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.

Okay folks I have just had a discussion with Keith and we have agreed Sunday 19th November 0900-1400 for 'Phase 2'. 

We obviously need as much help again and we will see if we can encourage the scout/cubs etc to keep us refreshed with beverages again. The plan of actions is to clear some of the outstanding dead branches and bushes and to paint the fence! We will also continue to try and break the back of the duckweed and also erect two additional signs. I have got the funding for some Hammerite and I will make sure that we have a dozen of so paint brushes to make light work of the 75 metre length.

BAKERY chain Greggs will be opening their latest store in Hereford over the next few days.

Has anybody any news on faster broadband in our county? Anyone seen any engineers working? Please advise because I can get no detailed answers from the Cabinet member or from BT. They even admit they have no plan yet, and still promise certain exchanges will be done in 2014. More including letters and replies on jonnorris.co.uk

Hereford City Hidden Treasures

Saturday,11th November at 11am, sees the annual commemoration at St.Martins Street cenotaph that former councillor Bob Preece and I have arranged for the last 15 years.

We comemorate the deaths of 79 men from the area who died between 1914 - 1919. None of the houses in south Wye today were there then, so this must have been a devastating loss of young men for the families and farms where they worked!

We also remember those who died in WW2 and countless other wars and skirmishes since. We are proud that within the grounds of St.Martins Church is a War Cemetery for the SAS.

Most years we have students from the local schools attend. This year as it is a Saturday we probably will not. So I hope that residents from south Wye will join the veterans and pay respects to the fallen of south Wye, including the women from the munitions factory at Rotherwas, at our cenotaph.

Hereford Times Offline Again?

I came out of my house yesterday at 5am to go to work and saw water cascading from the pavement next to the stores on the corner of Kilpeck Road. The day before, Welsh Water had alerted us earlier that evening, through an automated telephone call, that we would be experiencing discoloured water. 35 hours later the water is still running. Anyone know what is going on as there is no statement on the WA website? The loss of water must be fantastic and wasteful.

The council used to publish its expenditure figures for each month very promptly. However the council have since made a decision to publish its expenditure figures only every three months for the periods ending June, September, December and March. This seems at variance with the government's Local Spending Data guidance which states that:
 

Data should be published monthly, as soon as possible after month end but no later than 30 days after month end.

Authorities may wish to publish the data for longer reporting periods e.g. quarterly, year to date, etc. There is no reason why they should not do this, but this should be in addition to the individual monthly files.

The council's delay in publishing their expenditure figures promptly would appear to delay and prevent the public and councillors from seeing the ongoing state of their council's expenditure as in the case of the Blueschool House and Link Road fiascos. Maybe it would be better to go back to the old system, which this council practiced quite easily over the past years, and these problems would be picked up much earlier.

Minutes of the meeting held on Thursday 14th June 2016 at Northolme Community Centre, Northolme Road, Belmont Hereford.

Marks & Spencer poised to announce more store closures
 

Extracts - The Guardian 4th November 2017

 

Falling profits and increasingly tough high street trading fuels expectations of a much bolder restructuring plan from M&S

Marks & Spencer is expected to ramp up its store-closure plan next week as a result of falling profits and tough trading conditions on the high street.

Last year M&S announced it would close 30 stores as part of an overhaul designed to slash by 10% the amount of shopfloor space devoted to its struggling clothing arm. But industry sources suggest M&S’s chief executive, Steve Rowe, has been working on a bolder restructuring plan with the new chairman, Archie Norman, before its first-half trading update on Wednesday.

Rowe, who took over the top job last year, is seeking to revive the fortunes of the 133-year-old retailer whose profits have gone backwards in recent years. Analysts expect pretax profits to have fallen by more than 10% to £201m in the six months to the end of September and have been calling for the retailer to undertake a more drastic closure programme as clothing sales shift online. The retailer made a full-year profit of more than £1bn in 2008.

Last November, when Rowe set out a five-year turnaround plan for the business, he said 30 of M&S’s more than 300 “full-line†stores – which sell clothing, homewares and food – would close down. A further 45 would be downsized or converted into food-only stores. Analysts suggested some of these targets could now be revised.

If M&S does decide to close more stores it will deal a blow to the towns involved, where the retailer is often the main destination store, especially following the demise of BHS. But with more purchases made online, stores in smaller or less attractive town centres and shopping centres are finding life difficult especially amid rising costs for retailers.

Let's hope Hereford is not on any lists

McCarthy & Stone Retirement Lifestyles Ltd have submitted plans to build 54 retirement apartments on the site of the former bus depot in Friar St Hereford.

Demolition of existing buildings and erection of 54 units of retirement living accommodation (category ll type accommodation), with communal facilities car parking and landscaping

Application P173773/F

Make your 5th of November a night to remember and follow the steps above to stay safe.