twowheelsgood

Approved, despite considered objections from the City Council, Civic Society and the Ward Councillor, amongst others.

I heard whisper a little while ago that this junction was to be redesigned, hopefully not by the hopeless bunch who messed it up first time round.

Dear me, these range from mediocre to appalling. I've voted for the least worst but it doesn't fill me with any burning pride for the County. The 'unofficial' flag is better than any of these - what was wrong with that?

I cycled past this today - it's very, very big. No thought for cyclists by closing the shared space along the side of the road (the red sign says 'cycleway closed'). I have to say the Link Road is one of the most dangerous pieces of road I have cycled - signing is non-existent, turning right is a death wish, really, every councillor and officer involved in the delivery of this should be made to cycle it end to end in both directions to see just what an appalling and dangerous mess it is.

That's been widened and resurfaced to a very good standard courtesy of Section 106 monies from the redevelopment of the old school site for housing, with a link bridge though to that housing over the brook. It shows up a lot of other cycle paths in the City for the run down and/or badly designed things that they are. The Great Western Way is a fantastic facility, years ahead of its time when it was opened, must have carried millions of journeys, yet it's in desperate need of upgrading, proper resurfacing, lighting and cctv. The cost is absolute peanuts compared to new roads. The riverside path was very badly surfaced by the Council and is unpleasant to ride. The new greenway is covered in graffiti from end to end - a bad oversite not to have put cctv in when it was built. Such a shame to see a flagship facility so abused and no effort at all to clean it up (it took over a month of complaining to get some highly offensive wording dealt with - BBLP didn't even bother to clean it, just painted over it).

That job description implies that you earn a degree 'on the job', not that you need one to be employed. We need more Police, lots more, with and without degrees, to help stem the downward spiral the country is in. From setting fire to bikes to illegal cigs to drugs to random stabbings, these criminals know they're unlikely to be caught and, even if they are the, sentencing is a joke. Priti Patel as the new Home Secretary is supposed to be a hard liner, but I've not seen any evidence yet.

So that's £450k for an external fire escape then? The drawings were submitted for planning permission, so the scope of works is apparent. Somebody is making some serious money at our expense.

It's Ian Morris, not Mills. Yes, he has resigned to move to a new challenge.

This should say have NOT been approved. The colour scheme has been toned down and approved as below (no yellow and predominantly black pilasters now). No listed building consent has been granted for the projecting sign. Unfortunately, this is yet another case of simply ignoring common law until such time as enough people complain that the Council then have to do something about it. Generally, I’m seeing development going up all over the place that doesn’t have permission - all symptomatic of the sense of entitlement that pervades society perhaps. I understand that planning enforcement was due to take place about the hideous Marmaris Kebab shopfront in Union Street in April of this year but nothing seems to be moving.

There wasn't any funding (and there is no money we are constantly told) - the government didn't see the case for a bypass and had refused any funding. That was part of the issue. No potholes are filled because all that money is going to consultants. The Council were relying on the Marches LEP and contributions from developers but it was obvious that wasn't going to raise anywhere near enough. So they would have borrowed it, interest rates rise and then what? The County goes bust or, more likely, is taken over by South Shropshire. Definitely the right decision in my opinion. The crucial thing now is how they follow through with alternatives to properly manage traffic flows.

So much for privatisation of public bodies - business will drop it like a hot stone as soon as they're not making enough money and damn the consequences. New house warranties (in lieu of NHBC or Building Control) are suffering a similar fate. Yet there has been talk for some while of privatising planning services - what a feast that will be for developers and their private planner chums. Local Authorities have many, many faults, but at least they are always there (well, for now anyway). My experience of local Building Control has always been very positive, they run a tight and efficient ship (ironically, probably because of private competition). The Planning Department not so much ...

I saw that one at Folly Lane last night - it is in a green square, and there was one opposite the Rose Garden on Ledbury Road in a green square. Just sitting there unattached to anything and they do scream steal me (although they have a nurses lock on the back wheel). They do have a gps tracker and I assume bluetooth to link with the hirers phone to unlock and track it. Whether that works in the river is another question. I wish the scheme well, but you only have to walk through High Town during the day to see the preponderance of pond life looking for mischief to see that it is going to struggle.

Given that the hospital removed all cycle parking when they built the hideous 'temporary' winter emergency portakbins in front of the main entrance last year, the powers that be there don't appear to have much interest in encouraging exercise and it's health benefits.

Excellent. Of course, no tax means no insurance as well and all the misery that can bring to third parties. Clamping is too good for them, just crane them onto the low loader and straight to the crusher. Getting rid of the visible tax disc was a serious mistake, but no great surprise with that.

BBLP's admitted policy is reactive ie do nothing until someone complains (and then still do little or nothing). It's a shame that payment to them isn't on the same basis. Instead of proper, planned ongoing maintenance, everything is in terminal decline, with a man and a van turning up to react to a collections of complaints, patching it at best and clearing off again. Or just closing the logged complaint as finished without doing anything (as is happening with issues in my road).

That description is lifted directly from the application form - clearly not checked by the Council. Each apartment has two double bedrooms.

Grateful for very small mercies I suppose - at least it's not a tacky fast food outlet, which seem to blot most of the entrances to the City. That pseudo stone blockwork will have to go though.

Here's another. Look at the brickwork between the third and fourth bays from the left - the quoins are a completely different coloured brick (that happens in the first photo above as well) it's not intentional, just no care in picking and sorting the bricks.

With the scaffold down, some of the worst quality face brickwork I have ever seen is now on view. The workmanship is just appalling. It's even worse than the photo suggests!

To put this in perspective, when the Town Hall was opened in 1904, it had taken 2 years to build, from scratch, and that included slum clearance beforehand. No machines, all manual labour, finished inside and out to an extremely high standard. Yet this relatively small repair took almost twice as long as it took to build the Town Hall in the first place!

An absurd amount of time, inconvenience and incompetence to deliver - once again, Property Services have a lot to answer for, yet they answer for nothing - think Blueschool House - so we're unlikely to know the true cost of this particular episode, and there's not much we can do even if we did. Hard to choose between them and £20m+ a year BBLP for very little in return as to who's having the biggest laugh whilst everything falls apart.

All of which misses the point - it is perfectly possible to build accessible high rise buildings. That Keepmoat decide not to, isn't an argument for not doing them. It's a political decision. Likewise, that Keepmoat deliver very poor quality buildings isn't a reason not to build. Appoint a better developer - let's not forget their appointment to deliver the 'Edgar St Village' was yet another disastrous decision by the now sacked Conservative cabinet and is still scrubland.

Planning permission has been granted for this development. 20 x Social Rent 17 x Affordable Rents 17 x Shared Ownership 17 x Rent to Buy

I submitted a complaint to planning enforcement in October of last year and had a blunt response to the effect that enforcement action would be premature. Pre-start conditions were discharged by the end of last year so there is no obvious reason why work has stopped. Bio-fuel production is subsidised by the Government to help their eco-statistics and Layton is exploiting that. Perhaps that has stopped. In any event, it is worse to leave it unfinished than actually finishing and landscaping it. Or, perhaps he's in discussion about upgrading it to an eastern by-pass ... The application by Layton for 6 houses on the triangle of land mentioned has been withdrawn.

It's worth looking at the political make up of this Planning Committee and notable that the so called 'True Independents' don't figure; Councillor Graham Andrews - Herefordshire Independents (Kings Acre) Councillor Paul Andrews - Herefordshire Independents (Hagley) Councillor Polly Andrews - Lib Dem (Widemarsh) Councillor Toni Fagan - Green (Birch) Councillor Elizabeth Foxton - IOC (Eign Hill) Councillor John Hardwick (Chairperson) - Herefordshire Independents (Backbury) Councillor Terry James - Lib Dem (Kington) Councillor Tony Johnson - Conservative (Hope End) Councillor Jim Kenyon - Herefordshire Independents (Tupsley) Councillor Jeremy Milln - Green (Central) Councillor Paul Rone - Conservative (Redhill) Councillor Alan Seldon - (Vice-chairperson) IOC (Bromyard West) Councillor John Stone - Conservative (Leominster North & Rural) Councillor Yolande Watson - Herefordshire Independents (Kerne Bridge) Herefordshire Independents - 5 Conservative - 3 IOC - 2 Lib Dem - 2 Green - 2