Congratulations goes to Bill Thomas for winning our online photo competition. 

The winning photograph will now be used as our main background for at least the next 12 months.

Bill also wins £50 Miller & Carter voucher.

Thank you to everyone who entered, the standard was very high and we look forward to introducing more competitions in 2018.

This is the beautiful winning photograph 

I have heard today that even for them the rates are too high and they are shutting up shop in high town.

This is a letter that I have sent to to our councillor today in the hope that I receive a response. I am sure that is also an issue in other areas, but when you are not even trying to join the que and waiting excessively, something needs to be done. As for the road surface saga - well its just a joke considering it’s a “new†development! I’ve driven on smoother farm tracks.

I am writing to you in the hope that you may be able to help resolve some issues we are having on Woodward Avenue (formally Broxash Drive)

Every weekday morning we have problems with traffic using the street as a rat run on to Belmont Road which is causing queues of traffic on our street and problems for residents not being able to manoeuvre vehicles on or off driveways. This morning the traffic was particularly bad on the street and vehicles were queuing up as far as the top of the road next to the children's playground and blocking every driveway. I came out of the house this morning with my 5 year old to take her to school in Madley and despite all the traffic seeing me getting in my car, not one car left me any room for me to pull off my driveway. When the traffic started moving I slowly started to pull of my driveway only for another car to then pull forward, blocking me again, and refusing to move for me to be able to come off my drive, despite me telling them I wanted to go in the opposite direction to them. When I was eventually given space to reverse off the drive I was unable to see down the road to see if anything was coming the other way as the vehicles were obscuring my view, I was lucky that there wasn't a car coming as there would have been no way I would have seen them, or them see me.

There are also problems with drivers speeding down the road, especially towards the earlier part of the morning before the majority of the traffic builds up on the street.

The road itself is an utter mess with major potholes all along the street and the extra traffic using the road is only going to make things worse, we have been told by the highways agency that despite this area being classed as a new development, there are no funds available to resurface this road.

Unfortunately I think at some point in the future if these issues are not addressed there will be an accident on the street, whether due to speeding vehicles, poor condition of the road, or queuing traffic obscuring residents view/access off or on driveways.
 

Last night (not for the first time) I was awoken at around 00:30 by what at first sounded like a midge or other small high-pitched buzzy insect.

As I lay in bed, vaguely swiping at the possible invader to my boudoir, it dawned on me that it was not actually inside at all, but outside.  As I say, not for the first time, we had an aerial visitor flying about for a prolonged period above the area whee I live (Yazor Road area)

This is the first time I have heard it during the night, but previously I have spent about 20 minutes standing in my back garden watching the drone as it flies around, hovering for a while, then flying off a bit more and repeating.

Has anybody on here noticed anything similar in the area that they live?

I'm not sure what the point could be at that time of night - he typed, desperately trying not to be paranoid...

The City Link Road opens in December. This short film will inform you how to use the road and surrounding streets.

Portfolio changes confirmed from 1 December 2017

Wondering how long it will take for Herefordshire Council or whoever has the responsibility of the road layout
in Blackfriars Street to notice the traffic lights and the right turn into the Old Market simply do not work.
The backing up of traffic is a frequent problem here with traffic backing up down Edgar Street both ways and in Widemarsh Street.
But today was horrendous with the flow of traffic coming from the South backing up to All Saints church and traffic in Widemarsh Street & Edgar Street backing up within 20 meters of both roundabouts.
 

I have just read this article in the HT.

Quote

ON-STREET parking charges could soon be coming to Hereford city centre.

Herefordshire Council is going out to consultation on a plan for 22 kerbside parking meters within the city’s historic core.

The Hereford Times has learned that the consultation on the £350,000 scheme potentially worth up to £295,000 a year to the council was signed off at cabinet level this week.

Also proposed is an overall increase in off-street parking charges across the county effective from October and expected to raise an additional £1 million a year for the local authority.

 

JOBS have been reinstated at Gelpack just three months after 175 staff were told to go home as the company went into administration.

Full steam ahead or will it hit the buffers?

With so many new houses planned for the county of Herefordshire should this from Redrow be the bottom line or the starting point of all new housing planning applications in the county.  I have read it several times and think it is not a bad start. At least they are trying and not just sticking brick boxes up without a thought for the environment.

Sustainability: for housebuilders it’s not an optional extra

There is a misconception that all housebuilders are solely focused on churning out homes without thought for the communities they are establishing. If there are housebuilders out there with this singular, limited ambition then Redrow is certainly not one of them.

Sustainability and creating places where people want to live are not optional extras for Redrow, it’s firmly entrenched in our DNA. For us sustainability is not just about building with sustainable materials and protecting local wildlife. It means creating thriving communities that are fit for the future.

The starting point for each of our developments is our placemaking principles which are embedded in the design and layout of our sites. These include ensuring that schemes fit sensitively with the local area, that they feature large open spaces and plenty of nature habitats, that residents can easily make their way around the area and are well connected to public transport.

For example, 95% of our homes are within 500 metres of a public transport link. All this ensures a place that fosters a sense of wellbeing among the people living there – and the broader community too. As a housebuilder we invested £163m in facilities and infrastructure across the year ending 30 June 2017, to bring people together and foster a real sense of pride in place.

We are increasingly delivering large communities around the country. Often these developments are on former industrial brownfield land, from Colindale Gardens in north west London, to Ebbsfleet Green at Ebbsfleet Garden City in Kent and Woodford Garden Village in Cheshire.

These developments enable us to embed our placemaking principles at scale. These new communities offer residents swathes of green space, orchards, allotments, running trails, cycling infrastructure and the homes are constructed to the highest quality standards we can deliver.

Smaller sites, by their very nature, have less space in which to create these amenities and facilities. However, we work hard to ensure all our residents can benefit from clean, green lifestyles. All Redrow developments have a green travel plan, for example, and on some smaller sites we have instigated projects to create bee-friendly planting and have installed hedgehog highways to boost native animal and insect species.

Boosting biodiversity Harold the hedgehog at Redrow’s hedgehog highway at Glenwood Park, Barnstaple. The scheme was a winner at this year’s Big Biodiversity Challenge Awards.
Credit: Andrea Ormesby

We also pay particular attention to the impact our developments will have on the local area and the wider environment during construction. We have achieved certification to the international environmental management standard ISO 14001. Some 99.98% of the wood we use to build our homes is from sustainable sources. Our extensive use of sustainably sourced timber won us a coveted Three Trees Award, for the second time, from WWF.

We have set ourselves an ambitious goal to work towards achieving biodiversity net gain on our developments. Biodiversity net gain is a development that leaves biodiversity in a better state than before. We’ve already started work on achieving this goal by commissioning a project to evaluate our biodiversity position on three key sites.

The study revealed that, once completed, two of the three sites will achieve biodiversity net gain positions, with work being done on the third site to advance towards this net aim. The results of this study are helping to inform the development of a strategic biodiversity action plan in Redrow, encompassing net gain principles and partnership working.

The aim of achieving a net gain position also incorporates economic and social responsibility. We commission an annual socio-economic footprint report to obtain a robust, reliable and transparent assessment of the total impact of our activities. The report, for our most recently completed financial year, showed that we have contributed £1.14bn of gross value added (GVA) to UK economic output.

In respect to social net gain the footprint reported 13,200 direct, indirect and induced employment through Redrow, its sub-contractors and suppliers, equating to three jobs per every home built. Staying on the theme of social net gain we are also developing a social value calculator (SVC). This tool will help us to evaluate the social value, in monetary terms, of all our developments. The SVC, once completed, will also be used as a forecasting tool to help inform our decision making on the configuration of our developments to achieve maximum social value.

To challenge the negativity that envelops volume housebuilding, the industry must work towards developing strategies that deliver positive sustainability outcomes for society.

A key consideration in the development of these strategies is determining how to become smarter at measuring the social, environmental and economic impact of developments. We must then use this data and information to make informed judgements that support the delivery of net positive solutions.

The use of lanterns and balloons pose serious environmental and wildlife threats

Katie Horne. khorne@whitecross.hereford.sch.uk;

Subject: Shared Freedom - Shared Future

A member of the Armed Forces Covenant attended a remembrance ceremony yesterday in Leominster Cemetery at the graves of 7 Polish soldiers who died in the late 1940’s at a resettlement camp located in a former military hospital at Barons Cross. The ceremony was attended by the Mayor of Leominster, councillors and members of the Polish community and flowers were laid on each grave

Afterwards he was introduced to Katie Horne , email above , a teacher from Whitecross Academy who has obtained a £50k Lottery Grant to make a film entitled Shared Freedom-Shared Future about the contribution made by Poles here in particular their soldiers and airmen. She would like to talk to any veterans or their families in the County who would have memories of the Second World War and subsequently.

If you have any contacts or know of anyone who can help Katie please could you get in touch with her

Problem in Muir Close.

A mysterious hedge cutter came down the road and trimmed what I believe is a council hedge. The pieces of the hedge which were thrown over the road I swept up and left in neat piles on the grass verge. No one seems to know who commissioned the hedge trimmer and everyone - Muir Housing Group, Herefordshire Housing and Herefordshire Council deny it's their responsibility to remove the trimmings. The trimmings are still on the verge 3 weeks since the cut.

The ownership and responsibility for estate verges and trees has always been a problem see "Adoption of housing estate land by Herefordshire Council" going back to 2012.

Hereford Housing made a visit and showed me a map explaining the responsibility for estate verges as they see it, but it is not clear and agreed by the other agencies.

I prefer to support "Buy Nothing Day". This is where you challenge yourself, your family and friends to switch off from shopping and tune into life. The rules are simple, for 24 hours you will detox from buying stuff - anyone can take part provided they spend a day without spending! Instead of shopping people around the world will take part in a 24 hour moratorium on consuming, either as a personal experiment or public statement.

Also listen to George Carlin talking about "stuff"

Just noticed I mispelt Anyone in the post title. Must dash down to town and buy a dictionary - should get a bargain somewhere after walking around for 4 hours!

 

Greens reduce Conservative majority on Herefordshire Council

A COUNTY council seat in North Herefordshire which was previously held by the Conservatives has been won by the Green party.

Ellie Chowns won the Bishops Frome and Cradley by-election by a comfortable margin over Conservative candidate Ross Carter gaining 471 votes to Mr Carters 299.

Liberal Democrat candidate Jeannie Faulkner was third with 251 votes and Roger Page, Labour, was left in fourth place with 19 votes.

This means there are now four Green councillors on Herefordshire Council - all women and all representing wards in the north of the county.


Herefordshire Council make up (53 councillors in total)

28 Conservatives
10 It's Our County
8 Independents
4 Greens
2 Liberal Democrats
1 No party declared

Only 3 seats between Conservatives and other parties.