twowheelsgood

The new traffic lights along Newmarket St seem to be particularly dumb - showing green to the filter out from Maylords for instance when there are no vehicles waiting. I vaguely recall something about smart lights as part of the new installation, or perhaps that was just wishful thinking on my part. I also note that traffic counters have been laid across all the main distributor roads in the city.

Yes, it was.

Full hi-viz AND a hard hat to empty bins - the madness of it all ...

Yes, as they generally avoid named votes in the minutes, this would be a VERY good idea - the practice of saying one thing to ward residents and doing the opposite in chamber happens rather more often than people might imagine.

Nice youtube clip of the BBC H&W broadcast the other day - for those that missed it or want some added visuals.

Get an advert blocker on your browser - I have one and never see any of those ads.

Some classic comments on that story - including one by bobby47! Herefordshire isn't big enough to hold him anymore!

The second para accords with my experience at the consultation when one of the suits said they would be prepared to wait 'a couple of years for a better site'. The whole thing is baffling and illogical. The Council end up with a levelled site half the size of the present one, and presumably of half the value. We lose irreplaceable trees and heritage buildings and gain a hideous shed in the wrong place. That’s it. It can only be madness, can't it?

Cambo - you've done more than most in this campaign and are best placed to speak on behalf of objectors - public speaking is certainly not my forte. 3 minutes is quite a long time, if you've marshalled all your thoughts beforehand and drafted and honed a succinct script with all of the key points. Don't make it political and don't make it personal. Just don't do a MiIlliband and leave half of it out! The university news today of course is yet another reason why this is the wrong site at the wrong time for this application - so much for the council's much vaunted 'joined up thinking'.

Anyone interested in getting their points across has an opportunity to do so tomorrow (Wednesday) at 8am, when a journalist from BBC H&W will be at the front of the site to hear the case for keeping this building and all its related arguments.

Yes, we commented on this some while ago - here is the response (in full). Note this is not an objection! 'We have no objection in principle and appreciate the need for new Fire Station in Hereford; however, we regret the loss of Bath Street building and think it’s unfortunate to locate the Fire Station on such prominent site in the City'. A very disappointing (and badly written) piece of fence sitting by the parish council, so much so that one must wonder what the back story is ...

Have you had a real response to this yet? Its coming up for 4 weeks since his holding letter.

Presumably this is the result of Balfour Beatty 'letting go' many long serving street cleaners to make more money for shareholders - what a disgusting mess. I despair for the future of this City. Once again citizens have to chase down the council to get them to do the job they're paid to do (or rather, they pay someone else to do). Looking at both pictures - the two coffee cups on top of the bin and some of the other rubbish appears to be the same - so it seems it has been there at least a couple of weeks.

That’s a cracking good response from the Conservation Dept. Very interesting to read 'Pre-application discussions were held with the HWFS concerning the proposals and it has been consistently stated that the existing buildings are considered worthy of retention as locally important, exhibiting as they do architectural, historic, social and cultural evidence of the growth of Hereford'. So despite this, they carried on regardless, perhaps on a promise from a certain cabinet member?

Ah yes, Common Purpose - from their website; 'for successful leaders to operate effectively they need a different approach to leadership - the ability to Lead Beyond Authority'. As we've seen with the bullying issue, leading beyond authority ie keeping councillors (allegedly) in the dark, has been to the fore with this council.

The Commercial Street application is by Cashino Gaming Limited - by 'amusement centre' they mean casino, which the applicants agent claims is 'entirely appropriate' for this location although, being next to a childrens toy shop, this is questionable. Notwithstanding the social morals of such a use, this type of unit provides a completely 'dead' shop front, which contribute nothing to the vibrancy of a shopping street (as the unit in Eign Gate, which was the subject to an 'armed' robbery recently). Whilst some might argue that Chadds has been empty for too long and anything is better than nothing, is this the way we want the town centre to continue to go (following the recent Paddy Power opening in St Peters Street)?

About time - it has always been a cheap and nasty shed, a fugly design and build product of the former Hereford City Council. There was a design and build competition, with a brief - I was part of one of the teams working on a submission. We stuck rigidly to the brief, which called for brick walls and a slate roof. We didn't win - look what we got - brief ignored, but all the councillors could see was pound notes, as they were then. The same thing happened with the equally dismal and thankfully demolished Garrick House.

Says he accepts their Transport Statement which says everything will be fine ... He does comment however that 'The forecourt appears to be of insufficient length to accommodate the longest vehicle shown on the swept path drawing and it should be clarified that those vehicles will not need to be parked in that position.' Given that engines are often parked at the front of the present station, this could be considered a major error by the real estate agents 'designers'. It begs the question - is the site not really deep enough and they've fudged the layout to make it appear to work?

I believe the Fire Brigade had said that they'd ruled it out because it would flood! I think their information was perhaps confused, easily done when dealing with the council - the original scheme would have flooded, because Amey's engineers set the road too low. A new planning application was required to raise it 600mm, which was nodded through, and so all is well. Given the small town that is to be built off Roman Road and the larger town to the south of the city, a more centrally placed station just off the A49 spine seems so obvious doesn't it?

Interesting! The applicant is being encouraged to investigate other sites - police playing fields, link road and bus station. Objection from Hereford Society for Aiding the Industrious as well.

There were also 9 community groups within Hereford that won various level prizes - http://www.heartofenglandinbloom.co.uk/user_uploads/files/HEIB%20IYN%20Results.pdf

They'll be taken over sooner or later - the writing was on the wall long before this Council decided to 'partner' with them (a simple internet search would have shown decision makers that). Yet again - bad judgment and advice by over paid Officers, bad decision by Councillors (no doubt bullied by Officers), we pick up the bill and suffer the consequences - just another day at Herefordshire Council.

When I saw 'The top 10 dirtiest towns and cities' I thought it was literal, for Hereford is disgustingly dirty, litter and filth everywhere, just generally horrible (and I do realise it is people that make it such, who are equally vile, but the Council do have a duty to clean up). The Edgar Street roundabout was a pollution blackspot, and I vaguely recall we were told it the OLM would sort it all out - well, they were right, but not as expected - they simply removed the monitoring equipment! Dirty old buses belching out dirty diesel fumes. Dirty old cars belching out dirty diesel fumes. Standing traffic belching out fumes - Edgar St, Widemarsh St, Blueschool St, Bath St, Commercial Rd, Eign St - back to the traffic light scenario again. Perhaps Mr Willimont might like to comment on Hereford's shameful position in the league table?

I assume this massively ugly sign must be temporary - but it still needs planning permission. Do they have it I wonder? The planning website is slower than slow thing at the moment so I can't be bothered to search - will come back to it.

Well that would normally kill any application stone dead - but here we have the council voting on land that they own, on a scheme they've jointly cobbled together with the Fire Brigade, with some councillors on the expenses gravy train of serving both parties, so normal rules of fairness and openness will probably be put to one side. I reiterate the reply to my question to one of the suited reps at the consultation - if a better site was likely to become available in the next couple of years (ie the bus station), would you wait? Yes, definitely, was his reply. He was also adamant that they would not do a joint scheme with the Police. Perhaps they have deliberately put in a diabolical scheme to get a refusal, to get the council off their backs for a while - stranger things have happened in public service.