megilleland

; 11TH AUGUST TO 18TH SEPTEMBER 2022 Canwood Gallery, Checkley, Hereford HR1 4NF Open Thursday to Sunday 11am to 4pm Canwood Gallery has asked the incredible creatives from Wales, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire to celebrate and highlight the River Wye’s plight and give personal insights into what the river means to them, individuals who love it. Canwood Gallery are teaming up with River Action UK to help the raise the profile of the urgent action needed to immediately implement plans to save the River Wye. Don’t miss this fantastic exhibition!

Just had OVO send me an email stating that they are taking £328 a month to pay for my electricity and gas. "We got in touch recently to ask you to increase your Direct Debit, so that your monthly payments match your energy use and costs – and you won’t have to pay a lump sum at the end of your contract. Because you haven’t increased your Direct Debit, we’re now doing it automatically for you. Starting with your next payment date, your Direct Debit will be £328 a month. In 3 months’ time, we might run another Direct Debit check-in on your account to make sure your new monthly payments are keeping up with your energy use and costs. In the meantime, sending meter readings is important If you have a traditional meter, remember to send readings every month (if you’ve got a smart meter, we’ll get them automatically). They help us bring you accurate bills, make sure your payments are manageable – and keep your energy account nice and healthy. If you feel this new amount is too much, get in touch – we’re here to help We don't want energy to be another thing to worry about right now. Please call us on 0800 408 6615 (Mon-Fri 8am-6pm, Sat 9am-2pm) and together we’ll find a payment plan that feels manageable. There are lots of ways we can support you." At the beginning of the year I increased my Direct Debit from £110 to £150 and again to £200. I was always in credit through 2020 to 2021. What annoys me is that OVO tell me how much and when to pay on the basis that suits them. I have tried to get through to OVO but the phone lines are continually engaged. So I replied to their demanding email, but got this reply: The response was: The group no-reply@ovoenergy.com does not allow posting through email. This country needs to get people elected who can sort out the never ending mess we are in. Cambo above has hit the nail on the head. My monthly electricity charge 8th July to 7th August was £102.69 and the gas was £12.35. If there was a case for building the Severn Estuary Barrage to generate electricity this must be it. After all the tide comes in and goes out every day, although the environmentalists wouldn't be happy.

‘When I see kids vaping, I warn them: that’s what killed my daughter’ “She would go into the local shop and buy these vaping liquids but you would never see the same bottle twice,” said Rachel Howe, 45, her mother. “There would be coconut, cherry, bubblegum vapes. It was constantly in her mouth.”

Struggling NHS, rising energy costs, rising food costs, banks being closed ready for digitisation. Unfortunately all this is deliberately planned and unless you are totally committed to your smartphone you will be left behind and no one will care. All this happening under a Tory government which is no surprise as they will always go where the money is. However what are the alternatives - all political parties appear to offer little hope of returning to a Great Britain, everything is in chaos and the message appears to be Everyone for Themselves. An example is my energy bills. I pay by direct debit each month and have increased my payment from £100 a month to £150 and then to £200. OVO now want me to increase my direct debit to £324 a month to prevent me being £3,092 in debt by the end of my fixed rate 2 year plan. At the moment I am in credit and read my meter each month, send the readings to OVO and usually get a bill within a couple of days, a straight forward process. If you want to increase your Direct Debit on their website it will only increase it as their suggestion. I tried to increase it to £200 as I didn't want to pay £324 at the moment and had to phone them to stop their suggested increase. Also since November last year I am getting bills staggered over two months with different invoice dates and the bills consists of 7 pages compared with 3 pages before. I have been with OVO for many years and found everything to function well, however in line with the chaos created by this government and supported by corporations and financial institutions we need a radical change to stop this "We are Alright Jack" mentality. How is everyone else coping?

This tells you how bad things are getting. In The Guardian today. Tiny turtle pooed ‘pure plastic’ for six days after rescue from Sydney beach A baby green sea turtle rescued from a Sydney beach had eaten so much plastic that it took six days for the contents to be excreted, according to Taronga zoo’s wildlife hospital. The 127-gram hatchling was found lying on its back in a rockpool near Sydney’s Tamarama beach. It was missing one of its four flippers, had a chip in another, and had a hole in its shell. Carers said that aside from these injuries, the turtle appeared to be in good physical condition and had no trouble swimming. “But then it started to defecate, and it defecated plastic for six days. No faeces came out, just pure plastic,” the Taronga veterinary nurse Sarah Male said. “It was all different sizes, colours and compositions. Some were hard, some were sharp, and with some, you could tell the plastic had writing on it. This is all some of these poor little things are eating. There’s so much plastic around they’re just consuming it as their first initial food,” she said. States including New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia, have all brought in tougher bans on single-use plastic, but the scale of the problem is at times overwhelming. More than 8m tonnes pour into oceans around the world each year. The majority is carried out to sea by rivers, dumped along coastlines or abandoned by fishing vessels. A study of a beach on Henderson Island, one of the world’s most remote places, found nearly 38m pieces of plastic strewn across the sand. However, CSIRO researchers reported in June that local actions were making a difference with the amount of plastic pollution on Australia’s coast decreasing by up to 30% on average as a result of work by local governments to reduce litter. “If everybody just takes a little bit of their time to pick up a bit of rubbish – it doesn’t have to be on the beach – then hopefully we can make a difference,” Male said.

On my litter picks notice there is a new product on the streets. These contain nicotine and should not be sold to under 18s. They come in various flavours which appeal to the younger generation. The worst aspect of the packaging is the small rubber stopper to the container, which like the plastic drink bottle tops wash down the drain, although most drains are blocked and kerbs are overgrown. The manufacturers, Chinese and the marketeers, Romanian don't care and the local shop keepers display the products at the point of sale encouraging their use. The packaging warns users with a skull and crossbones graphic as part of its design. Vaping packages and rubber stoppers Plastic drinks bottle tops

Good idea to improve the environment. Bartonsham Meadow Management Plan Vision The vision of Friends of Bartonsham Meadows is to transform a small, suburban, riverside farm from intensive agriculture to outstanding natural habitat delivering a broad range of social and environmental public goods. Our focus centres on biodiversity and regenerative land-management practices to deliver benefits such as: Flood mitigation Carbon sequestration Biodiversity Improved river water quality Leisure and quality of life Sustainable agriculture and food production The management plan highlights how we could deliver these public goods. See the plan here:

Noticed some workmen outside the Three Counties entrance with what looked like theodolites looking across the A465. Could they be marking out a new road layout in connection with a proposed new store for Lidl and do we know when this application is being considered by the council?

Tesco suppliers must raise standards to avert death of River Wye, say campaigners River Action warns of phosphates in excrement produced by intensive chicken farming suffocating life River campaigners are calling for urgent action from Tesco to immediately raise standards within its poultry and egg suppliers in the Wye valley, as they say the river is at risk of ecological collapse. Tesco is the biggest customer of Wye valley egg producer Noble Foods and chicken producer Avara Foods. The environmental campaigners say since the supermarket giant switched to Avara as its main supplier of poultry in 2019, the food supply company has expanded its poultry factory in Hereford to meet the demand. Avara last month applied for permission to expand its hatchery in Shobdon and is waiting for a decision in the next fortnight. The Wye valley has become one of Europe’s largest concentrations of intensive livestock production. Poultry production has soared, with more than 20 million birds housed within permitted intensive poultry units alone, each of which holds more than 40,000 birds. Water quality throughout the catchment continues to fail current standards due to high phosphate concentrations. Evidence from Lancaster University research suggests there are 3,000 tonnes of excess phosphorus caused by agriculture in the Wye valley. Full article in Guardian 7th July 2022 here

Another bag of cat litter dropped again (5th July 2022) behind the garages at Muir Close. About time a concealed camera was put to catch this person.

NEWBrew beer in Singapore is made from recycled sewage water This has got to be taking the pi$$! Possibly the future for all of us. NEWBrew isn’t the first beer that uses recycled sewage. Swedish brewer Nya Carnegie Brewery collaborated with beer giant Carlsberg and an environmental research institute to create a pilsner made with purified toilet water. A Canadian brewer, Village Brewery, teamed up with US water technology firm Xylem and researchers from the University of Calgary to create their own ale.

Special Protection of the Highly Polluted River Wye. Wye not? After all clean water is an essential requirement for modern living. We don't want the River Wye to be the drain for The Marches. Clean water is more important to humans than oil. If we ruin our water supplies then we risk our nation's health. The Rivers Trust Useful site for river sewage discharges. The Rivers Trust are conservation experts with a wealth of data and expertise at our fingertips. We work with our member Trusts to make our shared vision a reality: wild, healthy, natural rivers, valued by all. We want all life to thrive in and around our rivers. Whether you enjoy fishing, swimming or a riverside stroll, our rivers need us more than ever to recover and revive. Raw sewage in our rivers We want to help you find out where sewage is discharged into rivers, enabling you to take action and to make informed decisions about where you swim, paddle, catch and play. Our Sewage Map shows where the sewerage network discharges and overflows into rivers. Be warned: you might not like what you discover! County of Herefordshire Local Authority District data Use filter and click on cluster to zoom in for specific instances.

Abandoned trolleys getting worse. They appear to be everywhere. Trolleywise now want you to use their app to report abandoned trolleys. They simply want you to take a photo using the app alerting the nearest Trolleywise collection team - they will then do the rest! What's the point in taking a photo, because in a day or so the trolley has been moved by persons to somewhere else. Example two trolleys in Dunoon Mead have now gone and one now found in Kingfisher Road, the other most probably in the stream. One still in Muir Close and one taken off the road and in my garden awaiting collection. I don't use a smart phone, so I won't be reporting any abandoned trolleys - let someone else do it. That's progress for you.

Here is something to cheer you up and add to the woes of rising prices. Soaring national debt is an intolerable burden for future generations to carry. Amid the deluge of often mind-boggling statistics accompanying the Covid outbreak, one is especially startling. The national debt of the UK has surpassed £2 trillion. In the past six months it has risen by £260 billion as vast amounts of taxpayers’ money have been thrown at increasingly forlorn efforts to hold back the march of the virus. UK National Debt Surpassed £2 Trillion Mainstream media headlines today are focused on Britain's record national debt, which just surpassed £2 trillion, a figure that can only exponentially increase unless the entire mechanism of Government finance is overhauled. The truth however is much worse, factoring in all liabilities including state and public sector pensions, the real national debt is closer to £4.8 trillion, some £78,000 for every person in the UK. Watch the pound notes spiral away.

Prince Charles was said to have been given a total of €3m (£2.6m) during meetings with Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber al-Thani, the former prime minister of Qatar. The cash was handed to the heir to the British throne in a suitcase on one occasion, a holdall on another, as well as in Fortnum & Mason carrier bags, the up-market department store which holds a royal warrant to supply the prince’s household with groceries. The handovers are alleged to have occurred during meetings between the two men, including a private one-to-one meeting at Clarence House in 2015, it was claimed. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/jun/25/prince-charles-is-said-to-have-been-given-3m-in-qatari-cash _________________________________________ I didn't realise Charles used a food bank. Just about sums the state of everything up. Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard - It's All Going to Pot https://youtu.be/A6c6eUeoa9Q

Agree with you twowheelsgood. Today I thought I would take some hedge trimmings to the Hereford tip and also a traffic cone left in the street outside my home. The hedge cuttings were disposed of as expected, but the traffic cone I had to bring back home as the tip operatives said it was trade waste and to contact the Council to dispose of it. Back home I contacted Balfour Beatty who were unsure who dealt with traffic cones, but I was told to leave it outside the house and someone would collect it within the next 10 days. I said if I put it out on the road again it will be moved by kids to a new location and the problem persists. Shopping trolleys are appearing in larger numbers locally - it must be the breeding season! I have had one Tesco trolley in my garden for 5 weeks and the organisation who collect them on behalf of supermarkets has yet to call. There are now 2 trolleys in Muir Close, 2 trolleys in Dunoon Mead service road and another in Bredwardine Close. The company Trolleywise came from Gloucester to pick up previous trolleys. Maybe it is because I don't use a smart phone and their app to contact them. I just ring up their head office in Warwick, it used to be in Edinburgh, to arrange collection with no problem. However the trend today is to not make it easy to speak to a human office worker, but to get on a smart ar*e phone app. So the problems persist. What's the point of taking a photo of the abandoned trolley when it will be moved to somewhere else. Surely all supermarkets could employ someone local to pick these up. I am sure a group of retired pensioners could do a better job than the present system.

The country is going down the pan. No one in authority appears to be doing anything to help vulnerable people, and trying to get through to those who should be helping us is met in a dead end telephone call - please use our app on your smart phone! All the trouble we are facing is constructed by people in positions above us to bring about changes to ways we are governed and live our lives. The smart phone has always been the tool to manipulate you, extract data about yourself and sold to third parties. In the near future I predict we will not be citizens of a sovereign country, but a statistic within a region of a global government run by the United Nations and the World Health Organisation, just like the EU wanted to introduce. Its about time the British public stood on their own two feet and stuffed their overlords. I recommend you to read The Slog - a regular daily commentary about the state we are in. It will make you think. You've got nothing to lose, but your freedom.

Agree and look at the kerbs on the estates. I hoe and sweep my street, but the rest of the estate looks forlorn and neglected. Also the drains need looking at.

Another bag of cat litter and tins of cat food left on the footpath behind garages between Muir Close and Sherborne Close. A regular occurrence since end of 2019. Anyone know who is doing this?

Hereford Times 4th June 2022 Sign of the Times? Not a suitable site for advertising at a busy road junction. People trying to get into the right lane, reading directional signs, changing traffic lights all addto the confusion. Plus those motorists trying to read their smart phones. All in all a complete no no. Two previous applications were quite rightly refused at Land adjacent 22 Belmont Road Hereford HR2 7JW and 69-71 Edgar Street Hereford Herefordshire HR4 9JP

Another example of overseas seasonal workers being exploited to pick fruit and vegetables - not by the farms, but recruitment companies. The Guardian 27th May 2022 Migrant fruit pickers charged thousands in illegal fees to work on UK farms, investigation shows Evidence appears to show illicit payments taken from workers harvesting produce for M&S, Tesco and Waitrose (extracts) Ditya, a single mother from Nepal, is used to travelling abroad for work. For years she has made a living as a migrant farm worker, where she can earn several times what she would in her home country. Last year she applied to become part of the UK government’s seasonal worker visa scheme, picking fruit and vegetables on a farm in Herefordshire that supplies fresh produce to Marks & Spencer (M&S), Tesco and Waitrose. Ditya got the job, but it came at a huge cost. In order to secure it, she says she had to pay more than £3,000 – almost a third of what she earned during the six-month post – to recruitment agents. Some of that money covered the cost of her flight and visa application. The rest appears to include illegal fees that labour rights experts describe as “exploitative and extortionate”. A joint investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) and the Guardian can reveal that as many as 150 Nepali workers who came to work at Cobrey Farms in Herefordshire as part of the government scheme may have paid similar amounts, many of them claiming they paid agents working for a UK-licensed recruitment company. The UK government launched the seasonal workers pilot scheme in 2019 to address concerns that the withdrawal from the EU would cause a shortage of labour for harvesting jobs on farms. Its rules state that workers should only pay a visa application fee of £259 (£244 until April this year) and travel costs. Any additional recruitment fees are illegal under UK law and can result in a labour provider being stripped of its licence.

Changing South Wye, Changing the World! At this time of political and economic turmoil, our communities are facing challenges which will affect so many of us. In 1844 the Rochdale Pioneers used their earnings to found their community co-operative. This was to provide what was required by the people. A democratic process had begun and life improved over time for many. At the heart of this was communities. They worked hard for one another, with each other and the times, not unlike today, were challenging. To tackle today’s problems, we will require that same level of commitment from communities. Fresh Start, in partnership with the Robert Owen Society, are realistic about what can be achieved and that the roots of our solutions are in identifying what the communities require. We are creating models for problems and identifying strategies. We are moving quickly now behind the scenes. This has been hard work but Fresh Start is confident that by bringing communities together, we can create with the people, a way forward. Our interviews with those who could help us begin this Thursday 26th May 2022. If you feel that your skill or knowledge could contribute to helping South Wye in any way, then we would like to hear from you. Please contact us at freshstart@robertowen.org _____________________________________________________________ Seems like a good idea and would work well together with the The Southside Project a groundbreaking initiative which will transform 35 acres of green space south of the river in Hereford. It will open up a wide range of opportunities for local residents of all ages and will be a space where the community can connect.

ExploreStation immersive virtual reality Hereford (Shell Store) Rotherwas today 16th and I believe 17th May 2022. Went down and had my first experience of virtual reality with a journey on the train and walk around a station. Felt very dizzy and one person couldn't cope with it. Well organised with places available I was told on the 17th May 10am to 6pm. I would just turn up and fit in. There is a first class cafe and the building is interesting. A very good conversion and easy to get to on the bike.

Attended Glenda's funeral. Small attendance about 20 people, but a lovely service by the vicar. Glenda was brought into the church to Elvis Presley's "If I can Dream" and taken out into the graveyard for burial to Elvis Presley's "My Way". Thinking of you Glenda.

Today 13th May: 245 Representations 14 support application 231 object to application