Roger

There must be someone out there who can write a better computer programme than the one already in existence .... ? Simplicity is the key I think. Over £1000 is crazy money. But not if you earn crazy money I suppose. We pay £20 for a diesel Golf ....

I forgot to mention .... When I dropped off my mower off at O.H. Mower Services I unexpectedly bumped into the truant officer for a large school in Leominster. Small World! He's an old work mate. He was simultaneously dropping off a mower for servicing. I've asked him what the sketch was with his machine and he say's tonight that he's not heard a scooby doo! I've told him to pick his machine up. They are obviously time wasters at that business.

That mower pic is not my own mower but an internet image of an identical one. A McCulloch that cost me £150 about 3 years ago. Quite flimsy build quality. My previous mower was a Mountfield M4 Major (very intuitive GK) that I obtained for free, second hand, in 1982 from Bufton's mower shop on Gravel Hill in Ludlow. It gave up the ghost in 2012 having never been serviced. All I did was put a new spark plug in occasionally and I had to get a new exhaust housing once as the old one blew apart. I did that meself. I reckon it could have been 5-10 years old when I had it so possibly went 40 years ... Very solid and made of alloy. File photo .... Everyone knows it's a seasonal demand. Rather like a chimney sweep. A sudden rush of work just before people want to fire up the wood burner. But stacking up a huge amount of work to maximise their profits over time is not going to endear them to many people. I don't want to wait until November for my equipment. I'm due a phone call tomorrow and the machine is being collected regardless on Wednesday.

I must admit I haven't been the person doing the online tax disc application in my house. I dunno what boxes you have to tick. But like you say the stuff is all computerised and so DVLA will know on the date the £0 virtual disc is required whether or not your other doc{s) are in order. I suppose a cynic might argue that someone is hoping that you've not jumped through the digital hoop so that they can tow away the untaxed car and fine you.

Is it a way of re-taxing the vehicle (admittedly at Zero Rate) after the owner has proved it's Insured and Mot'd (if applicable) ? I can't get my virtual tax disc unless the other docs. are in order ....

Looking at the Ward Map it looks like that this issue is happening on the Widemarsh Ward. Councillor there is Polly Andrews (LibDem).

The cones will assist in dissuading Leisure Centre parkers' who are dodging the newish fees in their car park .... but i think the forum has rapidly worked out why the cones are there .... How do you deal with that? If anything was going to fall in between a crack in the system then it's a privately placed orange cone!

I think the posters' are very well behaved on here .... I also like the lack of Moderation Intervention. I don't totally agree with the topics being juggled up or down the main screen (as a moderating tool) but that is just my own opinion!

Welcome! I see you registered on here 11 months ago and the first topic that stimulated you to post was my spluttering mower!

Bosnian Graveyard knowledge is not going to feature very highly on any SAT test that a 9 year old may encounter at their next test. I think you may have to impart that experience to your child in your own out of term time if you are inclined that way. That's the current system. There are two sides to a story (We've only seen the petition) and The Council may have certain facts at their disposal that caused them to instigate the Court Case. That said ~ A few of these cases have appeared in Court with this new legislation and the ones I've seen all seemed to end up with very decent parents getting a massive fine for basically trying to 'bend' the system. Very little, or in fact nothing, to do with their parenting skills.

Excellent point. Bromyard couple. I assume they did what they needed to do with the paperwork (de-registering from a school or home tuition or whatever) as they say they work in education. This is what they said: Hereford Times

The rules changed in September 2013 and Head Teachers are banned from authorising term time absence unless an exceptional circumstance is tendered and agreed to. Obviously the reason here is that it was highly convenient for the parent to go backpacking when she did as she had a gap between jobs. Not really an exceptional circumstance and it seems she fully expected to get stung with a fixed penalty (for both parents) when she got back. She obviously never got an absence authorised so it's pretty irrelevant about what may have been in the email to the school about travel plans. It may well have been a great travel plan and very educational (the trip sounds like it was) but it was never authorised. It sounds unfortunate that the contact with the local authority never really ended up highlighting what the consequences of an unauthorised absence would be. They include ~ Parenting Order, Education Supervision Order, School Attendance Order, Prosecution (fine up to £2,500 potentially and up to 3 months inside) and the extremely popular Penalty Notice. I think people perceive you will only end up in Court if you don't pay a Penalty Notice. I suppose it doesn't help when you can read of a Much Birch couple in the Worcester News who got a penalty for a 2 week skiing trip in term time. You think you'll get the same. This was a 3 week trip tho and it may have tipped it over the edge. I don't know if there is any precedent locally of any child being taken out of school for that length of time previously (after Sept. 2013) or indeed if anyone has got a Penalty Notice for doing so. The GOV.UK website does make it clear tho (highlighted with a big exclamation mark) that The Council can take you straight to Court without any Penalty Notice being issued.

It doesn't help when two half decent alternative candidates stand against a Tory in the same Ward. It splits the vote and the Tory gets in.

I agree. Nothing is changing with how you cross over the railway line either. You do it by going down Roman Road, going over the narrow bridge at the bottom of Aylestone Hill or by using the weight restricted metal College Road bridge. All that will happen is that traffic will shuffle around in the middle in a different way.

Ron Smith's quoted £69 plus any parts/oils. I think it's the going rate.

Has anyone on here had an issue with this sort of thing ? I dropped my small petrol mower off at O.H. Mower Services on Plough Lane on 29th May 2015 for a service as it was 'spluttering'. I was quoted 'one to two weeks' as the timescale and left my number. No contact so had to ring twice today to get some sort of timescale. I was told next Tuesday at the latest (by the very friendly sounding lady) as the mower had just sat there for two weeks ~ in storage. Reason given was 'short staffed' at the workshop. The firm date was offered when I said I was coming around to collect the machine to go somewhere else! Price quoted was £56 plus parts by the way ....

It can get tight along that road. Plus that line of cars parked on College Road between Penn Grove Road and the Barrs Court Road junction ain't brilliant. I think that is one nettle too far for the Council to grasp.

The new road comes from by Morrisons, through the sorting office car park, across the edge of the Police field and comes out by the Oxford Arms pub. I'm not sure what happens when it gets to Widemarsh Street junction wise. Whether they'll be traffic lights or a mini roundabout. At any rate the new road then goes across the top end of the Merton Meadow car park and comes out by the closed garage where I assume they'll be a traffic light system. If the new road ended at Widemarsh Street then you'd have HGV's having to go down Newtown Road and turning left at the existing roundabout at the top of Edgar Street which is a bit of a non starter. Map

Most people are parking on the corner and nipping in and out to the Co-Op. Two minute stay .... Anyone getting a ticket would have a high chance of meeting the attendant issuing it. A recipe for confrontation. They don't like that one. Hence taxis park all day on Bewell Street with zero enforcement. Old news .....

Seems reasonable. Always gets rammed on that corner. A bit difficult to enforce tho unless someone is hanging around there for prolonged periods.

Or bring back Alan Jenkins? His role wasn't a sweeper upper but he was always about .....

I know the trees went to get rid of the pigeons that lived in them. Maybe additional greenery that didn't attract a pigeon to sit on it? I'm not sure if he still does the role (as I'm rarely in town) but Alan Jenkins used to do the handyman stuff in town ~ and opening/shutting the gates in Widemarsh Street. He was very good I thought.

What does that narrow white lane by the kerb denote?

On reflection I would agree that a van with stripes on the back is potentially a distraction as you're going to get a fair few drivers clocking what the van is, at the last moment, and paying more attention to it than bothering what is happening at those lights. The penny probably wouldn't drop tho until after the van had recorded your speed anyway. For comparison purposes I'll compare that crossing with the one in Broad Street, Hereford which I think is far more dodgy. There's a loading bay on the left immediately before the zig-zags. Any HGV in there would obscure half of the zebra crossing irrespective of the zig-zag marking. On the right, on the pavement, there's a bike stand which partially obscures pedestrians crossing onto the zebra from the library direction.

I think this is a classic case of whether the 'general public' are on board with the tactic of parking a speed van there. Irrespective of what lawyers say. I don't have a problem with it's position myself. I would have a problem tho if the tickets were issued at anything in the mid thirty range. In a thirty limit. I just don't think it's realistic to fine people for 35 in a 30 zone.