Parish Newsletter

[Colin James]

PUBLIC REALM SERVICES PARTNERSHIP NEWSLETTER - PARISHES 

 

Introduction from Cllr Paul Rone & BBLP’s Andy Williams

The challenge of a reduced budget means that the Council and BBLP have prioritised all matters of safety. Therefore Herefordshire’s road network will see a huge investment of nearly £35m, for much needed repairs, including potholes, resurfacing and drainage.

Road repairs, traffic control, flood risk, street lighting and winter maintenance all have been categorised as having the greatest demand on the budget, and Herefordshire Council has already warned that because of budget cuts, grass cutting has to be reduced from seven cuts a year to three in the county’s parks and public areas, while in some rural areas the grass will be left untouched.

However it has been confirmed that any safety cuts required for grass verges or trees affecting motorists’ visibility is considered a priority task.

Safety cuts take place around road junctions where visibility for motorists and pedestrians is paramount. These areas of land are known as visibility splays and form part of public highways, providing a safe view of oncoming traffic for all road users, whether motorists, cyclists or pedestrians. It is essential that we keep these areas tidy to provide sight lines for everyone using our roads.

For more information please see attached Q&A. Grass cutting schedules, a grass cutting guide, are available on: www.herefordshire.gov.uk/grass-cutting 

 

Parish Newsletter June 2014.pdf

[twowheelsgood]

First page is very poorly written. Last page is repeated twice. Highways Maintenance Programme doesn't really make any sense.

 

'Road safety is a key priority and the money is focused on unclassified and C roads.' 

 

I just don't follow the logic of this. All the distributor roads in and out of the city are shot to pieces - Venns Lane is just appalling. Why are these being left and unclassified roads being surfaced - road safety means a decent surface, which surely is more important on abroad taking 10k vehicles a day than one taking 10?

[Aylestone Voice]

IIRC the (political) decision was made some time ago because the rural parishes have been complaining for years about the state of the country roads and that all the money was being spent in Hereford. The decision to redress this was made before the impact of the very wet winter and nobody thought about reviewing it (apparently). As a cyclist - every road in the city is a broken collar bone waiting to happen!

[dippyhippy]

Quite right Two Wheels.

 

You can also add that both Whitecross Road and Grandstand Road are in a terrible condition. Both roads are subject to very heavy daily use.

 

Why oh why can they never get it right???

[twowheelsgood]

East side of Aylestone Hill is now very dangerous for cycling, as is Hampton Park Road, plus the ones mentioned above.

 

'Choose how You Move' Herefordshire Council? Have you wandered down from Plough Lane to look at Whitecross Road lately? Forget lecturing us with your silly campaigns and expensive advertising - just fix the basics.

 

All of these roads are breaking up now very fast - the wearing course, which is the 'top coat' which protects the surface, long gone (washed in to gullies, blocking them solid) and, unless they're rebuilt through the summer and autumn, some are going to become unpassable for two wheelers at least once the bad weather arrives. As it is, they are too dangerous to ride when wet for fear of what every puddle hides (and there are plenty - see blocked gullies). What a pitiful state we've got into.

[dippyhippy]

Parts of the red "cycle path" they put in just a few months ago, are already lifting off by the garage on Whiteceross Road. Not that it was a great idea to put a cycle path actually ON the pavement in the first place.......

[twowheelsgood]

Cheap way to add miles to the total of cycling facilities provided to draw down bonus monies from government to fritter on office refurb's and paying consultants for expensive reports stating the bleeding' obvious.

[Aylestone Voice]

Where there are wide pavements I do not see anything wrong in providing a shared cycle path. On Whitecross Road it is often safer to use the path rather than the road because of the congestion and the parked cars

[dippyhippy]

If they do choose to do this, then  the least I would expect is for a line to be painted, clearly showing where pedestrians can safely walk. This has not been done on Whitecross Road. It also does absolutely nothing to deter folks from continually cycling on the opposite pavement which is considerably narrower.

The whole thing is disjointed....bits of green cycle path leading from the Great Western Way onto Whitecross Road, then disappearing...only for a red cycle path to appear on the opposite side of a very busy road, marked in red and on the pavement!!

Quite frankly, it's a mess!!

[Aylestone Voice]

I'm not saying it isn't a mess, after all they have just dug up a section of the new cycle path down at Rotherwas and advance stop lines at traffic lights for cyclists are no damn good at all if you cannot get past the queueing cars to get to them