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.

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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:
 

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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:

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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?

FromHT

AS plans to remove the hutted wards at Hereford County Hospital progress, the council has offered office space to the NHS trust.

Wye Valley NHS Trust will move health records currently stored in the hutted wards corridor to Herefordshire Council's former record store in Harold Street.

Office accommodation for finance, HR and estates will be moved to Franklin Barnes to accommodate the decant of the hutted offices.

Both properties are presently vacant.

The trust will pay rent for the accommodation and have been told Harold Street is available for five years and Franklin Barnes for at least two years.

In the Hereford Times today:

Report proposes new trust to run county council's museum services

A NEW stand-alone trust has been proposed to run the county council's museum services.

A report has been written about the future resilience of Herefordshire Council's Museum Service, as the council continues to face budget cuts.

Consultants Prince & Pearce suggest transferring the operation of the service to a newly-formed charitable organisation (trust).

The trust would then put together a long term plan for the service and would seek funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund/Arts Council, private donations, local businesses, NMiTE and the council.

The council was awarded Heritage Lottery Funding for the Resilient Heritage review of the museum service, with the Herefordshire Museum Service Support Group (HMSSG) as a community partner.

Chairman of HMSSG, Miriam Griffiths, said: “We welcome the report’s carefully considered proposals for the museum service.

"A sustainable governance and business model is the key to a resilient future for the county’s museum.

"This plan has three major strengths: it will safeguard the many thousands of priceless historical objects which are held in trust for the people of Herefordshire; it will increase people’s access to these collections; and it will enable the museum service to make a strong contribution to the new draft Cultural Strategy for the county.â€

The county’s museum service comprises the staff, the county collections housed at the Museum Resource and Learning Centre in Friar Street, the Museum and Art Gallery in Broad Street, and the Black and White House Museum.

The report said setting up a trust can take a few years to be fully operational so the report authors suggest an established and active charity acts as an interim host subsidiary trust until the other trust is set up.

Initially the buildings and collections would remain assets of the county council. But in the long term the council's assets could be transferred to the trust at their discretion.

The full Resilient Heritage report can be found at herefordshire.gov.uk/downloads/file/13328/the_future_resilience_of_herefordshire_councils_museum_service

Along with other reports about the future of museum, library and archive services, this will be considered by the council’s cabinet on May 10.

The HMMSG can be contacted at: herefordmuseumsupport@gmail.com or see the website herefordshiremuseumsupport.org.uk.

Can't imagine NMiTE being able to help fund any trust which could be set up, after all they are going to need every penny they can get to operate themselves. I notice that following Churchill House occupation by the Art College, they have now left and Hoople Training and Education are utilising the building for meetings and conferences.

Man charged with Hereford murder

A 22-year-old man from the West Midlands has been charged with the murder of Robert Eacock, who died in hospital in Hereford on Monday night.

When the lessons of history are ignored and the European continent slides ever closer to German domination of all its citizens, it's very hard not to talk about the war. After the cessation of hostilities of World War 2, the British and the Americans ensured that every country affected by German aggression waved their right for Reperation Damages that quickly resulted in Germany becoming able to develop into the European Economic Super Power that it is today. As early as 1960, only fifteen years after the conflict, Germany began its economic domination of Europe and it was all achieved because Britain and America paid for it and small countries like Poland and Greece were ignored. Without a single shot fired and without one act of aggression Germany has become the ruler of Europe and we are destined to repeat historical mistakes in allowing it to happen again.

The mistake thats created German domination of Europe is all based upon a political decision made in 1945/46 that concluded that The Versailles Treaty of World War 1 was harsh upon Germany and it's people, and post World War2 the allies would ensure that Germany would be relieved of the burden of its shame to avoid a third German act of European aggression.

It was all done with language. The War very quickly became the responsibility of the Nazis. The German people very quickly became the victims of the Nazis and over time Germany and it's people were moreorless exonerated from any responsibility because it was all the fault of the Nazis.

Now to my point......that rejects the European Brexit Commission and German political leaders who say we should stop talking about the war. Recently, the Polish Government are introducing legislation that'll make it a custodial offence for anyone to refer to the Holocaust Death Camps as 'Poland or Polish Death Camps'. For decades since the passing of the Nazis it's become normality for these terrible places to be referred to as Polish Death Camps. Because of political language designed to be gentle toward Germany and it's people, these camps have never ever been referred to as German Death Camps. That shameful burden and cruel unjust label is one now carried by the people of Poland and quite rightly, despite objections from Israel, Germany and the EU commission, the Polish people no longer wish to carry the shame that belongs to the Nazis and the German people.

Why shouldn't Poland pursue this aim? They didn't build the camps, they didn't exterminate millions of Jewish people. The only reasons they are called Polish Death Camps is because of political language and a strategic and geographical decision made by the German Armed Forces to build these evil places in a location that was far away from German conurbations and not to distant into the east of the continent. Because of easy established rail and transport links the German Reich picked Poland and that was that. Now, over time, they've become The Polish Death Camps and the people of Poland should be supported and not accused of trying to dilute the story of the Holocaust.

The story of the Holocaust will never be lost. Neither will their geographic locations in Poland and other neighbouring countries. Everyone will forever know where these atrocities took place but it is now very wrong that Poland or Polish people should take on the ownership of these terrible places. The ownership belongs to The Nazis and the Germans and this is where the ownership belongs.

With one word from Germany the British people would receive a kinder and better Brexit. One signal from Angela Merkel and she'd be able to call the attack dogs off the Polish and all the other member states who are clinging onto their sovereignty. And with just one single thought for the people of Greece, who are now essentially owned and run by German financiers, the Greek people could once again claim back their sovereignty and begin to live their lives free of German influence.

Stop talking about the war! How can you?

A man has been arrested tonight after the attempted robbery of the Welcome fish bar in Widemarsh Street.
Earlier report of a man having a gun pointed in his face on Greyfriars Bridge.

Have you seen the latest 2020 visions on Hereford Times?

Have a laugh at this pic of Commercial Rd,One way & no traffic lights 

A trampoline arena together with a cafe & five B1 business units have been given the go ahead

on the old Joseph Ash site in Burcott Road.
They will use and adapt the existing buildings on the site for the trampoline arena and build a cafe & five

B1 use units.

The Winter 2016/17 Place magazine is now available to view online.  There is quite a well informed lengthy article on the trees in King George's PF alongwith much else to read and inwardly digest

I have just seen someones reply to an e-mail to Highways England regarding the state of the railings over the New bridge.

What do you think, back in November I wrote to Highways England in connection with Greyfriars Bridge asking when they would re paint or replace the railings. Suddenly a week ago they called me, they had commissioned a report into the state of the railings, they agree that it needs repainting and this is planned for 2020/21 financial year, so I success I thought, until I read the report that they emailed me. As part of the report there is also a report from there Health and Safety people. ‘ the open aspect of the bridge is seen as a distraction and they plan to solve this by blanking off the railings over the bridge where you can see the river and also add a further fence on top of the railings so that nobody will be distracted by the river as they cross the bridge’ from that I read that a 6’ to 8’ fence would be erected the length of the bridge. I have asked both the Hereford Times and Your Herefordshire to further question Highways England over their proposal, but interested to hear what residents of Hereford feel about this proposal.

Multi emergency services called out to reports of a vehicle in river Dore next to B4347 near Pontrilas.

Emergency crews from West Mercia Police, firefighters from Ewyas Harold, Hereford, Ross, and Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service rushed to the scene.

The river Wye in Hereford is very high with flooding already along the river path with no access to the Old Bridge.

This photograph was taken at 0800 this morning.

The river is expected to peak this evening.

Darren Gibbons is leading the 12 in 12 challenge for St Michael's

The City Link Road will open to the public on Monday 11 December 2017.

The road opens in time for the busiest Christmas Shopping period

I am hearing rumours that some cars in Newton Farm have been sprayed with acid over the Christmas break. Does anyone know what had happened ? I hear the police have been involved but I can not get more information. The story is that a women was seen spraying acid on cars in Charlton Avenue, anyone know what has occurred?