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I have just been listening to the live stream from Full Council held yesterday at the Shire Hall in particular, the reactions from various Councillors about the alternative budget proposed by IOC. Live Stream can be found here At around 228 of the live stream Cllr Paul Rone speaks, during his brief response I notice that he says that if turning off the traffic lights is such a good revolutionary idea, then why has nobody else done it? Well actually Paul, quoting you using your own words from yesterdays meeting, "Seek Before You Speak" Turning off traffic lights has been successful in several towns and cities, one that comes to mind is Portishead, check out the video below: Portishead Traffic Lights Furthermore, you suggest that nobody has done this other than Invercargill in New Zealand, you also suggest that this place has a mere population of 7,500 people, well actually you are wrong sir, it is almost as big as Hereford! Education Lesson below: You also say that it would be dangerous for pedestrians?? I am confused as there is no suggestion that any of the pedestrian traffic lights would be turned off at all, they would still be working, if this was given a trail and yes that is all we have ever asked for, a trial. Cllr. Rone also suggest that it would work for maybe 12 hours and then there would be mayhem? Again, we have video evidence much of which you will find on our youtube channel where the traffic lights have been out of order for several days and it is common knowledge that when these lights are out of service and using our words, the 'traffic just flows' in Hereford. To suggest that the members commenting on here are irresponsible keyboard warriors is totally unfair, there has been a lot of research over the past 20 years including that of one of our members Martin Cassini, you can check out his credentials here Martin Cassini on the One Show Finally, you also ask why is nobody else doing this? Because people like you are all too quick to reject these proposals. Well as you can see above other towns and cities are doing this successfully or is your dismissal just down to the fact that this is not your or Cllr Edwards idea? Cllr. Rone and Cllr. Edwards, I am passionate about our city and keen to explore all ideas that may eliminate the terrible daily congestion in Hereford, I just wish others would look and explore some of these ideas.

Oh dear oh dear, poor old Paul. The problem with adopting the confident "I'm a good old boy, I know everything, trust in me" casual posture whilst listening adoringly to the sound of one's own voice is you do need to at least know something. And to know something you need to do a little more than half skimming and misremembering your Google search - it will come to many Kiwis as somewhat of a shock that Invercargill lost 48000 odd residents overnight. God, Paul made Cllr Bruce Baker look intelligent with his idiotic ramblings on Shared Space and or variations of Shared Space, a term coined by Ben Hamilton-Baillie, which was meant to be descriptive of intent, not specific in description - ie/ you can adjust it to suit your town/city's circumstances. Turning off traffic lights does not mean throwing the elderly, young and visually impaired into the road - crossings, even signal controlled, can and are often still used Trials by micro-simulation would be done first before any live trials The Highways Agency, now Highways England, offered to fund the micro-simulation Jesse Norman MP offered to help secure funding Poynton, a Conservative controlled town in Cheshire has adopted a Shared space road redesign scheme with great success The heavily congested Cab Stands junction in Portishead has had it's lights removed with a reduction in congestion and accidents Accident rates always go down when traffic lights are removed Council or corporate liability is almost nil when lights are removed - ie/ 'accidents are up to you guv and your own actions' Cllr Rone is not an expert in road design nor do we seek or care for his open crisp packet, elbows on the edge of the bar opinions Cllr Rone and the public do not care for my keyboard warrior opinions If there is a political and public will it is the duty of Cllr Rone and myself and others to explore the possibility of experts giving us their expert opinion Amey and or Balfour Beatty, will suffer a considerable reduction in budgetary income if lights are removed The Belmont (Asda) junction was a non traffic controlled roundabout years ago with more traffic using the road than there is now Likewise for the Steels Westgate (Tesco) roundabout This Conservative Cabinet has authorised the spending of over 5 million on trying to prove the case for a Western by Pass That's not provable because the Council officers can't actually produce documents to show if and how that overspend was authorised, I believe As a river crossing won't be completed for nearly a decade, let's crack on with easier and cheaper ways of getting the city moving

This sign is being used in Whitstable , Kent .

Hang in there Laura ! Youre doing a fantastic job under extreme circumstances but don’t give up as I’m sure things will get better... Things will change I hope. the laws at the moment doesnt suit everyone but they shouldn’t be taking it out on you ! Mill come down tomorrow to tell a few people I think

Folk I encounter on my peregrinations across High Town, sometimes stop me and ask: ‘Vicar – how did you come to be de-frocked?’ Oftentimes, this question is posed in Polish. I usually explain to them that I am bound by the terms of a Gagging Order signed by the then-Bishop of Hereford, The Right Rev Greville Chasuble, save to say it was a very minor misdemeanour, of no great import, involving a) an amateur abseiling session down the cathedral tower to raise funds for a hedgehog sanctuary at Tillington; and b) my total absentmindedness in forgetting to put on any underpants that morning. It was the graphic telephoto images, broadcast that evening on Midlands Today (which then went viral), which sealed my fate – and caused irreparable damage to the BBC’s Birmingham switchboard. But all that – as the former Mrs Membridge-Tinninges so aptly reminds me, in her annual Christmas card from Antibes – is now in the past. As Christ himself put it (in his sermon on the steps of Aldi’s Tel Aviv branch, I think it was): “We should always turn the other cheek - after first checking that a) we are wearing underpants and b) there are no BBC Midlands cameramen lurking nearby”. A happy Hallowe'en to you all. E. Membridge-Tinninges (Rev – defrocked)

The Lunatics Have Taken Over The Asylum Overnight, a well-organised gang of vandals broke into The Louvre in Paris and vandalised the priceless Mona Lisa, by indelibly lazer-printing a black moustache on her upper lip. The Indian government has announced that, due to the extensive pollution damage to the marblework of the famous Taj Mahal monument, it has commissioned a consortium (led by former Carillion employees) to paint the facade in the national colours of orange and green. In Washington, President Trump has tweeted that he is moving his official Presidential offices to Trump Towers, New York, and has written to Benjamin Netanyahu inviting him to set up a new Israeli Embassy in the White House. Meanwhile in Hereford, the council has published plans to build a flat-roofed three-storey 'Super Surgery' directly in front of the city's iconic Grade II-listed Victorian railway station. "What finer introduction could there be for international visitors arriving by train, for such events as the Hay Literary Festival or the Three Choirs Festival, than to be confronted by a lumpen structure possessing all the architectural elan of a nuclear fall-out shelter," said a council spokesman.