twowheelsgood

It is a great shame Graham is stepping down - he is a genuine bloke and probably one of the very few that could have pulled the County out of its terminal tailspin. I wish him and his raincoat all the very best. Charles Nicholls has left It’s Our County and continues as an unattached parish councillor - he hasn't joined the Independents as far as I am aware. I once had great hopes for IOC but, following their completely shambolic approach to the last elections, which resulted in yet another term of Tory asset stripping, I don't see them as a credible alternative. Likewise the Independents (who are from far independent when it suits them).

All the vehicles are left hand drive - hence the erratic driving - and all the hundreds of traffic lights are the new style 'half height' so that drivers can't can see them.

Love it! All the traffic lights are green, not a cyclist in sight and a classic idiot driver at 1:55. I don't give much hope for the health of people living in the 'Urban Village' that close to what will be heavy diesel fumes. The much vaunted canal basin appears to have been completely abandoned. There's another one of these promos showing Commercial Road as well. Still, as they admit, it's not reality.

I don't agree either. Simply not necessary - far better to spend the money on intelligence gathering.

The minutes of the last full council meeting are now published - here is who voted for and against or not at all; Eight members present at the meeting demanded a recorded vote. The motion was lost with 11 votes in favour, 34 against and 1 abstention. For (11) Councillors TL Bowes, PE Crockett, PJ Edwards, EPJ Harvey, JLV Kenyon, MD Lloyd-Hayes, MN Mansell, SM Michael, AJW Powers, D Summers, A Warmington. Against (34) Councillors PA Andrews, BA Baker, JM Bartlett, WLS Bowen, H Bramer, CR Butler, ACR Chappell, PGH Cutter, BA Durkin, CA Gandy, KS Guthrie, DG Harlow, EL Holton, JA Hyde, TM James, AW Johnson, JF Johnson, JG Lester, RL Mayo, MT McEvilly, PM Morgan, PD Newman, FM Norman, CA North, RJ Phillips, GJ Powell, PD Price, P Rone, NE Shaw, WC Skelton, J Stone, EJ Swinglehurst, DB Wilcox, SD Williams. Abstentions (1) Councillor A Seldon Councillor RI Matthews left the meeting prior to the voting.

Actually it's even worse than reported above - here is a written question put to full Council on 3 March, and Cllr Johnson's less than reassuring response. How can this business already be in £3.3m of debt? Potential risk to the council. Herefordshire Council is a joint owner of Hoople Ltd with Wye Valley NHS Trust. The latest published accounts for the two years to 31st March 2016 state that this company: 1. has accumulated losses of £1.369million; 2. the amount of its pension deficit has gone from £101,000 to £2.097million; 3. it’s turnover year on year has decreased by 8%. During the 2015/16 financial year five of the six non-executive directors resigned in just one month and none of them signed their emolument certificates. Would the cabinet member with responsibility for the company please confirm that Hoople Ltd's financial situation poses no risk to the council's current budget or the medium term financial strategy? Answer from Cllr Tony Johnson, cabinet member corporate strategy and finance Yes. The council's budget and its medium term financial strategy appropriately reflect the obligations of the operating agreement between the council and Hoople, and the trading relationship is fully disclosed in the council's own financial statements as a related party. The council has, and will continue to work with Hoople to reduce operating costs and improve profitability.

Very interesting programme on Radio 4 at the moment - File on 4 - Councils in Crisis. Looking at Councils setting up arms length companies which go bad and end up costing the rate payers £millions. This is the way Hoople is going with losses of £1m+ and mounting and a massive pension deficit as well. It'll all come good says Cllr Johnson - which is exactly the same approach of some other Councils in the programme. It won't of course. Available on Listen Again shortly. There's a quiet revolution going on in our Town Halls. With funding slashed, Local Government is tasked with finding new ways to raise money and deliver services, or face failing to comply with its legal obligations. As councils in England are tasked with becoming more self sufficient, File on 4 examines the different approaches councils are taking in an effort to balance the books. As some invest in commercial property others are spinning off traditional council departments into new companies with commercial divisions. The aim is to plough profits back into services. But as the programme discovers these plans don't always work out. What happens when there is no profit? As the pressure on adult social care grows, some councils now face the twin struggles of meeting demand, with the need to turn a profit. Is this too much of a gamble in services which can mean the difference between life and death? Allan Urry investigates the scale of the challenge as local authorities grapple with rising demand, falling income, and new ways of doing business.

Did no one tell the BBLP hole filling operatives to uphold the company values - build to last ...

AGAIN!!! Front pages are accessible but trying to go delve further I am constantly met with this. What did Councillor David Harlow say about the £350k spend allowing 24 hour access????? Not even an apology any more!

No doubt the Contractor's claims and legal team are on stand by - the only losers will be us.

Hereford City Council are nothing to do with the Herefordshire Council - they are a Parish Council with delusions of grandeur - Mayor Kenyon's bridge proposal for instance. The District Council by and large ignore them. That said, they do good work at Parish Level.

No, it's more - that was the cost to consultants. In addition there was some 2900 hours of (uncosted) staff time*. Not to mention the wasted time by everyone in the Council trying to find pages that no longer exist - I spoke to someone in BBLP who wasn't at all amused that links to a lot of their documents no longer worked. *Even at a conservative £30ph inc employers overheads, this adds a further £87k …

Not quite. This has been covered extensively in another thread. Four out of the 12 signs applied for were approved, 8 were refused (yes there were 12, not 11 as the application stated). Those pictured above have been refused. You might wonder how the second one has been there for 18 months or so without planning permission ...

Either way, a merger with South Shropshire Council is inevitable ...

The hugely expensive and ambitious ESG was abandoned after just 7 years into its 20 year life - once the money men had bled the Council dry over the OLM, it was quietly put to sleep. Next on the list was to have been the Civic Quarter … No surprise that a new plan is being worked on with no consultation and with more than four quarters …

None of these roads are trunk roads - they are all under the direct control of the Council. We pay for the best and get the worst - this is lazy, complacent engineering which no doubt ticks all the safety audits, but completely screws up the City. Officers should be taking a pro-active view of proposals and briefing consultants on what is required - not the other way round. Similarly they should deb banging the table to get things working when they are broken. Bottom line is that people are not doing the job they are paid very well to do. Where are the Councillors in all of this? Nowhere to be seen.

More than twice the cost of my present BT fibre broadband for the same speed (50Mbps) plus a load of serious charges for cabling - I don't think so.

You are, according to the drawings at least. There is land to be taken from the timber merchants to allow for two lanes to queue at the TRAFFIC LIGHTS. Oh yes.

So traffic leaving the station has to give way to car park traffic? Surely this is the wrong way round? Logic, Herefordshire Council, waste, madness, doomed etc etc ...

It was a named vote, so it will be in the minutes in due course.

They'll be back come election time ...

Last out out of 11 and 16/1 as a rank outsider - time to stop the madness and the spending on this fruitless pursuit.

As I said further up the thread, the steady trickle of faults logged on fixmystreet.com has turned into a veritable flood. It does seem that maintenance of our roads seems to have ground to an almost complete halt - really, what is going on? £20m a year to BBLP for this? Any Councillors care to advise?

Now we have 'intermittent performance issues' and its not even the weekend!

Well, it is no longer down, for now at least, but it's barely useable - loads of links to pages go to this; Page not found Oops. Something’s missing… We are sorry for any inconvenience caused.