Hereford Voice

What a fantastic atmosphere at this years 'Hereford River Carnival'. The weather is absolutely perfect and it is great to see so many people in Hereford. We had a wonder along the river banks in anticipation of the river floats heading along the river towards the Victoria Bridge. Here is a live video that we published on our Facebook Page and you will find the others we filmed over the past few days all on our YouTube Channel.

A great start to the river carnival this evening and there is lots more to come tomorrow!

The Hereford River Carnival starts this evening for an action packed weekend of fun on and surrounding the banks of the river Wye. The awe inspiring Mappa Mundi Awakening procession starts things off in just over an hour at the Cathedral at 8:30, leading down to the Bishops Meadow. Saturday's fun starts at 10am with loads going on at Castle Green. There will be a dog show, food, Nozstock's live Music Stage and Street Carnival. On the River - the floats will be parading along with the Roundtable Duck race. There will be Dance Central, fun fair, stalls and food at Bishops Meadow. Come down and join the fun from 8:30pm tonight and Saturday 10am on the banks of the Wye in Hereford! http://www.rivercarnival.org/

As the weather warms up and we head towards the summer, the number of Blandford fly cases is increasing. The Blandford fly is a 2 to 3mm bloodsucking black fly, which lives near areas of water and gives a particularly nasty and painful bite. The fly normally bites ankles and legs, as it flies low to the ground and is most common during May and June. Karen Wright, Director of Public Health for Herefordshire, said: If you get bitten: 1. Clean the bite area and dry gently 2. Don’t scratch the bite, as this can lead to infection 3. Apply a cold compress or calamine lotion 4. Antihistamine creams are not recommended, as they can sometimes cause skin reactions 5. Cover large blisters with a dry dressing 6. If bites are on the lower limbs, there may be swelling of the ankles and feet for several days. Don’t worry about this, simply rest with your feet supported on a stool You should seek medical advice if you have: 1. Discomfort, swelling or red lines in the groin or armpit 2. A fever 3. A spreading redness or hotness around the bite, which lasts longer than three days

This was a superb project from the very start. We have all witnessed lots of additional visitors to Hereford during this period. Well done to all involved.

Royal Bank of Scotland have confirmed the Hereford branch will close later this year. The Broad Street branch shown above will close on Wednesday 8th August 2018 RBS customers will be able to bank in person at Natwest instead.

Rogue company and director fined for deceiving 87 year old Herefordshire resident with unnecessary roofing repairs A rogue company and director, which preyed on elderly residents in Herefordshire, has received fines for ‘unfair trading’ in a case taken to Hereford Magistrates Court, concluding on Friday 27 April 2018. GER (Southern) Ltd and its director Martin Hancox, 43, from Bournemouth, pleaded guilty to unfair trading charges following a case taken to Hereford Magistrates Court by Herefordshire Council’s Trading Standards team. GER (Southern) Ltd and Hancox received fines and costs totalling £20,343. The company used databases to cold call elderly residents, and one victim was an 87 year old gentleman from Bartestree, Hereford. In 2014, the gentleman was mis-sold spray foam insulation work at the inflated cost of £5,000. A further unsolicited phone call followed in June 2017, where the gentleman was coerced into agreeing to an appointment where he was falsely told that moss on his roof had caused a leak. Eventually he was deceived into agreeing to further work to the value of £3,200, when in fact the work was unnecessary and worthless. Director Martin Hancox stated to the court that he was unaware of the incident and it was the actions of rogue staff in his company that led to the offences, but as director he felt he had to take responsibility. Marc Willimont, Herefordshire Council’s Head of Regulatory and Development Management Services, said: “The way that vulnerable elderly home owners are sold roof and wall coatings is a scam - this case is just one in a series of rogue trader prosecutions our Trading Standards team have recently pursued. This particular case demonstrates the aggressive sales technique and price inflation that rogue companies use to scam our residents into agreeing to unnecessary or poor quality work. “GER (Southern) Ltd are one of a string of companies that target the elderly for unnecessary spray foam insulation. To make matters worse, this company returned to a previous victim to deceive them for a second time. “We want family, friends and neighbours to remain vigilant in protecting elderly residents who are often the target of such scams. I would urge people to never respond to unsolicited telephone calls, mail shots, text messages or door-to-door selling. By responding to this unsolicited contact, victims are likely to be put onto a mailing list and have their information sold to other scammers.” There is further advice on being scam aware at www.herefordshire.gov.uk/scams and those who believe they have been affected by rogue trading can call Herefordshire Trading Standards on 01432 261761.

Planning has been refused after concerns over lack of parking and noise affecting nearby residential homes.

Glad they someone has listened to our complaints about our Historic City Walls, and now this clean up group is cleaning the railings along the Belmont Road and while this is a fantastic group doing brilliant things in out city, I do think we need to look at 'prevention rather than cure'.

This is good news all round for this area. (I have added a photo of the former Jail)

Healthwatch Herefordshire – the local health champion for health and social care has launched a new online engagement tool called The Feedback Centre, created by Midlands based software specialist Ekko, to help people in Herefordshire share their experiences about local health and care services. Healthwatch Herefordshire’s job is to ensure that the voice of patients, carers and service users is at the heart of improving health and social care services. Healthwatch gathers the views of the public views and represents those views to local organisations and makes sure they are taken account of. The new online Feedback Centre will strengthen the voice of people in Herefordshire. It is accessible on a variety of devices including mobile phones, desktop PCs and tablets, just by going to the Healthwatch Herefordshire website. People will be able to easily rate and share experiences of services in an engaging and simple way from wherever they are and receive responses from providers. Healthwatch Herefordshire believes that by helping patients and service users to easily express their views we can gather more feedback to improve health and social care services. Christine Price, Chief Officer of Healthwatch Herefordshire, said: ‘The Feedback Centre tool will support our engagement plans. We have much to be proud of with the health and social care services of Herefordshire that people use every day, we should recognise and celebrate this. But sometimes things go wrong and need improving, so the voice of our community must be heard to help get things right.’ ‘Healthwatch Herefordshire’s aim is to make sure that the patient voice comes through loud and clear to the professionals who plan and deliver our local health and social care services. That is why we have developed a simple yet powerful system that is accessible to the widest possible group of people from wherever they are.’ ‘Millions of people every day use online review systems to give their opinion about other services or products they have bought or used. We want to harness that behaviour to get patients, service users and their families to give us vital information about the health and social care. As an independent organisation, Healthwatch Herefordshire hopes to gain the trust of the public to tell us their full experiences of local services: the excellent and the good, as well as where things need to improve. We hope that by creating a familiar tool that we will be able to engage many more people in celebrating and improving health and social care here in Herefordshire.’ All reviews are vetted before appearing online to ensure an honest representation of each service provider is given, and service providers can submit a response to each review if they wish. Healthwatch will work with health and social care providers to create a transparent online forum and culture of using customer feedback to improve services and celebrate good services. It is hoped providers will also signpost patients to the feedback centre and post the feedback centre widget on their websites, to encourage openness and transparency. Healthwatch will distribute a freepost card feedback options to local services over the coming weeks for those people who aren’t able to access online. We will continue to offer our service on the telephone, social media, visiting groups around the county and go to events where we can talk to people face to face and listen to their views. Make a difference today and rate and review your latest health or social care experience go to Healthwatch Herefordshire

I never really understood WHY the Herdsman's planning application for a nice new sign on their wall was refused yet all of this lot is acceptable...

Plans have been submitted for a Drive-Thru McDonalds in Leominster. The proposal for the erection of two storey restaurant with drive-thru, car parking, landscaping, play place and associated works. Installation of2 No. COD (Customer Order Display) with associated canopies on the land at Morrisons car park Baron's Cross Road Leominster. Planning Number P181448/F

Just came across this article on BBC Hereford and Worcester again, so grabbed a screenshot. We noticed only the other day that these signs have not been cleaned since and some of the ones featured above will need a clean again, we have identified quite a few locally that need cleaning so that is another project we will be working on over the coming weeks. Please posts you pictures if you manage to clean any signs.

Well I was going to run a topic on this, I took a load of photographs only last week showing the amount of adverts on the Len Weston stand backing onto Edgar St, I am surprised that nobody has complained.