Biomech

heh you fool, I went the scenic route - up to Holmer, around the Roman road and back up up Whitecross. Still quicker

So how does Home Point and "affordable housing" differ to all of the various Housing Associations that I recently learnt had nothing to do with the council?

That's costing our local shops £104,000 in rent per year! You could buy a house for that. Jesus christ, no wonder they are all closing. It always amazes me the way some of these shops stay in business, the jewellers who get maybe 2 customers a day, even places like Paperway before it went, you have to shift A LOT of stock to pay out 2 grand in rent, plus wages, plus insurance, plus overheads, expenses, gas, electric, water, tax. You can't blame consumers for shopping online when most retailers are being forced off the street by extortionate rates.

As apposed to the £385,000 they were paying Balfour PER WEEK before they even started work?

Given the history of contract costs, that seem's excessively low for this council. They spend more than that on a website!

If I was a new investor looking to run HUFC, I'd sell the stadium to the OLM and push for a new build out of the city centre. I'm just thinking that with the grounds as precarious as they are and the OLM pushing full steam ahead..... you know, that's a lot of space.

So if HUFC are going under - completely this time - what happens to the football ground and that god awful carpark? This could pave the way for and OLM extention right, or more houses/flats. Another thought is that if HUFC is gone, you've just lost any revenue from visiting and local fans who would - likely - spend some time in the OLM before/after the games

HT two hours ago confirms this http://www.herefordtimes.com/news/10991627.Bar_Spirit_in_Hereford_to_close_this_weekend/

So who wants to open a pasty shop with a shelf full of 20 microwaves? ;)

lololololololololololol, if the councils past is anything to go buy (Amey et al), the only penalty clause will involve the council handing over more money for work not done. I've said it before, the guys on the ground are doing a great job and making great progress - probably because 90% of them are Eastern European

God knows, I believe that they backtracked on the pasty tax so you did really well that night :P What Roger was saying is that ANYONE can sell hot or cold food 24 hours a day. However, to serve hot food between 11pm and 5am you need a licence from the council. The council don't want people to serve food, but they can only stop the hot food suppliers by not letting them have a licence. Tesco and Asda, afaik, don't serve hot food at night, if they wanted to, they would have to get a licence. I don't know if the law(?) distinguishes between hot food that is cooked / cooked to order and heated food (ie your microwave pasty)

Ragwert, you said that Boots are opening a shop in the OLM as well - what is your source for this? And do you honestly think with a new shop in the OLM they will keep Boots open 200 meters up the road?

For what it's worth, I just discovered that; "Prior to the adoption of the term, street design projects carried out in Chambéry, France, by Michel Deronzier from the 1980 used the term "pedestrian priority"."

You'll have to get one of these :) Now I really must do some work :P

I take both of your points on board, but it does reflect the characteristics of shared space, it's just an area that has been converted rather than built from new. In all fairness, this "pedestrianisation" of widemarsh street through to broadstreet happened around the late 1990's/early 2000's 10 years after the idea of shared space was proposed. I really don't think that you can assume it was part of a 1960's ideology

In curb drainage and cycle lanes would be a good idea, and, I believe, fairly cheap to execute I also just found this which looks interesting;

Yes and no. I don't think it's right, correct or far to blast car users for assuming that they own the road, that isn't the case. ALL road users have this mentality, there are plenty of people who cross the road when and where they like, stepping out in front of traffic because "they HAVE to stop if I jump in front of them", likewise there is a certain type of cyclist who swerves and winds through lanes without looking, without signalling. Now put all of those people along with the drivers who refuse to pander to abusive pedestrians and cyclists (and those who think they own the road) into one place and you effectively create a Thunderdome. I agree that cyclists are scaremongered into keeping away from traffic. The answer isn't to call the road "shared space" and expect people to get along. They are widening Newmarket street as we speak - put cycle lanes in. I know that you'll agree that cyclelanes would give cyclists the safe space they deserve and the motivation to use their bikes while simulataneously giving a solid argument to accidents. Right now "he swerved in front of me mate" is about it, and what can you do? If someone says "that car was in the cycle lane and hit the bike" then it's substational and motivates drivers to consider that piece of road out of bounds. Add to that specific crossing points at natural brakes in the traffic and you have pedestrians covered. Look outside "JD's" and you'll see more people crossing the road because the traffic has stopped and backed up than you do you do when the lights actually change. We come back to the age old topic - build on what you have, what works and don't waste time and money bulldozing things only to replace them. Desire lines, natural gaps in traffic etc. Again I must point out that I'm not "against" shared space, I'm just simply pointing out the problems it can create and potential alternatives for use and research.

and I quote; "Shared space is an urban design approach which seeks to minimise demarcations between vehicle traffic and pedestrians, often by removing features such as curbs, road surface markings, traffic signs, and regulations."

That's simply not true. Hightown is a pedestrianise area that is open to vehicles (commercial), the hightown area of Widemarsh street is, was and always has been a road for use by motor vehicles. The street was open for a long time before they decided to close it throughout the day. Whether officially sanctioned as a "shared space" or not, it exhibits all of the characteristics. So how about this, why didn't the council "institute" as you say, widemarsh street as an official "shared spare" in order to research and analyze the effects of using this system before implementing it at the OLM end?

I'm going to post this again because I think it's a very valid point that deserves some attention. If shared space works so well, why is Widemarsh street through to Broad street closed throughtout the day?

It's not about people being forced to go different routes or people having priority. it's about common sense. I'd much rather walk through a subway than across a 4+ lane dual carriage way - wouldn't you? We don't let people walk on a motorway, we don't allow people to drive on whichever side of the road they choose and we don't allow children to walk around with automatic firearms.... for a reason. I'm not saying I'm against shared space, I'm simply saying that I believe it promotes selfish behaviour. When the lights red, you stop and let people cross. Without traffic crossings or signs, there's no incentive for people to act appropriately, you WILL get people walking into the road because they think "shared space" means everyone has to stop for them and you WILL get drivers who won't allow people to cross because they don't want to have to keep hitting the brakes every 2 seconds because there is no specific crossing area. I believe the cons outway the pros. Again, if this is such a fantastic idea, why is Widemarsh street through to Broad street closed throughtout the day? Do you not agree that Widemarsh street *IS* shared space? No signs, no curbs, no crossings, no lights. We have shared space and the council chose to closed it off in the day for, I can only assume, safety reasons. And what happens when it's open? People walk in front of cars, cars don't stop to allow people to cross, cars park on it. You can sit there in an evening and watch people have to dodge cars and cars having to dodge people - specifically the HSBC corner. The evidence; - We have spared space. The council chose to close it in the day. - The shared space we have is a well known area for pedestrianss walking in front of cars (blind bend) - While some drivers ARE more cautious, many still take the HSBC corner at speed with little regard to the people who might be in the road around the corner. The evidence does not support the argument or the decision for shared space.

I think I misinterpreted your previous post regarding 11pm-5am. So essentially, what you're saying is that the council want them all shut, but they only have the power to hinder hotfood suppliers. Which makes sense and answers my question :) But again, I'd like to raise the point of anti-competitive law as the nightclubs are serving hot food during the times when independent vendors are prohibited - thus creating a monopoly,

Oh Roger, lol, there's only one lane? I just posed that very question in the other thread, I guess my assumption was correct. The work has started. Today town was quiet with plenty of available parking. .... People are staying away again.

Indeed, I pointed that out the other week. I guess it's still there. I know the 2ft C0ck and balls is still drawn on the window of Chadds and now I see the Shire Hall is 100% covered in scaffolding and tarpaulin. Interesting, however, town was quieter today, McDondalds was at about 50% capacity which is low and there were plenty of empty spaces in Tesco carpark - have they started the new roadworks now? It would explain the lull as everyone stayed away last time I imagine they are/will do the same this time

For example; "We differentiated hot food shops from cold food shops as we believed that drunk people would put their heads in the deep fat fryer, thus hot food outlets were considered a safety risk"