Proposed budget will now be put forward for recommendation to Full Council 

Herefordshire Council’s Cabinet has agreed the proposed 2021/22 budget which will now be put forward for recommendation to Full Council on Friday 12 February 2021.

The proposed budget takes into account the 2021/22 provisional local government finance settlement announced by central government last December. This includes:

‘Lower Tier’ Services Grant of £0.25m which will cover around 70% of the cost of the council’s response to the pandemic

Revenue Support Grant funding of £0.6m

New Homes Bonus funding of £1.7m

Rural Services Delivery Grant of £5.3m

The council is facing pressure on its budget over the next financial year, mostly due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. £11.2m in savings and a Council Tax increase have been proposed to Full Council to deliver a balanced budget. It has also been proposed that £1.9m of additional funding is provided to increase Council Tax discounts for those facing financial hardship.

Council Tax funds around 29% of the council’s budget. A 4.99% total increase to Council Tax has been recommended. This is an equivalent rise of £1.51 a week for a Band D property. The increase is made from:

3% increase to the ‘adult social care precept’. This will provide an additional £3.2m to be spent on delivering social care services

1.99% increase to ‘core Council Tax’. This will provide £2.2m towards the cost of all other council services

Residents on a low income may be eligible for help to pay their bill through the Council Tax Reduction scheme. Some residents will continue to pay no Council Tax at all, such as young adults who have left care and, with effect from 2021, also all the council’s Foster Carer families. More information and advice on reduction schemes and allowances can be found on the Herefordshire Council website at www.herefordshire.gov.uk/counciltax

Works begins of the refurbishment of the public toilets in Maylord Orchards on Monday!

It will be good to have these much needed facilities reopen again in the city centre in the near future.

Gemma Davies - Cllr said to us today;

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"I’m excited that FINALLY people will be able to use the public toilets that have been missed for so long.

It goes part of the way to bringing back into use public toilets which help with the public health of residents and undoubtedly create more footfall.

The timing of these works are such that we create better facilities to encourage more people to come and stay in our city"

 

Police Update:

West Mercia Police officers searching for missing Hannah can confirm that a woman found earlier today is 26 year old Hannah.

Detective Inspector Chris Percival said: “At around 8.30am officers located a woman in the Ash Path area of Hereford, close to Yazor Road in a critical condition but not in suspicious circumstances. Hannah was taken to hospital where she continues to receive urgent medical attention and is being supported by her family.

“I would like to thank the thousands of people, the communities and the media both in Hereford and further afield who from the early hours of this morning helped share our appeal to find Hannah.”

Thank you to everyone who shared our appeal today

#herefordvoice #herefordnews

The Boohoo Group has acquired the collapsed Debenhams department store chain for £55M.

The fashion retailer has bought the Debenhams brand and website but it will not take on any of the firm's remaining 118 stores or its staff.

We hope that the staff all manage to find jobs during this already challenging time.

Today is January 27th which is #HolocaustMemorialDay marking the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Today, we remember those lives lost and survivors of the Holocaust during a nazi regime.

Join people and 'Light The Darkness' by placing a candle/light in your window tonight at (8pm GMT)

Please do this safely or even use an LED Candle.

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"Visiting Auschwitz was one of the most important and emotional experiences in my life and a place I will never forget"

Colin..

A respiratory consultant at Hereford County Hospital has spoken of her personal battle against COVID-19 and how she’s happy to be “first in the queue” to get vaccinated.

Ingrid Du Rand, who has been on the frontline of treating COVID-19 patients this year, began her own very personal battle with the virus during November when she started to feel unwell.

A fit forty-something and keen runner, Ingrid’s first inclination that something wasn’t quite right was when she slowed up on one of her regular runs.

“I felt more tired than usual. This was unusual for me. A couple of days later I lost my sense of taste and smell,” said Ingrid.

For the best part of a month, the mother of three suffered from severe head and muscle aches and had a temperature of just over 39C for three of the weeks with a cough and breathlessness.

Ingrid’s breathing became laboured and she spent most of the time in bed losing a lot of strength.

“I still feel weak now and I’ve lost a stone in weight,” she added.

“COVID-19 is a random disease. You don’t expect it to attack someone in their forties who is fit, but it completely bowled me off my feet.”

WVT Respiratory Consultant Ingrid Du Rand

Ingrid, who works at Hereford County Hospital with her husband - also a consultant at the hospital - understands the seriousness of the disease. She sat down with her husband in the spring this year, during the first phase of the pandemic, and they made sure their wills were up to date and plans in place for the future care of their children should the unthinkable happen.

“I’d looked after countless Coronavirus patients at the hospital, but this shows that it can infect someone in a low risk category. Nothing could have prepared me for what I went through.”

Ingrid began her return to work in the last couple of weeks.

In her capacity as a respiratory consultant she receives constant updates from around the world on the COVID-19 outbreak, treatment for the virus and the various vaccines and their trials.

“I receive dozens of emails a day relating to the outbreak and have scrutinised the papers and test results of the current vaccines that are being made available.

“I’m convinced that they are safe and I’d be happy to be at the front of the queue with the vaccines now going out to staff at the Trust.

“Of course, there is always a longer term risk with any vaccine, but the risk associated with not having the vaccine and contracting COVID-19 is so much higher.”

Ingrid explains the way news about the vaccines broke through the media created opportunities for some of the “fake news” about the safety of the vaccines.

“Normally a scientific paper is published first in a peer reviewed journal, and then the next day you get the coverage and interviews in the media.

“With these vaccines, it seems the story came out in the media – and on social media – first, with the science behind them coming out afterwards.

“This hasn’t helped, but from all the research I’ve seen and investigated – I’ve watched the vaccines pass through the various phases of testing - I have concluded that these vaccines are safe.

“This is our generation. It’s our war and we must trust the science.”

While Ingrid is back at work, the experience of suffering the virus has given her a new insight into the challenges those with COVID-19 face.

“I was humbled by the support I received from friends and colleagues at the hospital. It was amazing to see meals dropped off at the garden gate for my family.

“We really detached ourselves from everyone while I was ill and it was reassuring to know we had good friends and colleagues who supported us as a family and I’d like to thank them for the support they have given us.”

In conclusion, Ingrid said she was optimistic about the future.

“The vaccines which have been developed so quickly are effective and safe. They come as hope after a long and arduous year and are a real positive note on which to start 2021.”

The college wrote today:

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"Over the last few weeks, Hereford Sixth Form College has transformed the Sports Hall into a COVID-19 testing centre.

Initially, lateral flow tests are being offered to staff twice a week, ensuring our staff can continue to work safely.

Thank you to all staff involved!"

 

This is brilliant news and we at Hereford Voice would like to extend our thanks and gratitude to all the staff and people involved in this monumentous task.

Photographs courtesy of Hereford Sixth Form College

#herefordvoice #herefordnews #positivehereford

Keep supporting local & find Herefordshire businesses offering delivery or click & collect services during lockdown on the Herefordshire Council interactive map here

It's quick & easy to use & open for any businesses to add their details.

#positivehereford 

An 87 year old vulnerable lady had nearly £40,000 stolen from her bank account including money taken from an ISA savings and also from her insurance funeral plan.

Nicola Jane James aged 52 from Pixley Walk, Newton Farm Hereford was charged with two counts of theft but only pleaded guilty to one charge of a smaller amount of £18,000 and was prepared to put her frail 87 year old partially sighted mother through a long court case.

 
Nicola James

The elderly victims other children were not prepared to put their mum though anymore upset and anguish which has had a massive impact on her health and wellbeing and on the rest of the family as a whole, the Police and CPS shared the same view.

Judge Jim Tindal told James that she was a predatory and astonishingly selfish individual and she had shown no empathy to her mother as he sentenced her to 12 months in prison, which was suspended for two years as she had no previous convictions and she was also told she must repay the bank in full.

James's elderly mother had expressed that even though her daughter had stolen from her, she felt that she should receive some sort of punishment in recognition of her actions, but she did not want her daughter to go to prison, which the court took into account when passing sentence.

The Judge also ordered James to take part in 10 day rehabilitation activity to help her address her significant gambling addiction.

See a megaphone 📣 think Hereford Voice 📢

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 and 'BE POSITIVE' about this fabulous city of ours.

👉 'Positive Hereford'

We are again witnessing floods across our county and you have to feel for all of those people and businesses that are affected.

Residents in Greyfriars Ave and Wye Terrace as well as many other homes in streets and roads across Herefordshire are once again flooded out.

Our friends at De Koffie Pot are really battling against the odds to pump out the constant flow of flood water.

Keep up the good work guys and let's hope that the water does not breach the wall, we have our fingers crossed for everyone

ROAD CLOSURE | Holme Lacy Road, Putson, Hereford.

Please do not ignore the signs they are there for a reason!

#herefordvoice #herefordnews #herefordshire

Michael Adam sent us this photograph this evening showing a different perspective of the Monument roundabout in Hereford at night.

HSBC has announced that they have plans to close 82 branches across the UK reducing their estate to 511 branches. 

Hereford's branch located in the city centre is NOT on the list of branches to be closed however, Tewksbury's branch is earmarked to close at the end of July.

The bank said it aims to redeploy the vast majority of staff to nearby branches and does not expect any redundancies from the move.

The branches will start shutting their doors permanently from April 23, starting with Edinburgh’s Princes Street branch, with approximately three closing each week until the end of September.

Full list of branches and planned closure dates:

Friday 23 April: Edinburgh, Princess St

Friday 7 May: Brighton, Ditchling Road; Hull, Merit House; Wednesbury; Sutton Coldfield, Four Oaks

Friday 14 May: Hull, Holderness Road; Pontyclun Talbot Green; London, Fleet Street; London, Fenchurch Street

Friday 21 May: London, Old Broad Street; London, Charing Cross; Sheffield, Darnall; Oxford, Summertown

Friday 28 May: Leeds, Chapel Allerton; Cardiff, Rumney; Torquay, Strand; Staines

Friday 4 June: Plymouth, Forder House; Belper, King Street; Colchester; London, Whitechapel

Friday 11 June: London, Marylebone; London, Streatham Hill; Falkirk High Street; Fleet, Fleet Road

Friday 18 June: Reading, Woodley; Oxford, Headington; Swansea, Gorseinon; Wigston, Leicester Road

Friday 25 June: Tavistock, Bedford Square; Bristol, Nailsea; Leeds, Cross Gates; Yate, North Walk

Friday 2 July: London, Kingsbury Road; Cleckheaton, Bradford Road Bexleyheath, Broadway London, South Woodford

Friday 9 July: Birmingham, Erdington; Goole, Wesley Square; Congleton, High Street; Formby, Chapel Lane

Friday 16 July: Gillingham, Kent; Dunstable, West Street; Chorley, Market Street; Pontypridd, Taff Street

Friday 23 July: Felixstowe, Hamilton Road; Godalming, High Street; Prestatyn, High Street; London, Southgate

Friday 30 July: Tewkesbury, High Street; Maldon, High Street; Hatfield; Herts; Huntingdon, High Street

Friday 6 August: Stockport, Bramhall; London, Russell Square; Richmond, Market Place

Friday 13 August: Loughton, High Road Rustington, The Street Exmouth, Chapel Street

Friday 20 August: Bournemouth, Winton; Liverpool, University; Cleveleys, Victoria Square; Clevedon, Triangle

Friday 27 August: Northallerton, High Street; Walton-on-Thames, High Street; London, High Holborn

Friday 3 September: Barry, Holton Road; Aldershot, Wellington Street; Eastcote, Field End Road; London, Edgware Road

Friday 10 September: Ramsgate, High Street; Manchester, Chorlton-Cum-Hardy; Letchworth, Station Place; London, Hackney

Friday 17 September: Barnet, High Street; Deal, High Street; Cheshunt, Turners Hill; Swadlincote, High Street

Friday 24 September: Dorking, West Street; Welshpool, Broad Street; London, Surrey Quays; Worksop, Bridge Street

Hereford & Worcester Fire and Rescue Service were called to a serious agricultural building fire in Kings Pyon, near Hereford at around 13:03 on Monday, 18 January 2021.

The fire was in a large agricultural building – two barns approximately 120m by 120m containing 500 tonnes of straw. Livestock in the barns were all evacuated.

photographs courtesy of HWFRS

In total 12 appliances were involved in fighting the fire with crews coming in from Kingsland, Hereford, Eardisley, Leominster, Kington, Wyre Forest, Tenbury Wells, Fownhope, Ledbury and Malvern.

The fire was fought using four hosereel jets and two main jets supplemented by a water carrier and a dam.

There were no casualties.

Crews from Worcester and Tenbury Wells were still in attendance on site on Tuesday morning maintaining a watching brief, before this was scaled back to one crew from Eardisley.

“At 13:00 on 18/1/2021, HWFRS attended a fire involving approximately 500 tonnes of straw within two large barns large barns at Kings Pyon,” said Station Commander Deb Davies, North Herefordshire Cluster.

“Throughout the afternoon and overnight, crews from multiple stations worked alongside the owners to contain the fire and prevent fire spread to numerous adjacent barns. All farm stock was safely moved to adjoining fields by onsite staff before our arrival.

Hereford & Worcester Fire and Rescue Service continue to have a crew on site and are working with the owner to bring the incident to a close.

If you're living in the Belmont area and are wondering what the huge crane is being used for this morning, it is for the new installation of a 16 metre phase 8 pole with wrap around cabinet built around the base with new equipment cabinets and ancillary development for EE and HG3 on the land adjacent to Tesco Belmont.

Hereford & Worcester Fire and Rescue Service crews have be called to a fire which has engulfed a barn at Kings Pyon in Herefordshire.

The heat from the core of the fire is an incredible 650c as you can see from the heat gun.

Emergency services attended the scene yesterday morning between Croft Castle and Lucton involving two vehicles.

Two people were treated for minors injuries at the roadside however, one motorist was taken to hospital and later released.