twowheelsgood

I would very much doubt they are getting even half of that, despite what they have told you. The work won't be being done by a gang in a van - it's too big a job for that - there will be a building company doing it, who will need to comply with all current construction legislation. No one's mentioned the cost of the materials on top of the labour and management costs.

HT still reporting it as Tidnor Lane, even though the Police photograph is self-evidently not Tidnor Lane but the Whitestone junction with the Worcester Road.

I understood the City Council were now investigating leasing the empty shop by the Old House (yeah, which one) - the charity shop. If the District Council cared a jot about Tourism they'd invest money in both our infrastructure and one massive clean up, not some expensive and pointless re-badging exercise at the Counties borders.

Five months on - no application, enforcement don't appear interested. Draw you own conclusions.

Generally the waste far outstrips the savings, hence £200m debt and rising. Ultimately we will have to merge with S Shropshire and then those responsible and the audit trails will be lost in the reorganisation.

Mutterings, just mutterings and conjecture - from a councillor who lives in Kington - really, what is the point of most councillors? This was only registered on 2 March, so rushed through in double quick time.

Yes, I was very disappointed to see Fryers - think fish fryers. The site is near the Franciscan Friary, founded by Sir William Pembrugge about 1228. Hence the various streets referencing Friars*. To be fair, on the 1757 Taylor map it shows the area as the ‘Scite of Black Fryers’ but perhaps their spelling wasn't up to scratch. I blame the Council - they have to approve any development naming. *Turning into Friars Street off Barton Road, the street name on the left says Friar, the one on the right says Friars - as there must have been more than one friar, my money is on the right hand sign. I blame the Council for messing it up. Again.

Ah yes, sadly the one and only thing the Council do well, and often without any prompting, or shame, or need, is cutting down trees.

They appear to have added a further two years to the construction period - how long is that now - 4 years? They built the M1 over 50 years ago at a mile every 8 days … Costs will inevitably rise because of the extended period. One mile of motorway costs £30m - half of mile of single carriageway in Hereford costs £27m - not hard to see we are once again being robbed blind by contractors and ill served by councillors and very highly paid Officers who appear to do little to prevent it.

I don't want to get into a rant about cyclists and cycle lanes, but I'm a cyclist and a driver who can give some perspective. Why aren't cycle lanes used? They are there to fulfil tick box criteria and draw down government monies. Most are really, really badly designed and many are plain unsafe. Sometimes they offer a less dangerous route than the road offers, through a junction for instance. Occasionally, routes such as the Great Western Way and the Greenway offer excellent ways to move around and avoid traffic. When I'm riding, I want to ride - I don't want to have to stop every 50m because the lane crosses a road junction and I have to defer to the car. I don't want to keep stopping for idiotic 90 degree bends and barriers to weave through, and, heaven help us, yet more chuffing traffic lights for a lane to cross a road. Lanes are not swept and are covered in puncture material - trafficked roads are largely self-sweeping. Lanes are inhabited by pedestrians who have no sense of what is around them or how to behave - jaywalking, headphones on, staring at a mobile, dogs wandering, dog leads etc etc. So I have to stop or slow down or sound my bell and get a load of abuse for it. Why should I use the lanes when they're not fit for purpose? I have a right to cycle on the roads, even if there is a lane RIGHT NEXT TO THEM!

No 'incentives' from traffic light manufacturers?

But then it isn't a 'Link Road' is it, if vehicles have to rat run down secondary roads?

Left turn only into Edgar Street. Yes, ludicrous.

But they just haven't bothered to comply!

Cycled past this morning and it's been emptied - given that it's only 100m from the BBLP depot, it can't have been too much of a sweat for them. Increasingly it seems not emptying bins is the new not cutting the verges. I'm convinced they've adopted the reactive approach - ie do nothing until someone complains - they've admitted as much in other areas of work e.g. potholes - obvious really, they can make so much more money that way, particularly when the paymasters don't seem to care either.

On the IOC Facebook page he is at least facing the camera - basic journalism, HT.

Agree with all of that - I believe a certain Cllr H Bramer negotiated the BBLP deal ... At a local level, where are the ward councillors in all of this? They do have the power to get some of these things sorted, but, bar the occasional pr day with the obligatory photo opportunity for the HT, they just don't appear to be doing very much. That said, I very well remember my former ward councillor blanking my requests with the response 'I don't do small stuff'.

Guess what - 12 months on and the sign is still bent, still dirty and still got the badger graffiti on it. The only change is that is now surrounded by even more rubbish.

Will Her Maj be checking out the new Greenway (on a Pashley Princess of course)? Reported to the 'public realm delivery partner, Balfour Beatty Living Places.' By the way Cllr Chappell, that graffiti on the new bridge you said you'd sort a year ago - still there.

Agreed - a ridiculous name - let's hope it is NOT remembered - from Wikipedia - Wally is a British English expression referring to a "silly or inept person",[1] which later developed into an umbrella term for "vulnerable individuals".[2] According to Oxford Dictionaries Online, it possibly originated at a pop festival in the 1960s when, on hearing the name being announced many times over a loudspeaker, the crowd took it up as a chant.[1] The cry was picked up by others and led to random shout of "Wally" being heard at rock concerts all over Britain.[3][4]

Those were my thoughts, as I posted earlier, but lost interest once Cllr Chappell chimed in with his ridiculous claims of carnage. Prime example of why nothing ever happens here. I still think electric (seaside) buses are a better solution than trams, but hey ho, and why does it need to make a profit?

Botch jobs are not a new approach - they've been doing them for years. I believe other Council's 'new approach' is to redefine what is a pothole, thus fixing a million potholes overnight.

It's only as expected - it simply doesn't fit the road building agenda of this council, who have hungry, party funding contractors to look after. As a cyclist, tram lines are an issue and have caused a deal of problems in Edinburgh. I think it should be made even simpler - why not run an electric shuttle bus backwards and forwards - no infrastructure needed. Simple low cost things can make a huge difference - turning off traffic lights for example - but again, it doesn't suit a road building agenda.

Seems to me that ward councillors should be all over this rubbish problem - they should be fighting to ensure Balfour Beatty do what they're paid handsomely to do in their ward. They are the only people that can pick up the phone and get stuff done (as we have seen from some of Glenda's work in the past). Blitzing litter in a wave of community spirit is ok, but it's so much easier and better to have it done all the time. Ultimately, it's people that drop it, and a lot of that comes back to education.

What a load of old tosh - this smacks of the Labour years - public servants creating tier upon tier of red tape, endless paper pushing and excuses for not actually doing something. Pull the trigger, get rid and use the money for something useful.