded in the region, which reflects the incredible amount of local consultation and sheer hard work from everyone involved."

Below is another new project that will benefit from this huge 'Towns Fund'

The Southside project will be located in Newton Farm in South Wye and is a collaboration between Growing Local is Going Local CIC, Belmont Wanderers Football Club and NMITE.

Their common goal is to improve the future health, wellbeing, life chances, and employment skillsets of the people of Hereford.

Alongside a main building, this project StrongerHereford will develop 3G and 4G pitches, a wheelchair-accessible plot, a community market garden, and an educational garden to help engage the individuals in this area.

You can read more about it here 👉 https://hfd.news/5f4 

The A49 at Dinmore Hill will remain closed overnight with a view to reopen in the morning following an incident involving an overturned HGV vehicle.

DIVERSIONS

Road users travelling southbound are advised to follow the solid circle diversion route:

At the junction of the A49/A417, turn left on to the A417 eastbound. Continue along the A417 to its junction with the A4103. Turn right on to the A4103 westbound.

Continue along A4103 westbound to its roundabout with the A49. Join the A49 and continue your journey.

Road users travelling northbound are advised to follow the solid triangle diversion route:

At the roundabout junction of A49/A4103 take the exit to the A4103 eastbound. Continue along the A4103 eastbound to its junction with the A417 Turn left along the A417 and continue to its junction with the A49 to continue your journey.

Delays are likely on the approach to this closure, with additional journey times also expected on diversion routes.

Further incident information is available from Highways England by visiting our www.trafficengland.com website and travel apps, or via our @HighwaysWMIDS regional Twitter feed. Our 24/7 Customer Contact Centre is also available to provide up to the minute information on 0300 123 5000.

Go ahead given to priority City transport improvements

Priority improvements for transport in Hereford have been confirmed with funding for the further development of key schemes, including safer routes to school, walking and cycling network and a new river crossing to the east of the City, approved by Cabinet today (Thursday 24 June).

Funding of £1.24m has now been allocated to take forward these schemes, which were identified in the Hereford Transport Strategy Review, to help increase low carbon active travel options and also to provide an alternative to the single river crossing.

The council has also secured government funding to develop proposals for improved bus services across the county. Government published its National Bus Strategy in March and has confirmed that it intends to provide more funding for councils to improve bus services in partnership with local operators.Councillor John Harrington, Cabinet member for infrastructure and transport said:

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“This is very welcome news. This more detailed allocation of the money already agreed by full Council allows us to manage our projects more robustly and to move at pace with these priority schemes to help deliver much needed improvements to travel and transport in our City.

“We now have a joined up vision and approach that supports our plans to support economic development, healthier lifestyles and one that will respect and protect our environment. We have here all the much needed elements required for a good, 21st Century transport system. This process started with a complete review of an outdated transport strategy and the development of a new and more holistic one that better aligns with the government’s direction on the climate and ecological emergency and legally binding carbon zero targets.

“The Hereford Transport Strategy incorporates a long term forward view and plan – we can’t do everything at once but we will able to deliver some elements very quickly, including tackling our school run issues and developing an enhanced partnership with our bus operators. We can also now pick up the pace with plans for a second river crossing, giving the City that much needed resilience. This is an exciting time, a real opportunity to change the way we travel for the benefit of our residents and our precious environment whilst making sure we have the necessary resilience in our existing road network.

“We will also be looking more closely at a number of proposals to improve travel in the wider county including continuing to support plans for a new parkway railway station at Pontrilas, facilitating schools to provide transport at cost to parents and smart lift sharing, and community-led proposals such as the rural greenways projects. This will enable the council to assess the benefits and determine which of these extra projects should be taken forward.”

“This is a truly exciting time for us all as a county and a once-in-a-generation opportunity to get things right.”

Herefordshire Council fixed 2,927 potholes across the county during May 2021, If you see it, report it.

Their pothole app makes it quick and easy to report potholes as well as other issues 👉 http://orlo.uk/Txjqh 

To follow the progress of road resurfacing, drainage and repairs click here #hvroads

Following on from our original discussion which began on our forums back in 2017 here ➡ https://hfd.news/k6f we are asking the question "Should Cyclists Be Insured?" particularly when we see ridiculous manoeuvres like this one which must be difficult for any decent cyclist to justify

#HerefordVoice #HerefordNews #Hereford

Another RTC on the Widemarsh Street - Link Road traffic lights this afternoon with a car with Children in ending

up on its side.I can see a death happening here unless something is done.Removal of traffic lights and the installation of a roundabout with 20mph all the way down Widemarsh Street & Link Road would be a start.0

Herefordshire Council would like to apologise to parents for the short notice of the public meeting regarding the Westfield Sixth Form consultation. 

This was an administrative error and we would like to reassure parents that the consultation runs until Tuesday 20 July, so there is time to provide feedback. We will host another public meeting on Friday 16 July at 3pm. Details of how to join the virtual meeting and the online consultation can be found on our website

Herefordshire Council is consulting about the future of Westfield School Sixth Form in Leominster, which provides high quality education for the young people between the age of 16 and 19 with severe, complex, multiple and profound learning difficulties. In recent years, the school has had approximately 12 pupils within its sixth form phase across the three year groups (Year 12, 13 and 14).  

Herefordshire Council proposes to commission all sixth form places for young people with severe, complex, multiple and profound learning difficulties at a new specialist sixth form college in Hereford City, called the Beacon College. The opportunity to build the new college arose in 2017, when we successfully bid to the Department for Education for the funding. The Beacon College opens in September 2021, and will be run by the Accordia Academies Trust (formerly Barrs Court Trust). 

It is anticipated that within three years of opening, Beacon College will offer sixth form education to approximately 60 students with specialist needs. The new college has been built to be able to provide sufficient places for all young people in Herefordshire requiring a specialist sixth form place, including those few pupils who may wish to attend from neighbouring counties.

You can find more information and complete the consultation questionnaire on our website www.herefordshire.gov.uk/consultations

Just when we thought we had seen the best of the Knife Angel Hereford images our good friend Jon Simpson comes up when this fabulous photograph

The 'Partnership and Sponsors' board looks fabulous in the Cathedral Close and we are looking forward to the arrival of this brilliant sculpture in Hereford on Monday!

Hereford Voice is proud to be supporting Knife Angel Hereford.