Please find attached the minutes from the parish council meeting held on January 19th 2012

January 12 Minutes.pdf

During the past few years I've noticed a worrying increase in the use of children by the Police and the Local Authority, who are recruiting kids, giving them money and tasking them to enter a licensed premises store and purchase alcohol in order to gain evidence to support either a Licence being revoked or a criminal prosecution.

These Test Purchases are conducted under the control of the Police and the Trading Standards and at some point following a successful Test Purchase of alcohol, these kids must presumably provide witness statements and their personal details or false names must be incorporated into a file of evidence that will support a criminal prosecution.

For all intents and purposes these kids become Covert Intelligence Sources and I suppose, must be filed and logged as Police Informants.

Now I ain't no expert on any of this but I do ask myself, 'is this entirely necessary' given that the Police and Trading Standards could quite easily carry out a successful prosecution by simply carrying out observations on the shop and catching a few kids who have purchased alcohol from the Licencee.

My worry is that to save the Police and Council a lot of man hours doing these observations, they are taking the easy option and using children.

My personal view is that we shouldn't be exploiting children in this way. I accept that some would say the kids are volunteers but when they are that age, do they really know and understand what is being asked of them?

I felt this for a long time and I'd bet anybody that one day the wheel is going to come off and this will become a major Policing issue and will be something that we will, with hindsight regret ever doing.

I say, leave the kids out of it and get your evidence in another way.

Shed Broken into last night at Masefield Avenue. A white cube Mountain bike was stolen. Blue writing black seat.

Any info please contact our local police.

Here are a few from St Martins and Putson

This first one is along Hinton Road


This one is just outside the funeral directors

What is happening about a new youth centre for Newton Farm? there was some talk of the former vortex site, but not heard anything since?

Can anyone give us an update?

Extraordinary Meeting of Belmont Parish Council

Will take place on

Friday 2nd November 2012

at

Belmot Community Centre

Eastholme Avenue, Belmont,

Hereford.

Commencing at 7.30pm

For the sole purpose of discussing and making comments on plnning application reference S122747/0, being outline planning consent for a development of 85 homes on land at Home Farm Hereford.

What the hell is wrong with Amey? Are they not capable of getting anything right? more importantly making things SAFE!

Apparently they have informed Cllr Powell that the dead posts are not hazardous...

I have heard back from Amey this morning in their opinion the posts are not hazzardous! and have been put in a program of work to be carried out JANUARY 2013, I have told them I DO NOT ACCEPT THIS TIMESCALE!!!! I also pointed out ALL works I have asked for to the Inspector from Amey that came out on a site visit / walk around of all of Newton Farm / GWW this morning.

Then we were told

I invited Amey inspector Neill Davies to come with me on my ward walkabout which he did last week, I have given him an extensive list of things to be done, and some have been done including some of the posts have been taken away as a start, I am going up onto the GWW in the next hour to check up there.

Then we were told

Amey has responded to my various requests 5 posts on GWW have been removed, and grass cut. tree in Muir Close been cut, hedges and dead tree removed in Waterfield Rd, hedges cut in Treago Grove, weeds hedges cut in Blakemore Close grass cut at the Oval. Further work is to be carried out in coming weeks in Newton Farm, Hunderton and down Belmont road from Clehonger turn coming forward.

Cllr Powell has also been informed that 5 posts from the GWW have been removed, well guess what? Only 1 post has been 'so called' removed but actually as you will see in the following images the 'non hazardous post' has now become extremely dangerous! As usual Amateur Amey are clearly not capable of doing this job properly, instead of REMOVING the post as you would expect, they have merely taken an angle grinder and cut it off near the base, which has now left a sharp dangerous piece of metal as you can see

QUOTE:

Central Government announcement at their conference in Birmingham on 8th Oct 2012.

Central Government has announce funding for Herefordshire Council road improvements schemes at Belmont Road and Edgar Street which are:

A49 / A465 Belmont road junction to reduce delays on the A49 northbound approaches to the Belmont road junction, the junction will be realigned to create a separate approach to accomodate A49 southbound movements into Asda's store, and u-turn movements from St. Marins street toward A49 northbound from the right turn movement into A465 Belmont road. It will be traffic signal controlled and co-ordinates with the Belmont road right turn. Scheme start 2013 completed 2013.

A49 / A438 Edgar street. The A49 southbound approach into Edgar street roundabout is a major cause for delay on the A49 route. To increase capacity this approach will be widened to create a third lane. In order to create the space for the new lane the pedestrian crossing will be slightly relocated. Scheme start 2014 to be completed 2014.

END

I delayed posting this comment due to the Christmas and New Year Break, but feel that attention should be raised to the piles of litter which I see, not only on my estate, but also around the city generally and in particular along the A465 verges between Wormbridge and the city. Is anyone going to pick it up or is it just a case of waiting until spring/early summer and hope it gets hidden in the long grass. One particular bad part of the city which I walk through every day is the lane joining Canal Road and the back of Morrisons. I know it is a private road, but it is public litter that has been dropped and together with the graffiti overlooking the burial ground, the complete scene is an eyesore. I have yet to see a human road sweeper in the city with a brush and shovel keeping on top of this problem. If it can't be reached from the comfort of a mechanical sweeper no one bothers. Also the debris that was reported at the back of Charles Witts Avenue and bordering the Great Western Way is still there after one year. How does everyone else feel about this constant problem?

From BBC Hereford & Worcester Radio today:

Herefordshire Council may privatise more services

 

Herefordshire Council has said it is looking at outsourcing a further 38 services including planning to a private company in order to save money.

 

In 2003 the authority employed company Amey to take on several of its services, including street cleaning, highways maintenance and grass cutting.

 

It said that as that 10-year contract was coming up for renewal, it was looking at what else could be included.

 

The council said it was not "looking at any redundancies at the moment".

 

If the extra 38 services, which include car parking enforcement, housing development, planning, archaeology, environmental health and pest control, bereavement services, licensing, markets and catering, are also privatised, the contract could potentially be worth £1bn over 10 years.

 

Council officials said the plans were only at their "very early stages" and were only looking at the possibility of outsourcing further services.

 

Richard Ball, from the council's commissioning department, said: "We are not looking at redundancies at the moment.

 

"This is very much about making sure we get the right quality of services. We are not under a commitment to any other outsourcing."

 

'Big experiment'

Steve Akers, regional Unison organiser for Herefordshire and Worcestershire, said it was important the council remained "transparent" over any decisions it made.

 

He said: "It's a big experiment.

 

"The spin is that this is about value for money and good quality services, but there are no guarantees of that."

 

The authority said it would be starting a consultation process over the plans, and will be holding a series of events from 20 September to explain them.

 

The Hereford and Worcester Chamber of Commerce has backed the proposals, saying they could potentially be good for the local economy.

Is this plan going to be any good for council tax payers. I don't like the privatisation of planning. What is lacking with this council is transparency and accountability.

I have just driven into the City from the Abergavenny side and a lot of the road signs are hidden becasue of overgrown tree's and bushes, in particular in the roundabout sign on the left just after the Haywood Lane turning heading in towards Hereford, you cannot see it until you are more or less on it becasue the tree's are so overgrown, the same with quite a few of the road signs. All along the main road the tree's seem to have got out of hand, it will not be long before we have a canopy formed, can these not all be cut back? it looks a right mess coming into town, this continues all down the Belmont Road to the iron bridge.

I have got in touch with the chairman of South Wye Regeneration Board in regard to the old south wye notice board that is located at the Oval in Newton Farm asking for it to be removed, as it was put in when we received the SRB money. I have also asked for the seat opposite the new notice board to be replaced as it is beyond repair, the chairman has said he will deal with both my requests

On my visit to Amey offices today I issued them a list of grass cutting and weed spraying that needs to be done in Newton Farm, I have been told that this will be done starting tomorrow (Saturday 21st August) in The area commonly known as the 'Bird Sanctuary' then progressing through the garage area in Muir Close, Sherborne Close, the blocked pathway at the rear of Sherborne Close and Dunoon Mead, and public right of way pathway at the back of Blakemore Close.

There has been problems with the work being carried out on the PRC cornish properties in Newton Farm. I have a weekly meeting with the site manager every week therefore if any tenants are experiencing any problems whilst these works are being done please contact me so that they can be rectified.

Taken from the Hereford Times today:

New opening hours for Herefordshire police stations

NEW opening hours are now in effect for police station public service counters across Herefordshire.

Thirty-one counters across Herefordshire, Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin and Worcestershire now have a wider range of opening hours, including evenings and weekends.

Chief Superintendent Trevor Albutt said: “The change to public service counter opening times will not affect local policing and all police stations will remain operational. We want to make sure we offer a good service to the public and be as accessible as possible. Visiting your local police station service counter in person is not the only way to get in touch with us.â€

As part of the review West Mercia Police carried out extensive research, and spoke to other forces, ensuring where opening hours are reduced alternative services are provided including telephone links outside police stations and information stands providing information on crime prevention.

Every Local Policing Team can be contacted by e-mail, voicemail, at local events and surgeries, Partners and Communities Together meetings and via diary appointments which are available at the police station.

The police can be contacted 24-hours a day, seven days a week by calling 101 for non-emergencies and 999 in an emergency, as well as by logging on to www.westmercia.police.uk or their Facebook and Twitter.

To check who your local policing team is visit the force website www.westmercia.police.uk

New opening hours for Hereford and South Wye are:

Hereford:

Monday - Saturday 8.00am - 8.00pm

Sunday and Bank Holidays 10.00am - 4.00pm

South Wye:

Tuesday - Friday 10.00am - 2.00pm

Is this all the kit for the new car wash? (Removal of 9 parking spaces and change the area into a hand car wash and also erect a canopy for valeting with associated signage)

Planning application numbers S121029/F and S121030/A

Following the reduced bus services in the city has anyone noticed that certain buses do not appear to run as scheduled. This Monday (2nd July) my partner wanted to catch the 18.47 from Argyll Rise to meet me in the city at 7pm following a meeting I attended. The bus didn't turn up. I was waiting at Tesco to meet her and other people were waiting for this bus, I assume to travel onwards. When I spoke to these people, they had been waiting for this missing bus to take them up to Newton Farm as advertised at 18.32 and were still waiting until I told them that there was no bus running.

It was ironic that the meeting I attended earlier that evening was promoting a scheme called "Destination Hereford".

Following an annoucement earlier this year the Department for Transport confirmed that Herefordshire Council's "Destination Hereford" had been successful in its bid to its Local Sustainable Transport Fund. The project will receive £4.97million of funding over the next four years to promote sustainable travel amongst households and schools, support the Connect2 project, develop workplace connectivity and enhance rural access. Part of the package is to make improvements to connectivity within Hereford City, in particular improvements along Broad Street joining it with other newly refurbished areas.

To quote:

"Destination Hereford provides a package of integrated transport improvements designed to improve end-to-end journeys to and within Hereford".

The council should start with ensuring that the local bus services are running as scheduled and not on a please yourself approach. Then maybe people will leave their car at home to go into the city instead of blocking up the roads.

CCTV Appeal After Theft From Cashpoint in Belmont

Police in Hereford are appealing for help from the public as they attempt to identify two men they want to trace in connection with a theft from a cashpoint in the city.

Police in Hereford are keen to identify this manThe incident occurred at the Tesco supermarket on Abbotsmead Road in Belmont on Saturday 2 June.

At just before 6.15pm, the victim - a 79-year-old lady - attempted to use one of the cashpoints at the store but was put off by an advert that came up on the screen. On seeing the advert the lady thought her transaction was unsuccessful and that the machine must be faulty.

She then moved to a second machine but as she did so the first machine bleeped and money came out of it.

Before she had chance to collect the money, one of two unknown men - who had been nearby - grabbed it from the machine and made off with it.

This left the elderly lady with nothing except the receipt for the £100 cash she had originally tried to get out of the machine.

This man is thought to be a crucial witness to a theft in BelmontA police spokesman said:

"This theft has left the elderly lady very upset as everything happened very quickly while she was a little confused.

"It appears the two men took advantage of the victim's confusion to carry out this theft and therefore we would like to find them as soon as possible. "With that in mind we are very keen to identify the two men pictured in the CCTV stills we have released today as we believe they may be vital witnesses to this theft.

"Either of the two men, or anyone who recognises them, is asked to contact PC Paul Sartoris in Hereford so that he can take statements from them about what they saw.

"Anyone with information about these men, or the theft itself, is asked to contact PC 2495 Sartoris as soon as possible on 0300 333 3000, quoting reference number 698S 020612.

"Alternatively, please remember that Crimestoppers can also be called anonymously on 0800 555 111 if you'd rather pass on information without getting directly involved yourself."