twowheelsgood

Indeed, and the representatives I spoke to at the exhibition of the Bath St proposals were absolutely adamant that the police and the fire brigade could not and would not share a building - they had tried it at Bromsgrove, it hadn't worked and that was that. Until the next time it seems.

All of the 'historic core' and St James & Bartonsham has had 20mph zoning for several years. Living in the middle of it, I can honestly say it hasn't made a jot of difference to traffic speed. Even people who live here are either unaware of it or don't give monkeys. When it was first put in place, our ward councillor assured us a mobile camera would be put on hot spots eg Harold St (Cathedral School mothers in your massive SUV's, you're the worst offenders), but needless to say this never happened. As for this proposal, just an excuse for officers to justify their jobs, spend some money, put up yet more signs and then move on to the next pointless exercise. Completely pointless. Perchance any councillors should be reading this, how about doing something really, useful like turning off traffic lights? The other point about 20mph is that it has no legal status - it cannot be enforced by the Police.

Sensible move on the flooding - the much vaunted £4m Yazor Brook flood alleviation scheme doesn't seem to be cutting it, as we have seen over the last couple of weeks. Bear in mind this was designed to withstand a 1:1000 year flood, yet it is under water barely 10 years later. I was told a year ago by Planning that, as far as they were concerned, the whole of the ESG 'Urban Village' was still a flood zone and they would not "encourage submission of an application until this has been addressed through a holistic approach across the Edgar Street Grid".

Ditto the horrific Surgery building ...

I had high hopes following the local election results 9 months ago. However, aside from kicking the bypass into the long grass (but at a ridiculous £0.5m cost) absolutely nothing tangible has happened to improve life in the County. Nothing. I appreciate a lot of problems were inherited and they want to fundamentally change policies but it's also about PR with the Council Tax payers, and all we're seeing is press releases for this, that and the other review. From reading the Hereford Times and comments, it seems the initial goodwill is quickly evaporating, because we're not seeing anything tangible on the ground. Do something, anything, no matter how small - turn off one set of traffic lights for instance. As for salary scales for 'Officers' how did that happen? Are these people worth £100k or more for so little done so badly? Of course not, but they're all looking after each other instead of doing the job. A benevolent dictatorship has never looked so attractive.

You'd like to think so wouldn’t you, but I'd no longer trust the Council to cross the potholed road, let alone take this on. Why has the £4m+ Yazor Brook flood alleviation scheme failed less than 10 years after building it? It was 'designed' for a 1 in a 1000 year extreme event. This throws into doubt all of the ESG development land along the Link Road. The Council knew it wasn't working even before this - I've been told by Planning. A lot of the lesser flooding could have been avoided if the gullies and drains had been properly maintained - I gave up reporting blocked gullies as nothing was ever done. And so on. At some point, you just pull up the drawbridge.

You can follow the river level live at https://flood-warning-information.service.gov.uk/station/4017 Currently at 4.69m and rising.

This application has been withdrawn by the applicants, the reason not being stated.

Good point, and not one I've seen raised before, but I'm sure he'll find a way! There's no standardised verifiable way of measuring how much electricity a charge takes at the moment, which is why a lot of charge points are free or a nominal charge or via a monthly charge. Once that is resolved, I expect the Chancellor will be able to slap on a tax per kW or whatever. Of course, by then the emergency dirty diesel generators (such as recently built at Dormington) needed to provide the electricity will be running flat out!

They're 7kW, they are free if you spend £20 in Waitrose! If I had an EV, I'd use the 50kW ones in Texaco Ledbury Rd or, better still, the Chargemaster ones at Rotherwas- they even have a 150kW one (well they would I guess, as it's now BP Chargemaster offices).

Just when you thought the madness couldn't possibly get any madder (another £0.5m bypass review - please), comes this news via the BBC. Shropshire have Kier - we have BBLP, both in a race to the bottom of the potholes. Shropshire has its own £1,000 a day pothole consultant If you needed reminding of the state of Britain's pothole-laden roads, the BBC report that Shropshire Council have appointed a dedicated 'pothole consultant', charging £1,000 a day. The council say this is “comparable with usual consultancy costs”, and say they hope the appointment will improve their current “unproductive” strategy and speed up repair of the 3,500 reported road defects in the county. Steve Davenport of Shropshire Council claims even though the consultant will earn £130,000 working five days a week over the six month contract, they will actually save millions in the long run by “getting the right people on the ground doing a better job." Pothole repair in Shropshire is currently outsourced to construction and infrastructure company Keir, who the council say have been “allowed to mark their own homework” for too long.

Typically badly written and misleading press release from the Council. From the Zap-Map website; Rapid DC chargers provide power at 50 kW (125A), use either the CHAdeMO or CCS charging standards, and are indicated by purple icons on Zap-Map. These are the most common type of rapid EV charge points currently, having been the standard for the best part of a decade. Both connectors typically charge an EV to 80% in 20 minutes to an hour depending on battery capacity and starting state of charge. The Council’s current chargers eg at the multi-storey car park are 7kW, which will typically take 4-6 hours to charge, again depending on the battery capacity. 30 minutes is largely useless for the 7kW chargers and drivers will inevitably have to buy a ticket anyway - an hour would have been more sensible. If you can afford an EV, you can afford to buy a ticket!

Looks like Herefordshire Council is down for £0.8m cut, which is less than the £1m overspend on Blueschool House - if that hadn't been allowed to happen (and WHERE did the money go to?) HC would be +£0.2m up on the deal.

Yet again Hereford City Council mistaken for Herefordshire Council, but good publicity for the proposal nonetheless, Can't come soon enough in my view, but everything is beginning to take rather too long. Just pick a simple one to start with and do it now!

I think they must have turned it off and on again - it's all ticketyboo again, bonuses all round.

Once again, the whole Council website is down - 503 Service Unavailable No server is available to handle this request. Unbelievable that this can happen - it simply shouldn't and there are standard ways to ensure it doesn't. I read somewhere the other day that Hoople are a standing joke in the IT world and this is a good example. But no one in charge will do anything, as ever, and everyone gets paid handsomely regardless.

Given that there has been a moratorium on planning decisions for any development in the Lugg catchment area since last October, due to saturation phosphate levels, and I understand that the Wye catchment will be added shortly, that effectively means the whole County give or take a few small areas will be a no-build zone for an unspecified period. As it would seem likely that those 6500 houses cannot be built for the foreseeable future, if ever, due to the unacceptable environmental impact on the River Wye, it begs the question as to how the Council would fund the bypass and if it is even needed in its proposed form. The only sensible solution is to cancel it and concentrate on traffic management in the City. We've seen just this evening what happens when the lights are out.

Flying though planning?!! Never happens, unless you happen to be a councillor or a close relative or friend of one and, even then, although normal policies that us mere mortals are subjected to are set aside, speed of determination is never high on the agenda.

Had my Jesse leaflet through the door now - surprised to see him claiming credit for "£23m investment under way at the old boys school on Blackfriars St by NMITE ..." Jeez, as if they haven't spent enough on the site already! It is, of course, (I hope) a mistake, but it's not good enough. Overleaf, he claims his campaign has won £23m of government funding for NMITE - a different story altogether. By coincidence he also claims credit for a £23m programme at the County. So how accurate are these and other claims?!

I've had a Labour leaflet, which went straight in the recycling unread, and a Green leaflet. No canvassers.

I'm not sure about the derogatory language, but at least he's responded. It's a crying shame that we seem to be stuck, for now, with BBLP's 'reactive' policy ie do nothing until someone complains for which we pay £20m a year (at least). It's just a waste of eveyone's time on something which should happen automatically in the background. The City in particular continues it's slow but visible decline as a result. I did note one of the new incoming Council's policies was to review the BBLP contract - I know these things take time, and they've got an awful lot to put right, but surely getting the old street cleaning team back together on a direct labour basis has to be a priority?

So the guy that suggested the competition in the first place is the winner, out of 700 entries? A little odd methinks, especially as he's done the same thing for numerous other counties. This a mediocre design, a dumbed down copy of the unofficial flag, which is far better.

To précis the tweet - Hereford councillors have blasted one of Britain’s largest housebuilding firms for not acknowledging climate change with their plans for 300 south of the city.Taylor Wimpey UK, who build and sell more than 10,000 homes each year, have set their sights on land north and south of Grafton lane.But Hereford city councillors said the High Wycombe-based company told them that they would not include environmentally friendly measures such as electric charging points, solar panels and more energy efficient heating in the scheme. I don't understand why City Councillors don't understand that volume builders answer to their shareholders and not Parish Councillors. Of course they're not going to provide anything that isn't required by law, that hits their profits. They have no environmental conscience or they wouldn't be building on prime agricultural land.

The press release is incorrect - there is no provision for motorcycle or cycle parking. There are however palm trees. It is all very cramped but certainly better than what is there now.

I think it was 1989 when the government funded a scheme (LOTS - Living Over The Shop) to convert empty spaces above shops in town centres into homes and which ran for about 20 years. At that time, it was estimated that at least 250,000 homes could be created. It never really took off in Herefordshire - landlords didn't want tenants above their shops, the Council didn't want it, just because, (same old) and arguably there was little demand at that time. Times are changing, in 2012 the NPPF turned planning on its head, with a presumption in favour of sustainable development and the Federation of Master Builders realising there was money to be made by converting the High Street. The latest proposal in Hereford is the new planning application to convert Peacocks in Eign Gate to university accommodation with teaching space on the ground floor.