twowheelsgood

dippy - my thoughts exactly! Madness to be spending millions at Plough Lane for Hoopla to luxuriate in and to then pay rent for office space elsewhere! Here's a thought - there is an empty building on Bath Street the council own and which owes them nothing - why not use that free of charge??!! The rent they will be paying could be invested into the building - too simple? I don't know who is in charge of their building strategy but some serious questions need asking by councillors as to what is going on - but then there are lots of questions need asking, but are not. Hoople are in Plough Lane, Franklin Barnes and the old Thorn offices at Rotherwas - all council owned buildings - that should be generating a sizable rental income. As we've said and asked before - are they paying the market rate?

It was only in September of last year that the Council restructured, and yet they're off again playing musical chairs. Was there a power struggle between Geoff Hughes and Mr Norman, who won and now has his own directorate (and presumably yet more money)? Even their own web site can't keep up with it - so much for transparency … https://www.herefordshire.gov.uk/government-citizens-and-rights/democracy/transparency-senior-management-salaries-and-roles

Yes, but its worse than that - its 2 x £130k, for two assistants to support someone on a £120k job - £380k to fund a poxy council employee position (plus pensions, NI contributions, 'benefits' etc) - lets see what OFSTED has to say about her performance.

I've seen verbal diarrhoea like that before - over at our old friends Hoople! I went to their site to double check and - would you believe - the website is not responding - it’s the weekend, it probably fell over on Friday night and will be down until someone can be bothered next week. Good to know our IT services are in such (in)competent hands ...

Would this apply to the Fire Brigade - a public body - and the procurement of a new building? I would say yes ...

Advantage West Midlands is no longer - tories got rid as soon as they came into power. So, yes, one of many hidden bonuses the council have received which they were keen to sell a little while ago. There were other buildings and sites paid for by AWM, can't remember them all off hand, but I believe the hideously ugly Blueschool House (Planing Office) is another.

West Midlands Advantage paid for it.

Ah, I use petrol - no problem with those. Eye contact not really needed. It can get insanely busy there - really the site is too small. People who leave their car in front of a pump for 20 minutes whilst they do their shopping don't help. They are pretty good about opening more tills when its busy when I've been there - cashier rings a bell, more staff emerge. However, I'm sure that’s not always the case ... there's always Texaco down the road, which is always dearer and usually deserted as a result!

That’s my local - whats wrong with the pumps? I'm more concerned and annoyed by the idiots who queue on the highway, an offence, blocking both through traffic and visibility to all drivers.

% mark up on supplied services is redacted - there's a surprise - under Amey it was 20% for the Greenway bridge - yes 20% markup to manage themselves as contractors to build the bridge, which in itself would have a 20-25% profit. Councils must be the easiest of cons for these people. This is where all the money goes to. Best value? Is this REALLY cheaper than doing it in-house?

and paying twice the market rate for it.

Cheap way to add miles to the total of cycling facilities provided to draw down bonus monies from government to fritter on office refurb's and paying consultants for expensive reports stating the bleeding' obvious.

Says it all doesn't it - add a 'd' into herefordshire in the link - they can't even type that properly - and you'll be taken to 'Page cannot be found'. Now what was I saying about 'just do the basics, but do them well'? The email address by the way is to Parsons Brinckerhoff, one of the most expensive highways consultants in the country, used by Balfour Beatty, who've subbed it to them and no doubt added a 20% management fee. And we wonder where all the money goes?

Exhibition, consultation, endless meetings, reports, blah blah blah - sick of the endless cycle of empty promises. Give us something first - fix the roads we have. Do what you've been paid to do. Have some civic pride and personal responsibility - just do the basics, but do them well.

East side of Aylestone Hill is now very dangerous for cycling, as is Hampton Park Road, plus the ones mentioned above. 'Choose how You Move' Herefordshire Council? Have you wandered down from Plough Lane to look at Whitecross Road lately? Forget lecturing us with your silly campaigns and expensive advertising - just fix the basics. All of these roads are breaking up now very fast - the wearing course, which is the 'top coat' which protects the surface, long gone (washed in to gullies, blocking them solid) and, unless they're rebuilt through the summer and autumn, some are going to become unpassable for two wheelers at least once the bad weather arrives. As it is, they are too dangerous to ride when wet for fear of what every puddle hides (and there are plenty - see blocked gullies). What a pitiful state we've got into.

Took the grandson to see the robot - that was my first and probably last visit - and I didn't spend a penny (physically or metaphorically).

First page is very poorly written. Last page is repeated twice. Highways Maintenance Programme doesn't really make any sense. 'Road safety is a key priority and the money is focused on unclassified and C roads.' I just don't follow the logic of this. All the distributor roads in and out of the city are shot to pieces - Venns Lane is just appalling. Why are these being left and unclassified roads being surfaced - road safety means a decent surface, which surely is more important on abroad taking 10k vehicles a day than one taking 10?

The guy from Worcester won it hands down - interesting they employ a Manager for Economic Development, who clearly knows what he is talking about, whereas we don't, and it shows. Cllr Johnson claims the city is not full of charity shops or potpourri shops - don't know the relevance of the latter, but clearly he hasn't been into town to see we're awash with charity shops. The clue is in the title - the best High Street - obviously Johnson kept on about the OLM, which is nowhere near any High Street ...

But is Agombar still a majority shareholder?

I've already suggested that the larger areas could be mown for hay - farmer gets the hay, we get the grass cut, council get the job done for nothing - everyone's a winner ... I took a photo of the land south of Newton Farm - there's 100's of acres of good organic hay there for the taking.

Click on 'next' top RH corner above the video for part two, when he comes out after the meeting with the Council, who 'gave him a rough ride'.

My maths is wrong - 1% for art = £900k. Actual spend = £0. Ragwert is correct - we're just a tinpot town, albeit with a cathedral, whilst B'ham is a multi-cultural city. But no getting away from the fact that Worcester has achieved what Hereford has failed to - yes, we did have a 'civic quarter' allocated in the original ESG grand design, including a library, but of course all that was cut once the deal was struck.

Birmingham City Council are as morally and fiscally corrupt as the best of them, makes our lot look like a bunch of choirboys (and girl). A council who thought it fair to pay women less than men until only a couple of years ago when they were stopped by the courts. A council that runs an illegal traffic camera network that rakes in millions in fines from unsuspecting motorists (including me - £270 in 11 minutes) - the councillor in charge has refused to refund fines despite being told to by an adjudicator. Electoral fraud in 2005 requiring a rerun of elections. A council that allows schools to be taken over muslim extremists. And so on. As for the library, there's no escaping that it has been done in a timely manner, something that could never happen here. But look at the brutally ugly one it replaces - who allowed that? For what its worth, I think the library looks quite ridiculous, but no doubting the scope of whats available inside. But Gridknocker is correct that this cabinet simply has no concept of culture or the arts - where's the 1% for art in the OLM? £90m x 1% = £90k, should be enough for a couple of statues. Better still, move that bloody non-Hereford bull to the OLM.

Big developments are coming thick and fast and no one, least of all Andrew Ashcroft, can stop them. I'd love to be able to look at the applications, but the planning search is borked YET AGAIN - it’s the weekend, its borked appears to be the pattern. Been complaining for two year about this ... "Unfortunately the document retrieval service is currently unavailable, please try again later. We apologise for any inconvenience caused."

Pretty poor sign - the top third is devoted to BB/HC - in fact 'Danger' is about half the height of the BB logo! How about the top third saying 'Danger' in red? Stick the corporate drivel at the bottom.