No linked to this subject, but support is needed at 10:00am today (8th feb) outside Town Hall Hereford. Campaign against yet another proposed high increase in CT of 4%. Please support if you feel we are already paying too much in Herefordshire.

The first phase of the demolition of the prefab bungalows along Beattie Ave began this morning.

These prefabs weren't designed to last, the past 30 years have been a compromise between the costs of sustaining the properties vs the costs to redevelop them. 

The demolition of this first phase is due to be completed within 3 weeks.

Hereford Voice previously reported on plans submitted by Hereford Housing back in March of 2018 for the proposed demolition of 41 existing (prefab bungalows) in Beattie Avenue Hereford and the subsequent construction of 71 bungalows and houses with associated parking, private amenity, access and alterations to highway.

Electric vehicles charging in the council’s off-street car parks will soon be entitled to 30 minutes of free parking.

The changes will take effect from Monday 16 March 2020, from which date drivers of electric or hybrid vehicles that need to plug in and charge will be able to obtain a free 30 minute parking ticket to display in their vehicle.

Council electric vehicle charge points are available:

Hereford; Garrick Multi Storey Car Park, Plough Lane, Shirehall and Venn Close Car Parks

Kington; Mill Street Car Park

Ledbury; St Katherine’s Car Park

Leominster; Etnam Street Car Park

Ross; Red Meadow Car Park

New rapid charging points are also to be installed in February 2020 at Edde Cross Street Car Park in Ross, St Martins in Hereford and Broad Street in Leominster. These will be capable of delivering an 80% charge to a vehicle in 20 minutes.

Electricity supplied to the council's charging point network is produced from 100% renewable energy.

Cllr John Harrington, Cabinet Member for Infrastructure and Transport, said:

Quote

“As part of the council’s commitment to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030, we are delighted to announce this scheme. It is hoped that this incentive will encourage those purchasing a new vehicle to consider alternatives to petrol or diesel engines and in doing so reduce the impact that harmful nitrous oxide and particulate matter in our town and city centres can have.”

Herefordshire Council declared a climate emergency last year, and will publish its new Carbon Management Plan in April this year. The document will outline the council’s plan to reduce carbon emissions over the next five years and set an interim target for its commitment to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030/31.

The possible opening of a Shisha Bar near to Asda in Hereford have been blocked because plans have been refused.

The location for a Shisha Bar would have been at the rear of number 8 Belmont Road (behind the Dino Asian market).

Plans were refused by virtue of the siting of the proposal in close proximity to residential properties, it is considered that there would be an unacceptable adverse impact upon the properties from air pollution and noise.

Plans have been submitted by the owners of Play Planet in Widemarsh Street Hereford for the proposed change of use to D2 (Soft-play) of central section of sub-divided Industrial Unit. (former Vision Gelpack Premises, Faraday Road, Hereford).

It is understood that Play Planet have been looking for larger premises in Hereford for a couple of years in which to move Play Planet and expand and if approved will create an additional 25 jobs.

The proposal is to change the use of the two central bays (1028m2 plus ancillary first floor offices) of the former industrial premises.

The application building has been vacant since March 2019 following the former user entering into administration in March of this year. The building dates from the post-war era and requires significant investment to bring it up to current building regulation standards.

In addition to maintaining existing jobs at Play Planet, the proposal would ultimately create around 25 positions, also a range of spin-off opportunities for associated businesses which might benefit from a presence at such as facility.

Planning Application P194006/F

Just when you thought the madness couldn't possibly get any madder (another £0.5m bypass review - please), comes this news via the BBC. Shropshire have Kier - we have BBLP, both in a race to the bottom of the potholes.

Shropshire has its own £1,000 a day pothole consultant

If you needed reminding of the state of Britain's pothole-laden roads, the BBC report that Shropshire Council have appointed a dedicated 'pothole consultant', charging £1,000 a day. 

The council say this is “comparable with usual consultancy costs”, and say they hope the appointment will improve their current “unproductive” strategy and speed up repair of the 3,500 reported road defects in the county. Steve Davenport of Shropshire Council claims even though the consultant will earn £130,000 working five days a week over the six month contract, they will actually save millions in the long run by “getting the right people on the ground doing a better job." Pothole repair in Shropshire is currently outsourced to construction and infrastructure company Keir, who the council say have been “allowed to mark their own homework” for too long. 

A great view of this iconic building occupied by Laura Ashley as you leave the passage leading to Gilbies Bar, (St Peters Close)

Hereford Voice - Turn Traffic Lights Off! Campaign:

Traffic Lights Out! Guess What...NO DELAYS!!

'The Traffic Just Flows'

Councillor John Harrington kindly just send us this video, which clearly shows at 'rush hour' with the traffic lights out how smoothly the traffic just flows!! 

Please continue to support our long campaign to trail turning these lights off, sign our petition:
 

The BBC TV licence fee is to rise - days after the corporation unveiled huge cuts at the public service broadcaster.

The cost of the annual television licence fee will increase from £154.50 to £157.50 from April 1.

This comes just days after corporation unveils huge cuts
and announced 450 job losses and the axing of award-winning The Victoria Derbyshire Show. Meanwhile, Match of the Day host Gary Lineker has suggested the licence fee should be optional.

Your thoughts? 

Following the cessation of hostilities of World War 2 and what the world subsequently learned of the Holocaust, the Death Camps were called the German Death Camps. Thereafter, in an effort to ease the pain of the surrendered German people we then began to call them Nazi Death Camps so as to mitigate the disaster that befell Germany and its people. A noble thing? Yes, why not if it meant that Germany could be soothed of the shame and pain of the Second World War.

However, In recent years that language began to change for the worse. These places of cruelty and human shame suddenly became Polish Death Camps. As if Poland and its people hadn’t suffered enough. Brutalised by both Germany and the Soviet Union, something no other nation on earth had to endure, now they’re being given ownership of these terrible places. 

There are no finer more proud patriotic people than those of Poland. During those dark years of German occupation they produced the likes of Irena Sendler (read her Wikipedia page) who saved thousands of Jewish lives, hundreds of RAF fighter pilots who made more kills than any others, they helped save Britain from invasion, and produced a formidable driven force of freedom fighters that terrorised the occupying forces of Germany. Quite simply, the Polish never surrendered. Just like the British, despite the overwhelming power and evil of the Nazi forces, Poland never gave up. 

And so, when you read in some pro EU mainstream media outlets that the Polish Government are now in some way trying to undermine the history and memory of the Holocaust by legislating to end the use of language that now describes these places of evil as Polish Death Camps, it’s simply not true. The Polish Government and their people only want the Camps to be called what they were and still are. Nazi Germany Death Camps!

We have received several complaints from motorists in Hereford who have used Herefordshire Councils chosen parking partner app 'RingGo'

The complains appear to focus of the wrong parking location at the point of payment, we are not sure if this is a glitch with the app or simply down to the app showing the nearest location number 'at the top' which most people would automatically select rather than the correct location number for the street that the motorist is parked in. 

This has resulted in genuine people paying for their parking only to find a parking ticket on their vehicle when they return. Upon investigation they may well have paid for parking but if they are shown as parking in the next street they still end up with a ticket. When this has been challenged with Herefordshire Council more often than not the Council still enforce the ticket and fine, even though you cannot park the same vehicle in two separate streets at the same time, we have given an example below:

Motorist parks their vehicle in Broad Street (location number 85598) near to the Library and pays £3.36 for 2 hours parking however, when they have paid the location selected was for King Street (location number 85995).

Ticket is issued.

Is Herefordshire Council being unfair here by insisting that the motorist still pays the parking ticket fine, even though the motorist has actually paid to park for 2 hours?

Principality Building Society will be opening a branch in the newly build Alban House development in High Town Hereford. 

They currently have a branch in St Peter's Square.

Planning permission for advertising consent has been submitted.

This will breath new life into the former building which was fire damaged and left undeveloped for years. 

At 23:00 GMT on the 31st January 2020 and after 47 years, the United Kingdom formally left the European Union and ceased to be a member of the bloc, Brexit has finally happened.

There is still a lot to discuss and months of negotiation to follow. While the UK has agreed the terms of its EU departure, both sides still need to decide what their future relationship will look like. This will be worked out during the transition period, which now begins and is due to end on 31 December 2020. During this 11-month period, the UK will continue to follow all of the EU's rules and its trading relationship will remain the same.

This morning you are waking up to an exiting new era for the UK, but who will be next? 

Share your thoughts with us..
#HerefordVoice #Brexit

Hereford Voice has an active SSL Certificate (we have had this for over 2 years and renewed again today). You will notice the secure padlock just before our domain, for added peace of mind.

Your will now see our PositiveSSL Trust Logo on the main page of the website.

Why Use a PositiveSSL TrustLogo?

Visible trust indicators, like the PositiveSSL TrustLogo, are proven to improve visitors’ engagement with sites, increasing purchases, use of online services, and the sharing of sensitive information.

A Positive SSL is the most popular SSL Certificate introduced by the most trusted CA Comodo. It's a domain validated SSL that can be issued by just verifying domain ownership. The certificate is designed to encrypt website for low volume online transactions and secure information.

Looks like we are to see continued austerity in Herefordshire. I happened to see this on Twitter yesterday. I wonder what the Jess and Bill have anything to say about this! We are blessed with 2 Con MP;s and yet we are to suffer a cut in our funding 

 https://t.co/sMgyd8GAbS?amp=1

Breaking News:

We have been reliably informed that a western river crossing crossing in Hereford won't be achieved (via current plans, being reviewed at the moment by the new administration) for at least 7 years - or longer! - what should be done in the short to medium term to solve our congestion issues? Should we look at other options or concentrate on a bypass?

The focus for the new council is to seek alternatives to a bypass in the short term, such as a better infrastructure for cyclists, electric buses serving the city and surrounding towns and villages. 

Developing popular schemes like turning off a number of traffic lights (not pedestrian lights) as part of a trail in an attempt to reduce the daily congestion within the city.

None of the above is diverting from a bypass but in reality, even if the go-ahead was given tomorrow morning for a second river crossing, there are many time consuming procedures that have to be followed, for example; Consultations with government bodies and various departments and also the local residents whom would live within area of the new bridge. A business plan has to be presented then an application for planning which alone can take 18 - 24 months, following all of this, if planning permission is finally granted, then the council need to look at compulsory purchases, again, this can take several years. Finally, once all signed off the bridge and roads need to be built!

We are currently running a simple yes/no poll on Hereford Voice to see whether local people believe Hereford needs a bypass and from almost 2000 votes in less than a week the results clearly show an overwhelming 89% of people want a bypass, which comes as no real surprise however, as you can see from the explanation above, it's not likely to happen before 2030, with this in mind, perhaps we should embrace and explore all other alternatives in the meantime..
#HerefordVoice #Herefordbypass #Hereford

In The Hereford Times 25th January 2020

Quote

 

Volunteers adopting their street to keep it free of litter

MORE THAN 30 people have been getting involved in a community group's new initiative to make sure Hereford is kept tidy and free of litter.

Hereford Community Clean Up Group has a new plan which will see volunteers look after a designated area of the city, as opposed to helping anywhere across a larger area.

The group now wants more people to get involved with the group and adopt or look after the street or area where they live.

"It is a great way of covering more of the city leaving the group events to concentrate on areas that are not being looked after," Emma Jones from the group said.

"We currently have 34 people who have come forward to volunteer to adopt the street/area where they live, which is fantastic.

"We still require more people to look after areas of Putson, Hunderton, Moor Farm, Venn's Lane and College Estate.

For more information contact the group on Facebook or email;  hccug1@gmail.com.

 

I pick up litter once a week in an area around where I live, usually on Monday as any cans or plastic bottle and any other recyclable items can go in my green bin before the dustmen empty it on Tuesday. It does make a difference to the street scene. The other thing that needs doing is clearing the kerbs of weeds - this does make the area looked after. To get an idea of the problem on the estates look at my previous posts under I told you it would get worse!

Traffic Lights Out Trial Hereford.

Hereford Voice have been campaigning for years to have some of the traffic lights in Hereford (not pedestrian lights) turned off, as most agree with our motto, 'The Traffic Just Flows' when the lights have been out in the past.
It is looking like we may have a trial sometime this summer.

This was featured on this evenings ITV News 

#HerefordVoice