twowheelsgood

Introducing lots of traffic lights on Roman Road - there's a surprise, we need more of those like a hole in the road. So, 450 houses and zero improvement to the existing road infrastructure to cope with the extra load.

I've asked Planning Enforcement about this, because I think they have been a bit naughty ... the conversion has permission, but there are conditions ... let's see what they say.

It's not as approved - I have already complained to Planning about it. Unfortunately that small area of Eign Street is rapidly becoming a shanty town, despite being in the Central Conservation Area. The shop to the RH side is also due to be converted under the same permission. Two 'bedsits' barley big enough for a bed each.

Traffic equally awful again this afternoon - I assume it was the same temporary roadworks, but who knows. I achieved the staggering average speed of 3mph for my journey across town (and that was heading away from the centre) - again I had another delivery, as I normally cycle anywhere in the City where my average speed is probably 12mph.

Prescient that you should mention the democratic process - here we have the Councils timetable for the bypass where it would seems that planning permission is a given ...

Belmont Road isn't the A49 and, let's be realistic, a bypass is, according to the Council, 5 years away to a 'phased opening', which in reality means 10 years away, if not more. A lot can happen in that time, not the least a couple of elections, Jim Kenyon running the Council, the hugely over-budget western bypass cancelled and the eastern one started all over again ... The Council are doing absolutely nothing about current traffic - which we all know is hidebound by the useless, outdated traffic lights that blight every road, with dozens more to come on the link road.

Traffic once again a nightmare today around noon - it took me 55 minutes to get from Ledbury Road to Grandstand Road (I had a large heavy delivery to make)! The whole city log jammed. I heard on H & W that temporary traffic lights on Belmont Road were causing problems - is that all it takes to grind the City to a halt?! The cost to business must be mind boggling. Yet those in power do nothing and those who pay their wages can do nothing. Honestly, it makes me want to move to the middle of Wales ...

Good call, thanks - I will try it out!

Labour don't do too well either, as the odious Ms Abbott has shown time and again.

I still cannot agree to arming all of our Police for numerous reasons. We need a swift response and internment is looking increasingly attractive - round up the 3000 known suspects and lock them up - build a camp on Dartmoor, nothing fancy just barbed wire and containers. We simply can't go on with the softly, softly approach - we see it time and again being abused. Look at the raids on the Jalsagor - illegals are simply told to make their own way to detention centres - as if that's going to happen! We also need to bring back those 20,000 police that we have lost and just get tough on who we let into the UK, even if they have a UK passport and just happen to be returning from Libya ...

Looks like they've started early, this on multiple pages; The document you requested is not available, please contact us through the website if this is in error.

At least we get a warning this time - given that it's not only the public that need access to these documents, it's Councillors, Utilities, Council staff, Parish Councils, City Council, BBLP etc, a generic apology doesn't really cut it. Get it sorted. Due to essential maintenance planning documents may not be available on Tuesday, 6th June. We apologise for any inconvenience.

What will that be spent on, bearing in mind the 'No lectures, no exams, no text books' motto? Is this the projected start up cost? Niggling in the back of my mind is the Robert Owen Academy - similar brave new world, gung-ho attitude on launch,money seemingly no object, and look how that has turned out.

Under what guise? He is no longer an MP as Parliament was dissolved some weeks ago. Begs the question as to who is running the country.

The motto of the university will be, 'No lectures, no exams, no text books.' Ergo, no buildings required! Just a Presidential Suite presumably. So the launch gets put back another 3 years and where will those 5000 students be accommodated? Rotherwas is mooted. An 8% ish increase in Hereford's population - dare I ask if anyone has considered the impact on essential services? Another few thousand cars on the road?!

Anyone know why the new cycle link to the Great Western Way is still fenced off and unfinished?

£29418 according to the papers presented to Council - heaven forbid they should liaise with the news desk.

My understanding is that expenses are a separate issue, reclaimed as they are expended, plus of course all those nice laptops and iPads and printers and so on.

TJ's bunce is increased by £4500 (15.9%) from £29418 to £33918 - the second highest remuneration in all of the English Authorities. Ker-ching indeed. Again, according to IOC, in the supposedly un-whipped vote, every single Tory councillor present (26) voted in favour.

Courtesy of IOC blogging live from the meeting; The outcome is that all cabinet members get additional £3,000. Tony Johnson as leader of the council gets an extra £4,500, while everyday councillors get an increase of less than £2 a month - which equates the basic allowance to well below the minimum wage, let alone the living wage that the council signed up to for all its staff and contractors. Ha, I bet those Tory foot soldiers who voted as they were told to feel pretty cheated at this pittance increase. Remind me again, what is the point of ward councillors these days, save for voting on how they are told? Other than that, they seem increasingly sidelined and largely impotent. After the meeting, Tory Chairman Brian Wilcox took himself and his guests for a nice lunch laid on in the Bishop's Palace. Chin-chin!

All of the candidates have laid out their stalls in this weeks HT - I'm trying to find the energy/interest to read them. When JK says 'I will fight …' I start to worry!

I am reliably informed that this has not gone away - closed door discussions between a Council Director, Planning, the MOD and the Cathedral School have taken place. Given the MOD's involvement, it would seem that the TA is now included in the scope. There is a long standing hope/understanding that the TA site would be made available by the Council (they own it and lease it to the TA) for a new school to replace the present St James' School - in fact the school have been working hard on a feasibility study to this effect and it would be a terrible betrayal by the Council to pull the rug from under them.

"The technology is designed to prevent bottlenecks by giving priority to ambulances, buses and even cyclists". Cyclists don't create bottlenecks and buses are largely a thing of the past in Hereford and we don't have any bus lanes anyway. Yes, we have ambulances, but they are rarely held up. Seems like a lot of money to not address the problem - which must make it irresistible to Plough Lane.

Traffic westbound today has been a total nightmare - Ledbury Road into town - I gave up this morning after moving 200 yards in 20 minutes and tried again this afternoon. For some reason the right turn into Widemarsh Street has been shut and this seemed to be the cause of it. Incredible that traffic continues to be balanced on such a knife edge. Obviously the traffic lights weren't re-sequenced to take into account the closure. The cost to business and the environmental pollution is mind boggling, but, as ever, the Plough Lane pen pushers were safely ensconced in meetings, happy that they will be paid handsomely no matter how badly they do their jobs.

Perhaps it runs on old software.