Biomech

There are laws about that now, you can report it and have them pulled up. More on the chuggers, I was approached by Sky outside of Asda, pleasant enough chap, especially considering I told him Sky is a waste of money. However, he wasn't aware that you could access TV shows on Netflix. Which is a massive selling point for Netflix. If you're going to try and pitch to me, you need to know what you're talking about.

Would that make a difference? They spend all day drinking around Tescos as it is :P They are, and it's a shame, because we had such high hopes.

That's not what I have been lead to believe. I'm sure someone here will confirm/deny that

Papaya in Union Street just posted this "Was really worried that there'd been some kind of disaster this morning and no one told us about it, Why oh why is Hereford so so quiet. Oh of course it's a bank Holiday Monday." https://www.facebook.com/papaya.hereford/posts/859888750704624?stream_ref=1

Yep I went down there today. Came back empty handed - partly my fault as it is a bank holiday and I thought more places would be open.(I had a lot to do in High Town) It looks amazing, I love the big frontages - which, if you recall I have pointed out before (specifically Cardiff). In fact, size aside, you'd be forgiven for thinking that you were in somewhere like Cardiff, so the character has certainly gone. The OLM was at least twice as busy as high town. I heard some people commenting about how many people where walking to and from the OLM - which got me thinking. I parked in Merton Meadow (and paid!!) - how much footfall in the OLM is people passing through? It certainly gives the impression that it's heaving with business, but a lot of these people are going to be heading elsewhere - to work or run errands in high town etc. So yeah, looks amazing, I really like it. (This doesn't excuse the lies, deceit and underhandedness of the whole affair). A few other observations; Eastern Europeans drinking alcohol around Costa. I saw a women with a dust pan and brush constantly cleaning the walkways (she had an OLM top on). So that's a shame that they aren't so active elsewhere in town. Waitrose was smaller than expected - it just seem's the same as downstairs in Marks and Spencer. And more costly, a basil plant the same size as in Asda was £2 - twice that of Asda. A 4pt of milk was £1.39 - but £1 if you joined the Waitrose club, I thought that was a bit off, having to pay an extra 40% just for not being in their club. Next was a big disappointment. That was the only place I had a purpose to go (with my gift card). They have at least 5 units of space on the ground level full of womens clothes. Men's is a tiny room that has been over stocked up stairs and has a small home and living section tacked on. So that was a shame. Debenhams, probably had as many people in as the whole of high town. What was very clear was the "shared space" aspect in there. It's not really Debenhams, it's a unit full of other shops, Burton, DP, Wallis and about 5 others. Outfit was ok. Fat Face smelt like the Old Market. I don't know if that's intentional or a by product of all of the wood used inside. Customers did comment on the musty/straw smell. Not as many bins as you'd expect, but the ones they do have have recycling sections so that's good. However they are small so will need emptying frequently. Traffic, again, was fantastic, but, again, this is largely down to the timings on the lights being on green for about 40 seconds! (I'm sure someone will actually time it). They had parking marshalls around the exit because of parking issues, I guess people not paying enough and getting stuck? Several spots still under clear construction. Some shop frontages where board up with black panels, half of which have fallen off. On the whole; It looks amazing, it's great to shop in if you can find something that you want - Next men's section is cramped. But it's been built on lies and deceit and will have a majority share of shops we already have. It looks great, but it does look and feel exactly like everywhere else now. Feel free to add your own experiences

I don't get those last 2 lines. Are they supposed to be two separate statements?

2y ;)

To be fair, it's down to the council changing the lights to coincide with the opening of the OLM, underhanded, yet clever, ploy.

More clueless, selfish, idiotic drivers? I agree

heh I saw a waitrose van out on delivery today. Traffic has been great today around the OLM - they've changed the light times again to MUCH longer than before and it's made a HUGE difference. Great bit of marketing ploy there council, well done. Just a shame they wouldnt/didnt do it previously. That said, it still took me 10 minutes to get from the Broadleys to the OLM and a further 10 minutes from the OLM to B&Q. Southbound was less than moderate. Coming back, I got up Edgar street in about 60 seconds and that included 1 set of red lights! Hinton road has been chocka with cars parked, making access through there a bit difficult also. Obviously there are a lot of factors involved here, the weather creates busier times in town, the river carnival moves crowds to other areas. But if they can keep those traffic lights as they are, things should be looking up! Only time will tell.

Thank you for providing the sources - it goes a long way. The more new shops Hereford gets the better it will be

I was referring to shops not food places. And the amount that we already have far outweigh what new ones there are. I see you write Paperchase - do you have a source for this? As I've seen a lot of names banding around with absolutely no supporting evidence at all. Hey, We're getting a GAP too and A Republic and a Harrod's!

I noticed them yesterday also. And yet the council insist that that 315,000 social budget isn't needed.

I spoke to a friend who went down there today. He said the only shop that was busy was Waitrose "because they were giving out free tea/coffee when you signed up to their card"

Fair enough, I haven't been - I have no need to. I'm just going off the photos I was seeing :)

Agreed, perhaps people are staying away like they did when newmarket street was being dug up and the council claimed everything was alright. It's a shame that the anti-impartial HT doesn't report on everything but chooses to focus only on the little highlights they can pick out. Mind you, have you noticed that the HT facebook page is dead for user interaction and comments yet the local groups pages are booming with activity

Ross Road was fine this morning and the bridge looked pretty empty on my way to Asda, you must have been coming down Belmont road - which just shows that it's the lights causing that problem. As for the 20,000 people, I've seen this picture appear quite a few times on facebook today

Seeing the cars bouncing around at 3:27 made me laugh

That says it all really. I've never been against the development... well, I guess I am now that it turns out that they lied and it's full of shops we already have. But I would certainly smile if it all falls flat on it's face tomorrow. No doubt there will be "first 10,000 customers get a free fish finger" promotions and, as we saw with Rockfield, down and out Herefordians will flock for their handout. They would have been much better off finishing the thing and then opening the whole lot in one big launch instead of dribbles of openings between construction equipment and empty units. I wonder, does anyone know if parking will be free for the launch? Because that could be fun to watch

Oh sorry I did mean to say, it was around 2-3pm

Wait, are you saying that I can't get a burger or breakfast roll before 12 lunch time either?

I don't know about you, but I've never found a problem parking in any free spaces in Hereford (Tesco, B&M, B&Q, Dunelm, Broad Street) or in any large city. I completely agree. In all honesty, I don't shop in Hereford and I don't pay for parking so I'm fine. But, of course, that doesn't mean that I can't air my concerns on the effect this will have.

I noticed that traffic on the South side of town wasn't up to it's normal standard, perhaps everyone was busy somewhere?

As a whole, I think it's MUCH better than what was there before. Not ideal, sure, but a much better look and use of the space. It's just a shame that it was ruined by filling it with shops we already have, expensive parking and bad traffic management

Councillors should have a set number of times that they can abstain per year. They're paid to make decisions not sit on the face or fail to turn up to meetings.