I'll be damned if I ever set foot inside that salty hulk of a new shopping development. Never! I'd sooner give up ale, quit smoking and stop nibbling upon pork rind than ever tippy toe inside that place and part with a single penny piece.

Never! Ever! They can dispatch a team of highly trained negotiators to my threshold demanding that I come outside, stagger down to this monument to stupidity and simply have a look around. I'll tell them, 'clear off. Be gone. Go bother some other fool. I'm watching Whitecross Housewives on me web cam and I ain't leaving'.

They can threaten me with a thrice yearly bin collection and it'll have no impact upon me. They can lock me in cupboard with Aylestone Voice and despite the hardship of it all, when they open the door after a week and say, 'times up', I'll beg them for another fortnight rather than accompany my wife into that shopping centre.

And as for her, my wife of forty years, she was waving her ten pound Debenhams Gift Voucher in my fat face last night and I told her what Im telling you. 'We ain't bloody going'. It'll take more than ten quid off your next pair of knickers to get me within a stones throw of that bloody place.'

Quite simply, I ain't going and anyone who does attend thinks very differently to me. Im a High Town Man. I've always been a High Town man and I'll always will be a High Town man. Even when all the shops in High Town are closed and there's clearly not a hope in hell of purchasing any food from our once beautiful town centre, still, even then, when there's nobody to trade with me, still I'll be a High Town Man.

I'll starve before I ever visit that monstrous place. Never!

The police are failing to record more than 700,000 offences - including cases of rape and serious sexual offences - according to the first official inquiry into crime reporting.

An inspection of 13 forces found 14 rapes were among offences not recorded by officers, including an allegation made by a 13-year-old autistic boy which was written off as "sexual experimentation".

Another rape was not recorded due to "workload pressure" as recording the crime would "entail too much work", the report by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) has found.

The police watchdog also found some offenders have been issued with out-of-court disposals, such as cautions, when they should have been prosecuted.

Inspectors said they could not rule out "discreditable or unethical behaviour" on the part of officers for the failure rate. The Home Secretary Theresa May said the report exposed "unacceptable failings by the police" and warned that once HMIC concludes its work in October, official figures may show a spike in police recorded crime.

Channel 4 News

Seems we have found out why the crime figures are down! 

Jury has been deliberating for over a day now .... 

Banksy style stuff has appeared as he's in the news ...

If he gets cleared then he has been ridiculed and financially penalised ... So he is on a loser straight away! 

System is strange! 

The salty hulk (partly) opens tomorrow - on the Councils website they say 'We expect around 15,000 to 20,000 visitors to Old Market on 1 May. For those planning to travel inside the city, walking and cycling is recommended.' Oh dear lord, the traffic will be stationery for a 10 mile radius. At say 2 to a car,  that’s up to 10,000 cars - the council, in a masterly understatement to avoid widespread panic, say 'with large visitor numbers anticipated, car parks on the Old Market site may become full.' For once, they may be right. Never mind the jambs, count the money from the car parks … 

I work on the first floor of an office in Bridge Street. Heard a large crash at 4pm today and looked out of my office window. A guy had run over the brand new road sign at the top of Bridge Street.

How could he possibly do that?

Well, he pulled up right outside Bill Jackson estate agents, got out of his car and it was quite apparent he was drunk as he was struggling to stand. He staggered across the car to the sign and picked up the items which had fallen off his car from the crash.

Quite a few people came out of the offices near the top of Bridge Street, but even though it was OBVIOUS he was drunk, nobody stopped him pulling off and driving down St Nicholas Street!

Obviously I reported it to the police straight away, so I hope they caught him before he had another crash or hit any pedestrians!

My colleague took a photo of the car and emailed to West Mercia police. I hope the police van I heard coming past a few minutes later went straight to his home address and arrested him!

Recently the Hereford Times were asking for nominations for a local Hero. Someone who does great things, inspires all those around them and is undoubtedly a local treasure.

Obviously I tick all the boxes but I'll be damned if I accept the nomination from my good friend Ubique who understandably put forward my name to receive this accolade.

No, the person I have in mind is a truly wonderful lady. An inspiration to all those who come into contact with her and someone who provides everything to her pupils, her staff and the parents and Carers of the children who attend Blackmarston Special Needs School.

The person who I tip my hat to is the Headteacher at the School Mrs Sian Bailey who is quite simply a remarkable person who's driven to give her all for the little ones in her care. This is one 'mighty' individual who, whenever Im in her company, Im very aware that Im in the presence of greatness and its this lady and all her staff who are my hero's.

To her, all that matters is the children and the education they receive. Everything else is of little consequence to Sian Bailey. This young woman is a long way from retirement but when her time comes to go, put her feet up and reflect upon her life and her achievements she'll have thousands of people forever grateful for all the things that she has done.

What a woman! What a teacher and what a hero to the people of our City.

Michael Owen has just tweeted his congratulations to Hereford United for staying up, nice touch.

Hi everyone,

I'm a newbie and I wanted to open a new topic to ask if anyone has experienced rumbling\vibration noise from Tescos store?

I live in Belmont, just down the road from Tescos store. Our family has been suffering from lack of sleep due to a constant low rumbling\vibration noise (like a car engine - as if its parked outside with the engine running).

We have traced it to Tescos store and we have logged complaints with the store, but they have failed to respond or do anything about the noise. So we had no choice but to report it to the Environment Agency. We are maintaining a log of times of the noise and rating it between levels 1 (not too bad) through to 5 (to very loud). We will have to fill in and send the report by the end of the month.
It has been going on since August this year and we have since found out that Tescos had their freezers\air con upgraded a that time. We have also noticed two metal looking extractor type funnels near the back of the store on the side of the delivery bay. The Environment Agency have implied that Tesco's haven't had planning permission to install these, though were not 100% sure that is true.
The noise is driving us mad and its made worse at night as the rumble vibrates through the bed! We have had endless cups of teas at 4am in the morning where we have no choice but to get up as we cant sleep for the noise and vibration. From our time log it starts any-time from 9pm through to 11am the next day.
I just wondered if anyone else is experiencing this noise? Have you complained to Tesco's or the Environment Agency? Could you let me know please?

Thanks for taking the time to read my post,
Take care,

Newbie cv5

Where did your Heart go? My debut novel has been chosen as one of the ground breaking novels to participate in a new revolutionary imprint Britain’s Next Bestseller. Britain’s Next Bestseller has a simple mission – to shake up the way the publishing industry works. “We want to give authors a new, fairer way to get published without relying on literary agents, traditional publishers or selfâ€publishing houses. We want to empower readers so they can decide the books that get published. The books they want to read! Readers get a great deal too… search out and support my novel Where did your Heart go? And get your name printed in every edition of the book, along with a copy of the book 2 weeks before public release.†If there are any book shops in the area who would be interested in a larger order then I am able to offer discounts and also be available for a free book signing session too.

Where did your Heart go? Is the first book in the Heart Trilogy? It is a nostalgic, bittersweet novel about 1st love. The main character Stephanie first falls in love with James back in 1988. She is currently a single mum to her daughter Charlotte in 2012. We see 1988 in diary entries which Stephanie shares with her daughter as she struggles to cope with the failure of her first relationship. At the same time Stephanie relives those feelings and emotions that she has always struggled to forget and wonder if she will ever find the courage to love again? As Charlotte falls in love with dancer Mitchell a strange twist will help the two of them remove the haunted look from Stephanie’s eyes.

My novel is set in Herefordshire and I'm appealing to all those in the local area to get behind me in having the chance to become a published author and at the same time give some much needed publicity to the local area. Also if I'm lucky enough to reach the target of 250 pre-orders I will receive some free copies of the book which I will be donating to the Library Service in Herefordshire.

To read a excerpt of the novel and to pre-order your copy visit www.britainsnextbestseller.co.uk To pre-order you need to join the site but if you have any problems with this then please get back to me. Also no money will be taken until the end of the promotion period and if you allow your name to be seen on the supporters list I am also happy to refund you the p&p costs saving you £2.50!! You can keep in touch with me via my website www.audrinalane.co.uk or on Twitter and Facebook.

If there are any other local authors or budding authors out there then I would be more than happy to offer friendship, help and support too. I'm currently working on the sequel called Un-break my Heart.

Not sure where else this issue fits - it has hints of several others in Hereford.

There is a building in Ross now called the Ryefield Centre - half of it is used by the Children's Centre (although the council has never seen fit to put any signposts up to let anyone know it's there).  The other half is rooms that are rented by community groups for lots of purposes.  The building is an attractive old school building.  The old playing fields have been developed for housing and the Larrurpez Centre.

There was consternation a few weeks ago when the weekly Luncheon club, to which isolated and lonely elderly people are brought for a meal and company - run largely by volunteers, were told they would have to stop using the premises.  So far, so very Herefordshire Council.  The Ross Town brass band which enlivens many community events rehearses there and stores instruments etc is also being kicked out.  I assume there are others likewise affected.

One of the local councillors (The Lib Dem Cllr Bartrum) has written to the Ross Gazette that he has been able to find out that there is a possible new future tenant and the Council is kicking (my words) existing tenants out to make way.  He doesn't say if he knows who the new tenant might be. 

My suspicion is that the Council would like to declare those premises as `surplus to requirements' (i.e. surplus to council requirements rather than surplus to community requirements) and this is part of the process of being able to do so.  It may or may not be connected to another Free School proposed for the area looking for possible premises - a Montessori school, - is the council again kowtowing to central conservative government at the expense of local interests?   If that is the case it is scandalous to tell these groups that they must leave well in advance of any government approval for the free school.  If it isn't the free school,  then why be so secretive - is it just the Bramer/Hughes way of doing things?

Interesting in the Harry Bramer thread that he is a former director of Age Concern in Ross - I wonder how he would justify kicking out elderly and vulnerable people from their luncheon club in order to free up an `asset'.

Or so I hear - the power was out all down Edgar Street last night.

Just want you want on a Friday night

The dates have been announced for the opening of the Odeon Multiplex Cinema in Hereford as May 22nd.

Man Charged With Burglary At Knifepoint, Ross-on-Wye

A man has been charged with a burglary in Ross-on-Wye, where a vulnerable pensioner was confronted by an intruder with a knife, as well as a second burglary in Gloucestershire.

The burglary happened at about 2.30am on Tuesday 15 April in Three Crosses Road.

The victim was asleep downstairs when he was confronted by a burglar armed with a knife and demanding money. He handed over around £60 in cash.

Gareth Robins, aged 35 of Wall House Road, Ross, was arrested and charged on Saturday (19 April) with aggravated burglary.

He was also charged with a burglary in Newent, where a house in West View was broken into on Wednesday (16 April) and electrical items, cash and a wristwatch were among items stolen.

He appeared at Worcester Magistrates’ Court yesterday where he was bailed to appear at Worcester Crown Court on 11 August.

 

Issued:  Tuesday 22 April 2014

 

West Mercia Press Release

At face value this character sounds lucky to have got bail ... 

• Tweak your bike at the Volly Repair Café (from the 30th of January) and get riding in 2014â€.

Repair Cafe 6 to 8pm Thursday 30 January 2014.

Volunteer Inn Harold Street

Every one welcome!  

Bikes and clothing etc.

Last Thursday every month. Also veggie sale!

Litter pick Saturday 1 February 2014 - 2.30 pm 

Meet at meadow end of Green Street.    

Spend an hour on Castle Green and around the Greenway route with your neighbours.

This time it is the council, not the hospital.

Front page story in the printed copy of the Guardian, today, Easter Monday, and in this link to the on line version.  

The story is about large sums provided by central government to councils to help those in dire straits due to welfare changes or problems.  I think Tony Johnson's view is that they aren't all that poor and he should be able to use the money for other things.

Conservative-run Herefordshire had county council spent less than £5,000 of its annual £377,000 allocation by the end of December last year, equivalent to 1% of its local welfare budget.It said its spending reflected low demand for crisis help, a claim disputed by Hereford Citizens Advice and Hereford food bank, which said they had been inundated with requests.

They will, of course, claim they are prioritising safeguarding the vulnerable and the money is better used for that - a claim which is being used again and again to cover up incompetence elsewhere.  And a claim that is not borne out by some of their actions.

So,  what happened to the rest of the money?   Was there any member questioning or scrutiny of any decision to divert the money elsewhere?  What data was used to justify it?

Liz Hurley has thanked her legion of Twitter fans for rodent-killing advice after declaring war on mice at her home.

The Austin Powers star - who owns a £6 million home in Herefordshire and a pad in London - told her Twitter fans how she shrieked in horror after a mouse ran out from under the sofa.

She tweeted: "Mayhem. A mouse just shot out from behind the sofa.

"Screaming women (me loudest) and children.

"My mum on her way round with her two killer cats. I'm having a stiff drink."

She later told her 455,000 Twitter followers: "Operation Vermin started early this morning. On my hands and knees looking for evidence."

 

 

Western Daily Press article 

It's all cracked off in the Ledbury area! 

Dear all comers...

I offer to help support families as a free, independent advocate and whilst performing these duties, I have had reason to help a family who were housed at 5 Broxash Drive.

Whilst helping this family I discovered that this ex-Council flat, that was given to Herefordshire Housing for free is now being rented to homeless families for £832 p/m or £167 per week....plus a charge of £25 p/w for utilities.  If this was not bad enough these tenants have on the spot inspections and can do nothing to make the flat feel homely as they are not allowed to carpet, decorate or hang pictures

I have tried to get Herefordshire Housing to come clean about the rent and why it is so expensive but they are refusing to talk and have rebutted my attempts to obtain information via the Environmental Regulations....so I have now made another FOI request to Herefordshire Council at a cost of £300 to the local tax-payer, as they too refuse to give up information freely.

I am aware that Herefordshire Housing can legally charge a £60 fee per flat of other temporary accomodation and I believe they are using these properties to create an unlawful revenue stream of £550,000 plus per year...but is it morally right to charge the most vulnerable a £60 a week management fee?
 

Anyone living in these properties will not be able to work as the rent is un-affordable and there is no help other than the basic housing benefit for those families who do want to work and Housing Benefit will only cover the full amount if your out of work and I think this is both morally and criminally wrong...what do you think?

I wonder if any of our esteemed Councilors would look into this matter and determine exactly what is going on with HC and HHL which is after all supposed to be a CHARITY whose aim is to help house the most vulnerable in society at a rate that is affordable to all.