The third in our series of free activity days at Central Park, off Central Avenue, behind the Fire Station (or via Daws Road). Thanks to Herefordshire Housing for funding.

I certainly was.  And today's news from the Local Government Chronicle certainly did the trick...

http://www.wirralglobe.co.uk/news/11851526.From__abnormal_to_inspirational____Wirral_wins_Most_Improved_Council_award/

Last night of trading tonight ... Drinks from 50 pence ...

Twitter

Facebook

Don't tell Bobby, but this could be the last straw.

Dan Glaister, The Guardian - Saturday 7 March 2015

 

Four out of five cider-makers under threat from EU tax call

 

Plan to end exemption for small producers ‘would hasten demise of traditional orchards’

 

The day of the oppressor is over,†reported the Gloucester Journal in 1766. “The calamity of the cyder drinker is put away; the deadly excise man shall appear no more in our quarters.â€

 

But the Journal had not reckoned with the European commission when it declared that the attempt by the Earl of Bute’s government to raise a duty on cider producers had been defeated. Last week the commission demanded that the British government do away with a duty exemption worth £2,500 to small-scale producers of cider and perry.

 

Under the exemption, introduced in 1976, cider-makers who produce fewer than 70 hectolitres a year – about 12,000 pints – do not have to pay duty. The National Association of Cider Makers calculates that this accounts for about 80% of the UK’s 480 cider-makers.

 

(read on)

Yep! It's here. We've now got it in Hereford. Never a break! Never a boost and never a slither of good tidings. My God! That its come to this. Yes, we all knew that Thrush was rampant and on the march and yes, we'd held fears that Gonorrhea might come a calling, but bloody Syphilis!

That's the last thing we'd wanted and in our case it'll be the last thing we'll be getting unless God decides to smile on us and give us some other disgusting ailment to worry about.

I know God does everything for a purpose. I appreciate that he has a master plan but why, given our fiscally knackered state, does he think it necessary to give us Syphilis. Makes you think doesn't it?

Of course folk who now have Syphilis shouldn't be shunned and made to feel ostracised by society. I ain't saying that it'd be easy to stagger into the pub, join the round and casually say, 'had a bit of bad news today. Me left testical dropped off and I've subsequently learned that I've got the Syphilis'.

Difficult isnt it? A knotty issue to address.

Of course if you've got the Syphilis and tiny parts of your body are beginning to drop off then I suppose you've gotta display a certain amount of responsibility and say to your mates, 'whilst I do have the Syphilis and its been confirmed by several doctors, I intend to be a responsible lover and wear nine condoms in case eight bloody split'. Speaking for myself, if someone said that to me, I'd say, 'I've no desire to engage in acts of manly love with you but thank you for disclosing the diagnosis that you are now riddled with the Syphilis. You are a very responsible person and if I had a hat on I'd take it off and bow to you'.

Mind, I don't suppose that those who now have the Syphilis would agree to wear some sort of badge that says, 'hello I've got Syphilis' and Im pretty sure that if you said, 'I'll be damned if I engage in intercourse with you', they'd throw the Syphilis card, crying, 'bloody discrimination. You won't let me love you physically because I've got the Syphilis. Im going to sue you'.

That's the problem nowadays isn't it. Equality and all that. I suppose you'd just have to say, 'fair enough, I've no wish to be prosecuted for discrimination, I agree to have intercourse with you despite the fact that you've got the Syphilis.'

That's it isn't it. That's the answer. If someone who has the Syphilis wants you and wants you to scurry outside up some dark alley and be subjected to physical intercourse, the best bet is to simple say, 'yes, I'd love to. Thank you very bloody much'.

I have acquired a briefing letter for councillors:

HEREFORD LOCALITY WEEKLY BRIEFING – WEEK ENDING 27^th FEBRUARY 2015

Dear Councillors and Parish Clerks,

During the last week we are pleased to report that the reactive team in the locality completed the following works across the named Wards:

Burghill, Holmer & Lyde Ward

• 20 square metres of carriageway patching (potholes) in Broomhill, Burghill Lane (C1103 to C1095), Aylestone Hill, C1127 from Lyde Cross to Stone Cottage, C1095 (A4103 to Burghill) and Munstone Lane

Hollington Ward

• 10 square metres of carriageway patching (potholes) in Norton Brook Road
• Grit bin in The Furrows, Little Dewchurch re-filled

Sutton Walls Ward

• 24 square metres of carriageway patching (potholes) in Ash Close and on the C1120 (A49 to Old School House)

St Martins & Hinton Ward

• 9 square metre of carriageway patching (potholes) in Walnut Tree Avenue, Pine Grove, Hinton Road, The Appleyard, Belmont Road, Hunderton Avenue, Honddu Close, Pencroft Road, Home Lane and Hillside Avenue
• 2.25 footway patching in Hoarwithy Road
• Gully clean and repair on Belmont Road

Please see below a summary of our key activities within the Hereford Locality over the last week.

Update from Shane (City South – Belmont, St Martins & Hinton, and Tupsley Wards; Rural – Backbury and Hollington Wards)

This week I have –

·         Raised defects in respect of potholes in Church Road outside Hampton Dene School (x3) and near to the junction with Canterbury Avenue (x 3), in Old Eign Hill (x 3), in Waterfield Road near to junction with Kingfisher Road (x 2), in Weston Beggard Lane (x 3), in Green Street, in St James Road, in Webb Tree Avenue, in Pilley Road

·         Liaised with a landowner in respect of a blocked ditch at The Rhydd, Much Dewchurch

·         Inspected and raised a works order in respect of loose and broken kerbstones in Norton Avenue

·         Raised an order for grips to be cut at several locations along New Mills Farm Road, Little Dewchurch

·         Approved 2 dropped kerb applications

·         Attended the Annual Plan Members Briefing 

·         Carried out 17 NRSWA (street works) inspections.

Update from Mike (City North – Aylestone, Central, St Nicholas, and Three Elms Wards; Rural – Credenhill and Hagley Wards)

This week I have –

·         Completed the monthly Hereford City Centre safety inspection

·         Raised a number of c/way repairs to C1197 Stretton Sugwas in the vicinity of the village hall

·         Raised gully cleaning orders for drainage along the A438 by the junction with the C1197

·         Raised gully cleaning orders for drainage along the A480 from the jct with Priory Road to Stretton Sugwas roundabout

·         Raised gully cleaning orders for 5 x gullies in College Road and 3 x gullies in Penn Grove Road

·         Met with Cllr Wilcox to discuss issues in College Road and Bodenham Road

·         Raised an order for repairs to a sunken cover in Kings Acre Road c/way

·         Inspected / raised an order for repair to a damaged verge in Barrs Ct Road

·         Inspected and passed 6 x NRSWA street works jobs and 1 x failed

·         Approved 3 x vehicle dropped crossing requests

·         Inspected damaged guardrails in Barton Yard by Sainsburys

·         Spoken to a resident about an overgrown hedge obstructing the footway and the need to cut this back Credenhill

Update from Phil (Rural – Burghill, Holmer & Lyde, and Sutton Walls Wards)

• Annual Leave – 23^rd to 26^th inclusive
• 27.2.15 - working in Hereford Rural.  Drive around ward with Cllr Guthrie primarily to look at issues on Franklands corner – 30 verge marker defects raised.  Gully defect logged outside S & A produce.   Pothole defects logged C1120 X 5, Ash Close X 1,  C1125 X 2 Cat 1’s ( both to be fixed today).  I also raised 5 X gully defects on C1125 after a site meeting with a resident.

Herefordshire Council website is the one-stop-shop for up to date information

Maps for pot holes are available on the Councils website –

https://www.herefordshire.gov.uk/transport-and-highways/maintenance/potholes

We hope the above is of interest.

Kind regards

Shane, Mike & Phil.

Shane Hancock | Senior Locality Steward (Hereford – City South)

Balfour Beatty Living Places | Unit 3, Thorn Business Park | Rotherwas | Hereford | HR2 6JT

www.bblivingplaces.com

Any thoughts on Cllr Bramer picking up Roger Phillips portfolio?

Not sure if the title is right for this topic, but a place to add people who you think have put Hereford and the County on the map through their lives, careers and interests. It should be a long list - just add a name and a link for further information if you have it. I will start with John Bulmer as his photography inspired me to think about this.

They're bloody at it again. Bloody Council! They've hoovered up yet another 'interesting' area of business at the expense of something less bloody interesting that'll soon find its way into the outsourcing tray.

Well I've had enough! That's it for me. To think what the Council will do with this little slice of joy frightens the life out of me. Good bloody grief!

Well I for one ain't going to have anything to do with them and their programme that'll be sure to attract more pointless jobs, more management tiers, endless bloody meetings, and the loss of half a bloody acre of wood destroyed to create the bludgeoning bilge of paperwork that'll be flying around Plough Lane.

They can get stuffed. On principle I refuse to have anything to do with it. I'll be damned if I do.

If, for some strange reason I suddenly wake up and decide to buy a bag of 'smack' cook it up on my wife's stew spoon mixed in with me blood and I jack it directly into my loin and within days I become addicted to Heroin, I will not, under any circumstances hurtle down Plough Lane and beg Geoff bloody Hughes for a forty milligram slug of their delightful Methadone. Never! I'd sooner say to my loved ones, 'tether me to the bed, lock the door and no matter the dreadful sounds of wailing and begging you hear, do not release me.'

Yes! That's the limits of my cooperation with the Council and their Needle Exchange and Methadone Programme. I will never, ever sit in Hughes Office, listen to him preaching on telling me why it was unwise to inject this dreadful opiate into my and beg him for a quick swig from his bucket of Methadone.

I'd sooner buy it off the streets. Yes, even if I had to pay for it. I'll be damned if Geoff Hughes is given the golden opportunity to look down his nose at me as I crouch between his legs begging him to put me out of my misery and allow my senses to be dimmed by his opiate substitute.

The whole bucket of sludge is now completely out of control. Not satisfied with the many other areas of Health Care they've managed to latch onto, they've now grabbed hold of the needles and the Methadone. They've no business involving themselves in any of this and I refuse to have anything to do with them and bloody it!

I understand that advertising has it's place and helps with costs but the HT website lately looks horrendous in my opinion, I just had a look and faced this lot! What a mess... I find it difficult to differentiate between the stories and adverts, maybe it's just me but they seem to have lost their way.

Personally I can't even use a 2HB pencil and sharpening it well that's an exam in itself! There has been many a time when the mind has caught something of great amusement but the hand can only write it down rather than explode with artistic flair and creativity notching up a je suis charlie masterpiece ...funny but not worthy of a semi automatic assault rifle!

Now I'm anonymous and quite frankly thats not a bad thing however my mind has worked overtime in picturing the likes of Bobby47, Twg, Dippy 'boots' Hippy...should I go on!

So we have characters on this site and we certainly have characters in this forthcoming election so why don't we have a cartoonist to spice things up??

And the Pilot said, 'we'll be landing shortly. Thank you for flying with us. Expect a little turbulence'.

Turbulence my right nut! If that's his idea of Turbulence I want nothing else to do with him!

And so, we began our decent from the sky. The first inkling I got, sat in the back seat watching my bloody offside wing light was that this rotten light, in relation to the runway lights, clearly indicated that at no time were the wings of the Boing 747 Airbus ever in a horizontal position.

Anyway, we hit the ground like a sack of spuds, bounced no more than five times, the Pilot hit the full thrust throttle and within twenty seconds, at an angle close to ninety degrees we shot off like a Saturn Rocket to an altitude of ten thousand feet.

All the loose change from the pockets and purses came tumbling down the aisle, women began to vomit, and I for one don't blame them at all, and for the most part, most people who were still breathing howled, 'Fu.c.king Jesus'.

My tormentor, the bloody wife, had been good enough to dig her long, sharp and well manicured nails into my left wrist and seeing a complete stranger sat to my wife's left clutching her arm for some human comfort didn't bother me one single bit. More than bloody understandable as far as I was concerned!

Then the Pilot said, 'sorry about that aborted landing. The crosswinds are extremely strong. We're going to fly around, get into position and do it all again'.

Imagine the worst fairground ride you've ever been on? Now multiply that by a factor of hundreds and you'll be halfway to understanding how bad this experience was.

Anyway, down we went again. Far more quickly than I would have liked. Again, I sat there watching the wing rising up and down, hearing the muttering of The Lords Prayer and thinking to myself, 'I'm delighted to know that if we do crash, hit the ground like a bullet and begin to explode at least, at the very least, I can console myself knowing I'll have access to a tiny whistle and a flash light that'll alert my rescuers that I'm sat on the back seat'.

As before, fairly predictably in my view, we hit the ground, happily, we only bounced twice and once again the Pilot hit the full throttle and we hurtled upwards at a speed that was no slower than three hundred miles an hour.

Course this time all forms of restraint and human dignity disappeared. After a number of screams, 'we're all going to die', I decided to lighten the mood and shout, 'The Lord is always by your side', at which point my wife hit me and some chap sitting further forward than me shouted, ' get stuffed'.

By this time, speaking for myself, I now no longer could care less. I'd resigned myself to the fact that that very soon I'd be sat on the Lords knee plucking my heavenly harp.

Then the Pilot, who's voice had alarmingly risen by one full octave announced that he was going to give it one last try. Me? I'd have much preferred it if he hadn't and instead chosen to ditch us in the ocean.

Down we went again. Rattling, shaking and the rivets loosening by the second, we again hit the ground but this time we didn't bounce, we didn't hurtle upwards forcing the flesh upon my fat face to contort and we remained upon terra firma.

The ordeal was over? Not for me and not for her. After collecting our luggage we innocently wandered through Customs to be stopped by a lovely lady who represented HMRC who enquired where we'd been and were we in possession of tobacco. I told her we'd been to the Canaries, we'd purchased a few kilos of tobacco as we were entitled to do because of EU legislation.

Then she told me! Despite the fact that the Canaries are a part of a member State, namely Spain, and despite the fact that they are governed by Spain and the Euro is the currency, the Canary Islands are not in the European Union which meant that all tobacco found within my suitcase was to be confiscated. The only good news was that because of the ambiguity and the mistake is a common one made by other poor souls who'd travelled my way I wasn't going to be prosecuted.

My reaction? I swore and I swore until I could swear no more. I begged them, 'have a little pity. Show me some compassion. I've fallen out of the sky three times. Death has been my companion for the past fifty minutes. I've no tobacco in my pocket, show me some human pity and let me keep a tiny handful so that I can smoke on my way home'.

Nothing! They'd give me nothing other than a smile and a little giggle that suggested they'd thoroughly enjoyed their encounter with yet another hapless headbanger who only wanted to smoke a cigarette purchased lawfully within the European Union.

Worse! It's all my fault. The HMRC did their job and now I'm committed to driving to Belgium, lawfully purchasing my tobacco hoping that the bloody boat doesn't hit rocks, sink and I end up in a raft whistling and waving my tiny torch light in the hope that some good soul will drag me aboard and reunite me with Blighty.

Hi, 

I recently wrote this blog post about possible changes to the filming of public meetings in my neck of the woods (Wirral).

When the changes were made last year to filming of local council meetings by the Openness of Local Government Bodies Regulations 2014 , these changes also applied to Hereford too. 

As I think my local Council has interpreted the law and new regulations incorrectly I'm keen to hear of how other councils reacted to the changes to see if any have such a bizarre interpretation of the guide and regulations as Wirral Council do. 

Did the local council in Hereford agree a policy or write any guidance on this matter (if so do you have a link)? Has anyone in Hereford tried to film a public meeting of their local council without problems?

I'm keen to find out. 

Thanks in advice. 

John Brace

Herefordshire CC press release

Hereford store owner convicted of selling illicit tobacco
26-02-2015 04:00 AM GMT

Rekan Gafoor (29) from Coventry was sentenced to a community penalty of 100 hours unpaid work and ordered to pay costs of £800 on Tuesday 24 February at Hereford Magistrates’ Court.

Find it hard to understand the apparent light Sentance , and the high Costs ?

Fire crews Called to Munchies after staff at Yates smelt smoke at 2pm this afternoon. The smoke was caused by a hot plate left switched on. Lucky the quick action by the Yates staff calling the Fire Brigade prevented a major fire. 

Munchies was closed at the time and the fire crew had to brake the locks on the floor to get in with breathing apparatus.

Thanks to Yates for providing an accurate account of todays events.

The outline application for this has been submitted - the numbers have been bumped to 'up to 120'. My comments about scrapping the Folly Lane traffic lights still stand, and I hope at least two of the Tupsley Ward councillors will pick up the idea and demand it as part of the planning gain.

It's Autumn here at Hereford Voice, and it's time to launch Councillor Watch - a new thread to see if any poster can spot a comment from that most rare of species, The Blogging Councillor.

In these rural parts, a comment has not been spotted for several weeks......

A rare Conservative comment was identified over at Hereford Times last week, but sadly, in the more familiar habitat of Hereford Voice, we have not been so fortunate of late.

Regular visitors to the Hereford Voice environment include The Great Crested Chris Chapell, and The Lesser Spotted Glenda. Neither have been observed recently, leading to speculation of an early hibernation. Conserving their strength, perhaps, for the Spring Battles which take place every four years.

We need to encourage them back......please post any tasty morsels you think may tempt them back......or we may think they have become extinct!

Good news!

The council has agreed a lease with Hereford Football Club today, Tuesday 24 February 2015. The agreement and lease are subject to contract and solicitors final comment.

 

The Hereford Football Club group, led by Jon Hale has successfully negotiated the short term lease to run from March 2015.  This means that the club can be registered with the Football Association in time to ensure that Edgar Street sees football back at the ground in time for the 2015/16 season.

 

Cllr Tony Johnson, leader of Herefordshire Council said, “We are delighted to announce Hereford Football Club as the new tenants for the ground.

 

The last few months have been fraught; there has been great uncertainty over the future of the ground and I am personally extremely pleased that we have been able to put an end to that uncertainty.

 

We hope that the historic supporters of the club will welcome the news and support Hereford Football Club with the same passion and fervour as Hereford United.â€

 

Giving their reaction to this news, Jon Hale, from Hereford FC, and Chris Williams, Chairman of Herefordshire United Supporters Trust (HUST) who are the key partner in the new club, said:

 

“We are very pleased to have reached an agreement with Herefordshire Council for a short term lease to allow Hereford FC to become the new tenants at Edgar Street.

 

As a partnership we'd like to thank the local authority for its commitment to seeing football continue at this historic, much loved stadium and we look forward to building a strong relationship with our landlord as the club moves forward.†