Where's Jesse. Not much noise from Jesse about Council tax rises, bypass routes and business rates in the town centre. Any comments?

A black Carrera road bike has been stolen from an address on St Martins Street, Hereford. It was taken during the early hours of Tuesday 20th Feb 2018.

It was taken by an unknown male who was caught on CCTV heading to the river path towards the back of ASDA. 

New Safety (speed) camera currently being installed on the A465 opposite the Three Counties Hotel Belmont Road) Hereford.

This is been in discussion for sometime so no real surprises here however, the traffic queues along this part of Hereford are constant so we do not envisage high earnings to come from this one...

New Volunteer Pub for Marden plans approved.

Nightmare Neighbour Next Door from Hereford is airing tonight at 8pm on channel 5.

Earthquake with a magnitude of 5.0 hits parts of England and Wales this afternoon.

Great publicity video for Range Rover showing you that there are ways to avoid traffic congestion. Notice the speed camera half way up (only joking)!

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Brexit: If you agree sign this petition

Petitions
UK Government and Parliament

Petition: We must leave the EU completely in March 2019 - No transition period, No delay

Theresa May is betraying the British people who voted to leave the EU by making the UK stay in until 2021 and paying billions of pounds to the EU while we stay. No immigration control, no border control, no sovereignty - an absolute betrayal of the 17 million voters who chose to leave.

HCC Press release

Herefordshire Council welcomes the announcement in the latest Local Government Finance Settlement, which will see additional funding for the county.

The funding includes just over £1m in recognition of the extra costs associated with delivering services in a sparsely populated rural county. Theres also an additional £550,000 to support adult social care services, which continue to face serious pressures due to the rapid growth in the number of older people within Herefordshire and those living with a lifelong disability. The gap between demand for adult social care services and the resources available to provide them, is nationally estimated to be around £2.3bn.

Councillor Nigel Shaw, Cabinet member for finance, housing and ICT, said:

Were pleased the government has recognised the challenges we face when delivering services in a rural county, by awarding us additional funding.

Unfortunately, this additional funding is a one off payment for 2018/19, so cant be relied upon going forward. We continue to face cuts to our ongoing funding from the government; it's reducing by £203,000 in the same year. As adult social care costs are significantly increasing, its imperative that we carefully consider how best to use this extra funding, to ensure maximum benefit for local residents. We will continue to ensure that residents are enabled to live safe, healthy and independent lives across Herefordshire.

Just wondering if this additional funding will mean that the council,Tax for t2018/2019 will be reduced

- I doubt it very much .

British farmer moves fruit-growing to China over Brexit uncertainty

 

(extract)

 

Berry producer says government urgently needs to address shortfall in seasonal workers

One of the biggest growers of berries in the UK is moving part of its business to China because it cannot guarantee it will find enough fruit pickers available to work.

Up to 200 seasonal jobs have gone at Haygrove’s farm in Ledbury, Herefordshire, and some of the company’s raspberry and blueberry-growing will be relocated to Yunnan province in China because of uncertainty over migrant labour due to Brexit.

Angus Davison, the founder of Haygrove, said: “In the UK we employ 230 full-time and 1,150 seasonal workers, but we are now reducing that to 950 because of Brexit nervousness.†The company has a turnover of £101m.

“We are already out of time,†he says, explaining that he can’t afford to wait for Theresa May to reveal her immigration policy as this year’s harvest was planned last year.

Davison has written to Theresa May, pleading with her to take urgent action. “Unless a seasonal workers scheme is put in place, you must expect to see the steep decline of this significant rural employer and source of food,†he wrote.

“It is appreciated that treating one industry differently to another is difficult; however agriculture, unlike construction and hospitality, can be exported. If enough people are not made available to do the work, the work can be taken to the people.â€

The prime minster has not replied.

Can't get British workers, won't be able to employ workers after Brexit, so looks to China (free trade) to maintain his business. So he is not going to lose out under any circumstances - the situation for most major businesses and industries in this country. After China maybe Africa - does it matter?

Recommendations to approve the consultation will be made to Cabinet

From Hereford Times today:

Vowchurch Hall, Herefordshire presents a talk by General Sir Adrian Bradshaw entitled Stories From a Soldiering Life

VOWCHURCH Hall, Herefordshire presents a talk by General Sir Adrian Bradshaw KCB, OBE on Friday, February 16 entitled Stories from a soldiering life, plus defence and security in the post-Brexit era.

General Sir Adrian Bradshaw was Deputy Supreme Allied Commander NATO Europe from 2014 to 2017, responsible for commanding operations on behalf of the 28 member states and partner nations.

From 2010-11, he was Deputy Commander of NATO Forces in Afghanistan where he was responsible for an alliance of 50 countries including 140,000 coalition personnel and 350,000 Afghan National Security Forces.

From 2005-08 Adrian Bradshaw was Director of UK Special Forces where he designed and delivered a series of new task forces in an emerging theatre of operations. He gained governmental support at the highest levels in the UK Ministry of Defence for non-traditional innovative methods and concepts to achieve key strategic effects against high risks.

The doors will open at 6.30pm for a welcome drink and canapés followed by the talk at 7.15pm. Afterwards, there will be the opportunity to ask questions.

The bar will be open before and after the talk.

Advance tickets £10 from Jane Wheatley on 01981 550791 or by email: janewheatley@gmail.com or £12 on the door.

Regarding Brexit maybe he will be able to tell us if we are keeping our own armed forces or using the proposed EU army? If anyone is going from Hereford are they able to offer a lift?

INVESTORS EYE HEREFORD’S ENTERPRISE ZONE

RAIDS to discover illegal tobacco were carried out at two shops in Hereford and one in Ross-on-Wye and led to 21,000 cigarettes being seized.

When local authorities run down and disappear who cleans up? Is this the future trend - private sector compies hitting people over the head with fines.

Quote

Tory-run council runs out of money to meet obligations

(extract from The Guardian)

A Conservative-run county council has signalled it is close to effective bankruptcy after admitting that “severe financial challenges†mean it is unable to meet its financial obligations in the current year.

Northamptonshire county council issued a section 114 notice on Friday afternoon imposing financial controls and banning expenditure on all services except for its statutory obligations to safeguard vulnerable people.

A section 114 notice is effectively an admission that a council does not have resources to meet current expenditure, that its financial reserves are depleted and that it has little confidence that it can bring spending under control in the near future. It is understood Northamptonshire is the first local authority to issue a section 114 notice for two decades.

 

From the BBC:

The council announced in December that it was looking to increase council tax by almost 5% as it sought to make savings of £34.3m. It was then revealed in January it was considering selling its new £53m headquarters, which officially opened in October. Last month, the government said an inspector would look into allegations of financial failings at the authority.

So here are our saviours! From the Daily Mail today:
 

Quote

Britain's first 'private police force' has caught 400 criminals with a 100 per cent conviction rate after taking on cases regular officers are too busy to look at. It comes as police chiefs admit they do not have the money to investigate high- volume crimes such as shoplifting and stretched officers complain that they are at breaking point.

But critics fear the rise of private policing could lead to a two-tier system where only the wealthy get protection from criminals.

Metropolitan Police Federation chairman Ken Marsh described the rise of private detectives as a staggering indictment of the state of policing.

Eventually there will be a two-tier system with the haves and the have-nots, and if you have money and live in a £20million house in Chelsea you can pay for private security, he said.
Critics fear the rise of private policing could lead to a two-tier system where only the wealthy get protection from criminals

My concern would be, where is the public scrutiny if it goes wrong? If they are allowed to go and do polices job for them, that is a dangerous status quo.

Last week official police figures revealed the largest recorded annual increase in crime for more than a decade, with surging levels of violence, sex attacks, knife and gun offences across the country.

Money to be made here:

Quote

Fury as mum fined £600 and threatened with jail for putting cardboard box in WRONG BIN
 

Alison Mapletoft says she was warned she could be sent to jail and the outrageous threat reduced her eight-year-old daughter to tears.

Enforcement firm 3GS, who were hired by Brighton and Hove City Council, fined the 39-year-old after the bin blunder.

It seems the local authorities and the government don't want to create local jobs, but to employ a corporate body who will fine you and still leave the council to clean up the mess. Do we get a reduction in our council tax as a result of more outsourcing?

Yet another asset of the county has been put on the market.

How did the Council come by these properties - were they purchased as an investment when they were going cheap were they bequeathed or were they bought to be used when the Council is as cash strapped as it is now.  Anybody know?  Whatever the reason the less assets on the books the more the interest on the cash borrowed of which there is plenty.

Moor House Hereford a beautiful Grade II listed mansion.

There are prestigious estate agents in Herefordshire yet the Council continue to source out of county professional services so even the selling fees do not stay in the county

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=470d858353&view=att&th=1574781c3ce81ba6&attid=0.1&disp=inline&realattid=c9febf08f0f5a5e_0.1&safe=1&zw

In Herefordshire Council latest news

Statement in response to media enquiries, 17 January 2018

Herefordshire Council can confirm that it is actively working with this individual to secure accommodation within the county.

Unfortunately, to date the individual has not provided all the documentation needed to legally register for housing.  However, regardless of this, the council’s housing team has found and offered two different forms of accommodation, in areas which were agreeable to the individual, but which have subsequently been turned down.

We are continuing to work with the individual to help them secure appropriate housing.

Published: Wednesday, 17th January 2018

Ubique could this be a response to these articles which appeared in the Daily Express and The Sun?