Communities urged to make full use of their rights and join over 800 groups now working on neighbourhood plans.

 

Department for Communities and Local Government

Published 28 November 2013

 

Communities were urged to make full use of their rights and join the hundreds of groups now working up plans that will set out the future vision for their neighbourhood, Planning Minister Nick Boles said today (28 November 2013).

 

A new landmark has been reached with more than 800 communities now working on getting a neighbourhood plan in place.

 

Neighbourhood planning is one of the new community rights introduced by government to give people more say over their area and puts communities in charge of setting out the homes, shops and amenities they want in their neighbourhood.

 

Neighbourhood planning is also beginning to take off in our cities. Places such as Holbeck and Beeston in Leeds, Spring Boroughs and the Blackthorn and Goldings estate in Northampton, Inner East Preston, Somers Town near Kings Cross and a number of communities across Bristol are all making progress towards neighbourhood plans that will help revitalize these areas.

 

Neighbourhood planning ends the planning resentment that stops the homes, businesses and facilities people want being built by replacing top down regional planning.

 

It gives communities a new role and strong voice in local planning with the plans having a real statutory weight in the planning system.

 

In addition to deciding the future of their area, local people will benefit from development in their area, especially if they have a plan. Areas with a neighbourhood plan will receive 25% of community infrastructure levy revenues to spend on projects important to them. There is no upper limit to how much they will receive, as opposed to areas without a plan, who will receive 15%, with a cap.

From Hereford Times website:

10:38pm Friday 14th February 2014 in News

 

Hereford Times: A girl was in collision with a car in Belmont Road, Hereford, tonight.

 

A girl was in collision with a car in Belmont Road, Hereford, tonight. The girl sustained a head injury following the accident that happened in Belmont Road, near Tesco, at 7.20pm.

 

She was treated at the scene before being taken to Hereford County Hospital. It is understood that the road is still closed between Tesco and Goodrich Grove as police investigate the scene.

 

Witnesses can call police on 101.

Came back from the city centre last night at 10.15pm and the police were still there. The road is very busy at this junction and with McDonalds on the opposite side of the road to the estate lots of youngsters cross this road daily and risk their lives even though there is a light controlled crossing at the Oval further up Belmont Road. Hope the girl recovers from her injury.

Nobody appears to have given a date for the Belmont Ward, Hereford City Council election on this website. The date is Thursday 13th February 2014. The polling station is at Belmont Community Centre, next to the Library. Polling hours are from 7am to 10pm. Don't forget to vote.

The statement of persons nominated can be seen here:
https://www.herefordshire.gov.uk/media/7615203/spn_hereford_belmont.pdf

Hello,

Having had my questions about the damage being caused by the new free school deleted by the HT I can no longer log on there.  No message of explanation, so I have either offended the HT or Geoff Hughes.

So please can I join Biomech on the Naughty Step here?

Thanks

As the vortex was given away to developers does this mean another car park  put in the wrong place that is what happened at Newton farm waterfield road part of an arrangement that was done by the developers do you see a pattern emerging ?

So if HUFC are going under - completely this time - what happens to the football ground and that god awful carpark?

This could pave the way for and OLM extention right, or more houses/flats.

Another thought is that if HUFC is gone, you've just lost any revenue from visiting and local fans who would - likely - spend some time in the OLM before/after the games

Hello all,

I'd like to bring to your attention the charity I have started in my daughters memory.

She sadly passed away in November.
She was born 11 weeks early and spent most of her life in hospital, however did come home as a healthy, albeit tiny little girl.

When she passed away, it caused untold devastation, but I couldn't let her death be for 'nothing'. Something positive had to come from our heartache, and as such Indie's Gift was created.
 

The 17th October 2013, was the happiest day of our lives, Indie was able to come home. Weighing in at a tiny 4lbs, but perfect in every way.

Coming home was incredibly special, not only because we had a healthy, beautiful daughter but we have 2 other children, whose life had also been turned upside down by Indie's sudden arrival. It meant our life could resume some normality; I would be able to spend time with all my children, rather than split between SCBU and home.

The following weeks were full of doctor’s appointments, hospital visits, health visitor appointments etc, but everything went well. Indie was gaining weight, albeit slowly, she was getting there.

On the 22nd November 2013, our lives were to change forever.

Our perfect little girl passed away at 3:50am.

As a mum, this makes me feel cheated.
Cheated because we did all the 'hard work'. The minutes, hours, days, weeks sat by the incubator praying she would make it through, Indie proving what stern stuff she was made of by making the 'perfect' recovery, for her to stolen away from us when she was just settling into our family.

Personally, I've had every range of emotion for a human to possibly feel.
Anger, desperation, sadness, helplessness, sorrow, devastation to name but a few, but as the days turned into weeks since Indie passed, the overwhelming feeling I had was one of gratitude. Grateful that I got those precious 11 weeks with my daughter.
 

Without the support of doctors and nurses at all 3 hospitals that we resided in, we would not have had those 11 weeks and I felt compelled to do something, anything to be able to pay back what they gave us. Nothing will ever be enough for these unsung saints in the hospital SCBU/NICU departments, but if we could just do something to help. After a few days of thinking, Indie's Gift was born.

Our aim is to provide ClothPacks and NeoPacks to the SCBU/NICU in order to help ease a tiny portion of the stress facing parents of children who start life in SCBU.

Our ClothPacks will contain:
1 Vest

1 Sleepsuit/Babygro
1 Hat

1 Set of Mittens
& 1 Blanket

These items are NOT provided for babies on the NHS. These items are sometimes available in SCBUs from donations they receive from other parents; our aim is to have a pack available for every baby that enters the SCBU.

We also aim to provide a NeoPack for parents of SCBU babies, this will contain:

Shower Gel

Shampoo

Face cloth

Tooth brush

Toothpaste

Hot Chocolate

Cereal Bar

Notepad & Pen Information and Support Sheets

These items may seem small or even trivial, but when you’re thrown into a situation that you have no control over, the last thing on your mind is to sort these little essential items out. To be able to have a wash and brush your teeth is simply the best feeling - from someone who has personally been in the situation, it really is!

Hereford County SCBU will be the first to benefit from our charity.
 

I am a mum on a mission, to help other parents and babies that find themselves in the same position as I did, and hopefully be able to support them with the essentials, as well as an email advice/support service.

I started this alone, and do everything for this entirely by myself. I am hoping to gather more support for Indie's Gift, ultimately our aim for 2014 is to raise the £5,000 needed to apply to become a registered charity.

If you have any of the items on the list that you would like to donate, I would be ever so grateful. I would also welcome any fundraising idea's you may have!
I have no experience in working within/running a charity, so please bare with me as I'm learning as I go!

Our website is: www.indiesgift.co.uk - There is a gallery and also an 'About Us' section which has a more detailed story; maybe have some tissue handy? and our Facebook page is www.facebook.com/indiesgift

Thank you for taking the time to read this and I look forward to hearing from some of you soon.
 

Stacey Martin.
Indie’s mummy.

Taken from HT today:-

First phase of works to refurbish Newmarket street and Widemarsh street is due to begin tonight.

Initial work will involve the removal of the central reservation along Newmarket street and will take approxamately one week.

The work will take place at night, and traffic will be permitted in both directions throughout, keeping traffic disruption to a minimum.

Following removal of the central reservation work will take place to lay footpaths along Newmarket street for three weeks. these works will be carried out during the day, but with the central reservation removed and two lanes will be maintained in either direction.

In February, work will begin to construct the right turn from Blueschool street into Widemarsh street. Due to the evacuation and width of available carriageway, one lane in either direction will be maintained. This will be for a short length and two  lanes feeding Edgar Street roundabout during the day will be maintained at all times.

End.

Wagamama - Japanese Restaurant & Noodle Bar also joining the Old Market.

Jobs advertised HERE

I've been reading the debate in various places about the council's `Adult Wellbeing` directorate using an agency to find a couple of people who will accept a mere £500 a day to help them change to meet new challenges   This is defended by the director (interim director since September?) Helen Coombes on the HCC website.  Bobby 47 and others have already slaughtered the idea on the HT website.

Leaving aside the need for savings etc; the question that slowly formed in the depths of my brain was:

"What the **** does the (Interim) director do for her money if she doesn't herself have the skills and ability to organise and deliver the changes needed?  She was appointed in September at a time when the need for change was obvious - so why did they not appoint someone who could do the job without needing an extra £1000 a day spending on others to tell her what to do?

I suspect that the biggest cars in the Brockington car park are owned by people who are highly promoted admistrators, not leaders, and the current challenges are way beyond their competence.

Another one I saw on the HCC vacancies was "Head of Learning and Achievement" for £64k plus extras.  (again, B47 was please to see that this would at least result in a passionate person in place).  This education job is to oversee a team (massively reduced over the last few years) and work with schools (massively reduced numbers due to academisation) - so as Cllr Johnson is always saying people have no suggestions, here are two:  Merge this job with the same person in another county -  both will have a lot less to do in their own counties:  or:  get an outside education consultancy in to do the job - there are lots of companies with the ability and capacity to do it.

Of course these options will be binned if there is someone already in the building who wants the job.

gdj

Here's something from today's Scrutiny meeting on the budget. The £20 million pounds of NEW funds that had been obtained for Balfour Beatty to up the ante on these roads and potholes is NOW coming from a mass sale of as many Council owned assets as possible in the short term. Out of £100 million which we (you, us!) own the Council will sell off £20 million a year, every year at least for the next three years.

At a meeting held by BB and with the Chief Financial of the Council for all our parishes to attend, we were distinctly told this was NEW money. Can I have support from those present at that meeting please, because they're denying saying it. Or did I mishear?

Dreadful news about CAB.

If you've ever run a business or a charity and been told for months you are losing your funding, so you waste time fighting, trying to keep morale up, and then the b***ers change their mind - you know they'll probably change it back again. Demoralising.

Well done CAB for struggling on.

Taken from Herefordshire Council newsdesk.

Work will commence to improve the junction of King street and Bridge street in Hereford.

The scheme is due to begin with preliminary works on site on Monday 27th January 2014, and is likely to last 6 to 7 weeks. The scheme is being completed with minimum disruption to traffic flows.

The narrowing and realignment of the King Street exit will slow and reposition emerging vehicles to provide a better view of approaching cyclists and vehicles. Colour surfacing and new street furniture will create more of a "shared space" feel which will help vehicle behaviour.

Reducing number of bollards and existing sign posts to improve overall view and visibility. Pedestrian crossing locations will be better defined and the overall layout will be more pedestrian friendly.

the funding scheme is a match funding between Herefordshire council and Department for Transport Cycle Safety Fund.

END.

Police at Hereford investigating a robbery of cash from a woman on Wednesday 15 January have issued an image of a man they want to talk to. 

The woman was robbed in an alleyway by the Wye Inn pub in Holme Lacey Road. Hereford at approximately 12.45pm.

A man approached the 20 year old woman and asked for a cigarette. As the victim got a cigarette for him he grabbed a freezer bag from her pocket which contained cash.

When the woman tried to grab the cash back the man struck her. He then ran off along the footpath into FC Morgan Close. 

The man police want to talk to in connection with the robbery is described as a white man, aged between 40 and 45 with a dark moustache.

Detective Sergeant Tim Powell of Hereford CID said. “Fortunately this woman had no serious injuries. We need to trace this man as soon as possible. There are a number of industrial units on the nearby retail park and this man could have come from there. If you have any information on the identity of this man or if you think you saw him please contact officers at Hereford by dialling 101. All calls will be treated in confidence”.

Callers who wish to remain anonymous can also ring independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.

Full Details Here