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    Annual Parish Meeting Minutes 29th May 2014

    Colin James
    By Colin James,

    Minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting held on Thursday 29th May 2014 at Northolme Community Centre, Northolme Road, Belmont Hereford.

     

     

    Minutes of the Annual Parish Meeting - 29.05.2014 (DRAFT).pdf


    Annual Parish Council Meeting May 2014

    Colin James
    By Colin James,

    Minutes of the Annual Meeting of the Parish Council, held on Thursday 1st May 2014 at Belmont Community Centre, Eastholme Avenue, Belmont Hereford.

     

    Minutes - 1.5.2014.pdf


    PC Minutes March 2014

    Colin James
    By Colin James,

    Please find attached minutes of the meeting held on Thursday 6th March 2014 at Belmont Community Centre, Eastholme Avenue, Belmont Hereford.

     

    Minutes - 06.03.2014.pdf


    Explosives and Chemicals found at house in Colwall.

    dippyhippy
    By dippyhippy,

    Houses evacuated, and a man arrested.


    How much are Hoople really paying for the TOP FLOOR?

    Guest smartieno1
    By Guest smartieno1,

    I have information in my possession which seems to suggest that HOOPLE pay a lot less to hire the top floor;

    Q5 How much did it cost to run your department for each of these years? Can you supply me with a complete itemised breakdown of staffing costs, stationary costs, maintenance costs, sundry expenses and any other costs associated with the running of your department

    1. The department is run by Hoople Ltd with whom Herefordshire Council has a cost recovery procurement arrangement. The amount paid to Hoople for running this department, including other central departments (HR and staffing, Finance, Training, ICT) totals:

    2011/12 - £1,803k

    2012/13 - £1,753k

    2013/14 - £1,743k

    2014/15 - £1,600k

     

    Herefordshire Council does not hold any information as to how these monies are subsequently broken down by Hoople and allocated against the costs of running their departments. As such we are unable to breakdown the above figures to the itemised level of detail that you have requested.

     

    Prior to this arrangement, the department was run in house with the cost of council tax collection as follows:

     

    2008/09

    £’000

    2009/10

    £’000

    2010/11

    £’000

    Employees

    942

    909

    850

    Supplies and services

    178

    260

    169

    Building costs

    56

    85

    49

    Transport

    8

    7

    7

    Total

    1,184

    1,261

    1,075


    A New Years Resolution!

    dippyhippy
    By dippyhippy,

    Well gang, it's 2015, and elections are looming ever closer!

     

    There have been plenty of discussions over the past few years....plenty of questions asked, and some replies given.....but not always! My New Years Resolution is, to keep asking the awkward questions,to  keep reminding folks of what has been happening in this county, and to hope and pray that come May...things will change for the better!

     

    This thread is specifically to ask councillors for the answers to those sticky questions, that just didn't get a reply.....!!!

     

    For example.....

     

    When will council meetings be streamed / filmed??

     

    When will the burnt out River Island building be restored??

     

    How much does Hoople pay to use the top floor at Plough Lane??

     

    There are plenty more....but feel free to add you own, then they will all be easily accessed on the same thread!! Simples!

     

    Happy New Year to you, and let's hope the results of this years election sees a positive turn for both Herefordshire, and Britain!


    freedom of speech

    greenknight
    By greenknight,

    Massacre at French magazine office

     

    This my friends is where freedom of speech is under threat, which breeds resentment and gives the state the power to control.

     

    Irrespective of whoever becomes the government in May we must campaign for democracy over cries of nationalism,extremism and revenge. These actions by a few offend the Islamic faith which generally like Christians are a peaceful people. They must not win and we must not replicate their cowardly ways citing ill conceived religious beliefs.


    Watercress Harrys Closing

    Colin James
    By Colin James,

    This is a real shame, Watercress Harrys will be closing its doors this Saturday night for the last time by the seem of it.

     

    This is the message posted on their Facebook Page:

     

    Cress is Closing!

    Saturday the 10th will be our last trading day!!! come see us this weekend and next Thursday, Friday and Saturday for the last time!

     

    Watercress Harrys.png


    Bobblestock Stabbing Hereford

    Colin James
    By Colin James,

    Police Investigation Into Incident in Hereford

    Detectives from West Mercia Police continue their investigations at a property in Kempton Avenue, Hereford, where two women sustained serious injuires today (Tuesday 6 January).

    Paramedics and police officers were called at around 12.10pm today to a house in Kempton Avenue to a report of a woman in her 50s with serious stab wounds. She has been taken to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.

    Another woman, in her 30s, sustained what are believed to be serious injuries and has also been taken to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

    Superintendent Sue Thomas, police commander for Herefordshire said: "We continue our investigations in the house in Kempton Avenue, including searches and forensic examinations.

     

    "I would like to reassure the local community that we believe this to be an isolated incident."

     

    West Mercia Police

     

     

    Quote from HT:

     

    Summary
    • Police and emergency services were called to an address in Kempton Avenue, Bobblestock, Hereford earlier today
    • Two woman flown to hospital - woman in her 50s with life-threatening injuries, a woman in her 30s with critical injuries
    • Police forensic teams on site
    • Police confirm it is "an isolated incident".
    • The road is now open having been sealed off during this afternoon's incident

    South Wye Transport Package - Update

    Glenda Powell
    By Glenda Powell,

                                      Public Exhibition For South Wye Transport Package.

                                      Tuesday 1st to Thursday 3rd July at the Three Counties Hotel.

                                                             12 noon to 8pm every day.

     

                                     'Everyone will be given an opportunity to voice "their" opinion on outcomes

                                                                   and initial stages of the project.

     

                                                                           "HAVE YOUR SAY"

     

                                                    Meet: Glenda Vaughan-Powell: Independent Cllr

                                                ... always willing to listen to 'Your' views & opinions....

     

                                                    . Tuesday 1st July  - 12.30pm and 5pm

                                                    . Wednesday 2nd July - 2pm and 4pm

                                                    . Thursday 3rd July - 3pm and 6pm.

                     

                                               ... or telephone Cllr Vaughan-Powell on 01432 360456.

     

     


    Don't let Tommy Agomba nail your head to a door.

    bobby47
    By bobby47,

    When it comes to being critical of Tommy Agomba and all the lads from the East End, I'd advise all United supporters to tread carefully.

    These lads, from Ham, Bow, Plaistow and Stepney are tough lads. Tough! They ain't your mamby pamby, pen pushing jotter blotters who, if you fall out with them they may punch you in the gob. Not these lads. More than likely they'll nail your head to a door.

    That's what they do in the East End. It's common practice. Fall out with someone and you get your head nailed to a door. Often you can cruise around the East End and you'll see them. Staggering back home with a door nailed to their head. They'll say, 'I've no time for small talk. Out of my way. I've a door nailed to my head'.

    In the East End, it's Blags, Jags and a Million Fags and if you step out of line arguing about the price of a kilo of Clams or Jellied Eels you'll probably get your head nailed to a door. That's the way of things in that manor. 'Stop your wriggling', they shout, 'be still while we nail your head to this light oak door'.

    Course, having your head nailed to a door can't be nice. I wouldn't want it. Who would? You'd be an odd sort if you wanted your head nailed to a door. I've researched this practice and not one person has said, 'I've had my head nailed to a door and frankly it's the best thing that's ever happened to me'.

    More often than not, they all say, 'what a dreadful experience. If I'd known then what I know now I'd have never allowed my head to be nailed to a door thank you all very much'.

    Mind, I'm not suggesting that you should run for cover if you see Tommy or one of the lads wandering around High Town carrying a door and a carpentry kit. They're probably carrying out a bit if work on the side and they've no intention of affixing your head to the door. But, if you've been vocal and you've complained that Tommy and the lads have buggered it all up and they know who you are, my advice is to shout, 'Tommy, the Police in these parts have a zero tolerance attitude toward heads getting nailed to doors', run away and when your happy he and they can't possibly catch you to carry out their crude carpentry work, stop, shout, 'Tommy you are a rotter and a stinker' and then continue your journey home.

    Mind, the lads don't scare me. Never have and never will. If I get a tap, tap, tap on my window and I discover that Agombar and the lads are outside holding a door, a nail and a two pound lump hammer, I'm calling the Constable. I'll be damned if I sit back and allow these East End lads to nail my head to a door.

    My message to Tommy and the lads is this. This is Hereford and around these parts we do not acquire wooden doors and nail heads to them. That'll make them think twice before they introduce their cultural ways to our fair City.

    In fact, the more I think about it, the angrier I'm getting. How dare they tip up here and think that we are happy to have our heads nailed to doors or any other piece of wooden furniture.


    Hereford Drunks' 'Recovery Centre' To Open

    Roger
    By Roger,

    Built_as_the_city_gaol,_Gaol_Street_-_ge

     

    Location: Converted old 'Youth Court'

     

    Opening: About Saturday 13 December 2014

     

    Hours: 22.00 - 04.00

     

    Facilities: Assessment area/recovery space/supervised sleep-off room (and hopefully a toilet)

     

    Staff: Unclear on qualifications/levels but believed to involve 'street pastors'

     

    Hereford Times


    Hereford United vs Newcastle BBC2 NOW!

    Colin James
    By Colin James,

    If you want to watch that classic game between Hereford United vs Newcastle it's on BBC2 NOW!


    Hereford United! The pain ain't finished yet.

    bobby47
    By bobby47,

    And here we are! Our football club, Hereford United is gone and no matter what many say or even wish for, this 'old girl' ain't for returning anytime soon. Burdened by poor management, catastrophic decisions, bile and phlegm heaped upon all those who've played a part in its downfall, division amongst the supporters and a tragic tale of plotters and schemers desperate to lay their hands upon the promise of becoming wealthy once the leases were exploited, it's all gone. Done, dusted and now confined to the dusty shelves of football history and any further debate as to why, when, by whom and for what reasons is now a pointless excercise in futility. It's as pointless as some of the stuff I shovel out upon these pages and now is the time to look to the future.

    And what of this future? Well, the new name looks like it'll be Hereford Football Club, where they play is highly uncertain and given that the Council must provide good value for money to the ratepayers, Id say that it's looking unlikely that Edgar Street will be its new home. The likely outcome will be that the Council will deliver up the leases to property developers who'll create social housing, commercial development associated with the plans to create a University and a patch of grass that'll allow some football to take place together with some other sporting activities.

    Wherever the new Hereford Football Club play and no matter which division they manage to compete in there will be consequences and these consequences are not happy and sweet for the local amateur football community. For the likes of Westfields, Pegasus and Wellington they'll quickly realise that competing against Hereford Football Club, particularly if this Phoenix Club are playing at a similar level, ain't going to be a bag of sweet smelling roses. They'll be badly affected with the emergence of this new team.

    These hitherto, we'll run local amateur teams will suddenly find that they are competing against an amateur giant. Yes! Giant ain't to stronger word to describe this new team. Supported by several hundred die hard supporters who's ten pound yearly subscriptions will ensure that money is not the immediate problem, they'll wipe the floor with all who stand before them.

    Suddenly, the likes of Westfields and Pegasus will feel the strain. The local Well of players they've traditional gone to, to pick up good amateur players, will be being fished by Hereford Football Club and those kids who've got the golden opportunity to play for the mighty Hereford Football Club, play in front of perhaps a thousand fans and get more money in their back pockets are going to refuse the invitation from Westields and Pegasus and grasp the chance to be associated with the new local amateur giant.

    Course, both Westfields and Pegasus will suddenly arrive at a crossroads of destiny. Do they compete with the new giant and raise the pay or do they simply sit back and watch.

    What happens if Westfields and Pegasus make the decision to try and compete? Do they flourish and prosper or do they get themselves into financial difficulty, fold and end up playing in the lower reaches of the Herefordshire County leagues.

    One things for certain, the new birth of this new giant is going to impact upon local football and it ain't going to be good for them. The only thing that I can see is unhappiness and the full impact of the death of Hereford United has yet to be fully appreciated by the local football community of Herefordshire.


    A nice story to start Christmas

    Ubique
    By Ubique,

    Some Posters might know that Mrs U looks after hedgehogs over the winter months ready to release after hibernation in 2015 .

     

    Last night at about 5pm she received a tele call from a man who had found a very small hedgehog near to the hospital , He was asking if Mrs U has room for it - she of course had room ! He then went onto say that he didn't have transport but was hoping that his neighbour could deliver it to us . ( I was out ) at 7.15 pm door bell rang , it was a Taxi ( driver ) who had been hired to deliver this hedgehog to Mrs U because neighbour was working late . The finder of the little hedgehog had paid the Taxi driver £15 to deliver it to Mrs U , some 4 miles from the City .

    Of course some might say that it was a waste of money which could have been spent more beneficial but hopefully others would say that this was a very kind act by somebody who could have crossed the road and ignored this little hogs plight.


    The 13 worst Christmas Trees in Britain. How does Hereford compare?

    WirralPC
    By WirralPC,

    "The 13 Worst Christmas Trees in Britain"

     

     

     

    http://www.wirralglobe.co.uk/news/11678629.Liscard_s_Christmas_tree_among__worst__in_Britain/?action=success#comments

     

     

    Liscard's Christmas tree among 'worst' in Britain

    LISCARD'S Christmas tree has made it onto a list of the worst Christmas trees in Britain.

    The town's festive display was given a spruce-up earlier this month after residents set up a Facebook page complaining about the "depressing" tree.

    The page, called Liscard Christmas Lights, showed the solitary tree - donated by nearby Primark - surrounded by a metal fence, secured in concrete blocks.

    A post on Facebook said: â€œWe know we are not Liverpool or Birkenhead, but as a community and customers of all the local shops in Liscard all year round we deserve better from Wirral council and the businesses.â€

    While the tree is now adorned with a set of colourful new lights, complemented with decorated lampposts - following £9,500 funding from Wallasey constituency committee - the display has still made it onto BuzzFeed's list of "The 13 Worst Christmas Trees in Britain".

    Coming in seventh place, BuzzFeed's new reporter Patrick Smith writes: "It now has some fancy lights but the festive health-and-safety fence remains."

    3442173.jpg?type=article-full

    While Liscard may not have the most glamorous festive display, BuzzFeed shows that is by no means the worst with Haddenham in Cambridgeshire, Streatham, north Oxford, Oakham, Mottram and Mier in Stoke-On-Trent all considered "worse".


    Outsourcing of council services

    megilleland
    By megilleland,
    Interesting article in The Guardian today confirming how bad things will get - sounds familiar in Herefordshire. The local authorities are just conduits for passing taxes, monies and grants to private companies, partnerships and unelected bodies such as The Marches Local Enterprise Partnership.

     
    The gutting of Barnet council means even births, deaths and marriages are managed elsewhere. Your town hall may be next.
     
    Ignore the economists quibbling whether public spending is returning to the era of George Orwell. If you want to see the future of your local public services, it’s already here: in the north London suburb of Barnet. I visited last week – and it’s not pretty.
     
    Not that there’s anything wrong with the area. I’ve known Barnet forever; it has provided me with countless walks, and the odd Saturday job. It remains the home of Jewish grandmothers holding forth on both Keynesianism and why you haven’t finished your supper, and second-hand record shops run by greying Don Quixotes.
     
    But what’s fast changing in Barnet is how residents access their local services – everything from parking tickets to paying council tax to how their corpses are disposed of. In the past few years, the Tory-run council has taken almost every public service it can lay its hands on – and outsourced it.
     
    Between January 2012 and October 2013, Barnet farmed out its care for people with disabilities, legal services, cemeteries and crematoriums, IT, finance, HR, planning and regeneration, trading standards and licensing, management of council housing, environmental health, procurement, parking, and the highways department.
     
    This evening, a full council meeting will vote on whether to consider cuts and “alternative delivery models†for another tranche of services, including libraries, rubbish collection, street gritters and children’s speech therapy, among others. Should they go the way of the rest and be outsourced, the local Unison branch calculates that Barnet council will shrink from having 3,200 staff in September 2012 to just 332.
     
    That is one hell of a municipal disappearing act. Residents now find it easier to list what their council doesn’t directly provide than what it does. Which means that if you want to see what the next five years of cuts hold for your local services – whether David Cameron or Ed Miliband get in will make little odds for town halls – you’d best pay close attention to what Barnet is doing.
     
    And a tour of the neighbourhood teaches you that when cuts reach a certain magnitude, it’s not just services you lose; it’s an entire democratic institution. Residents can show you lots of missing services: the borough is right now consulting on plans to squeeze the vast majority of libraries to around 540 sq ft, or the size of a Hampstead Garden Suburb living room.
     
    But the really big change is that the new-model commissioning council is no longer a local arm of government but an agglomeration of mostly privately provided services. And the two biggest contracts, worth around £500m and lasting 10 years apiece, have gone to Capita. The £7bn FTSE 100 giant now handles everything from council tax collection to new roads.
     
    For those who live and work in Barnet, their local affairs are now handled remotely by people hundreds of miles away, who know nothing about them or the area. Payroll for what remains of council staff is done in Belfast, while for schools it’s Carlisle. Pension queries go to Darlington. Benefits end up in Blackburn. Parking notices come from Croydon. Calls to the local library are first directed to Coventry. Even births, deaths and marriages are managed in Brent.
     
    Got a complaint? Then you have speak to someone you’ll never see – that is, if you can speak to them at all. Capita has admitted previously “capping†phone calls: throwing callers off the line when things get too busy. So rather than rely on their local institutions, residents increasingly depend on their councillors to intercede.
     
    A Labour councillor, Paul Edwards, has just finished a case for a woman who wanted to pay for a bench to be installed on a local hill in her parents’ name: what should have been an easy bequest ran aground on the confusion of a call centre employee who knew nothing about either the hill or how to handle such gifts. Edwards also recalls the sick woman whose council tax arrears had been overestimated by thousands – but whose outsourced case worker wasn’t interested in discussing the issue. It went to court, and the woman won, at a huge cost both to her own mental health and the council.
     
    This is what happens when you lose locally accountable public servants. It’s also the cost of losing local expertise. Take the legal department, now run out of Harrow. The result was that in early summer, Barnet councillors were given the wrong reports to vote on. The resulting mockery led to the commissioning of an independent report that stated on its first page: “There is no one who understands local government law in depth at Barnet. Barnet employs no lawyers.â€
     
    Yet, however broken their new structures, Barnet residents are stuck with them. Those two Capita deals, for instance, will carry on for at least the next decade, with many of their details shrouded in “commercial sensitivityâ€. Whoever locals vote for in the next two council elections, they will get Capita. And given that the local authority is now shedding its own staff, winding down its own IT systems and moving out of its offices, it’s hard to see how any new administration could take back control even if it wanted to.
     
    The rationale for all this outsourcing is to save money – a million pounds a month, claims council leader Richard Cornelius. He rightly points out that lots of other authorities are now following Barnet’s lead: just last month, Tory-run Northamptonshire declared it would outsource 95% of its work and go down to a skeleton staff.
     
    So, a case of cutting coats according to cloth? Two snags with that argument. First, the outsourcing proposals were first floated by local Tories even before Lehman Brothers collapsed and Britain’s crisis began. Second, these deals are always touted as saving money, and they rarely do.
     
    Dexter Whitfield, an economist, points to Sefton, in Merseyside, which launched an outsourcing deal with Capita in 2008. It was meant to deliver £70m savings and 100 new jobs. When neither unicorn materialised, the contract was transferred back to the council last year.
     
    Meanwhile, the costs of the outsourcing are already being felt by the likes of Tony and Janet Solomons. Their son, Benjy, has severe learning disabilities and can neither walk nor talk. He attends a local day centre, where he gets close personal attention from “excellent, remarkable†staff. But the service was outsourced a couple of years ago, with some fantasy business model.
     
    When it promptly collapsed, careworkers were hit with a near-10% pay cut. Employees I spoke to reported “morale on the floorâ€; one former care assistant admitted to taking on two more jobs to make up the shortfall. As the Solomons point out, such cuts in service, and employees under stress, are bound to affect Benjy’s level of care.
     
    “How will a new agency worker understand his routines, or when he wants to go to the toilet?†asks Janet. Yet Benjy can’t report back, and his parents will never know for sure what’s happened. Unknowable, unaccountable and potentially costly: a stark metaphor for Barnet’s outsourcing regime.
     
    I also read that yesterday that Scotland Yard commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe is driving an idea to reduce more than 30 forces in England and Wales, to create nine super-forces, based on the regional boundaries. I imagine these will be riot poice.
     
    The police are showing interest in those attending public meetings as here at Canterbury Christ Church University.

    Bill Norman ruined the Nativity

    bobby47
    By bobby47,

    The Christmas Nativity didn't go well down the Commercial today. Oh, it started off well enough. Me and the lads supped a dozen pints, sang a few Carols and said our Lords Prayer, but once me and the cast got into our positions for the traditional Nativity scene, it quickly descended into chaos.

    Firstly, I said to the lads, 'lads thank you for nominating me to play Jesus for the second year running. Now, before I climb up into this Manger, wrapped in these nicely bound swaddling clothes and start snuggling up to Nora who's playing me Mother Mary, I want to make it clear that I'll be damned if Nora breast feeds me again this year.' I told the lads, 'lads, I dont want to be breast fed again, Nora is eighty and she cannot possibly lactate and whilst she and I fully appreciate your artistic direction, we've both agreed not to do the breast feeding scene'.

    Course, the lads weren't happy. The Shepherds, the three bloody wise men and the Angel Gabriel were just about to kick off when all of a sudden there came a hollering and a yelling, 'I'm King Herod and Im here to kill the first born'. Course, cognisant that we didn't have a bloody Herod in the cast, I raised me fat face from beneath Nora's busums and yelled, 'who comes yelling something about killing the first born, or in this case, bloody me laid here in this Manger?'

    And who was it? Bloody Bill Norman that's who. I said, 'clear off Bill. This is the Commercial Nativity Play and nobody cast you as King rotten Herod. Be gone. Get back to Plough Lane and join your own Nativity celebrations thank you very much.'


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