I have received the following update from West Mercia Police Superintendent Ivan Powell, They have given me permission to put it onto both mine and South Wye Voice to reassure members of the public.

Community update - Operation Dante - from Superintendent Ivan Powell.

As the policing commander for Herefordshire I remain committed to keeping you all informed following the events on the afternoon of the 2nd April 2013. In this update I have retained some of the original information to ensure continuity of understanding of how events unfolded, and how our investigations are progressing.

 

Operation dante is the operational name allocated by us to the investigation of the two stabbings.

The way in which events unfolded is as follows:

 

At approximately 3.42pm on Tuesday 2nd April 2013 we received a telephone call from the ambulance service telling us they were responding to a report of a man who had been stabbed in Marshall Close, Hereford.

 

At approximately 3.51pm a telephone call from a member of the public requested emergency services attend Hunderton Road, Hereford to assist with another man who had also been stabbed.

 

A significant number of police resources were deployed to both locations. these resources included firearms officers, plain clothes and uniformed response officers, dog units and regional helicopter.

 

At around 4.12pm only 30 minutes after the first call, two people were arrested at the Oval on suspicion of attempted murder. At 4.50pm two further people were arrested inthe Almeley area, and at 5.05pm a final person was arrested in the Almeley area. In totality within two hours of the time of the first incident reported, all five people suspected to have been involved were arrested.

 

This was an extremely fast moving investigation that required the deployment of a significant number of police resources. I would like to re-iterate some keys messages:

. These two incidents were linked and contained very swiftly.

. Five people were very quickly arrested eliminating any ongoing threat to the community.

. Those people arrested are not believed to be known to the injured men.

. We continue to have significant policing resources committed to the investigation, currently

concentrating on forensic investigations and reviewing all the information gathered by us,

including cctv footage and a number of witness statements. The majority of our house to house

enquiries have now concluded. Clearly a hugely important and substantial task for investigators

now is the compilation of the file of evidence.

 

I would like to thank all local communities in Hereford and Almley for their continuing understanding and support during this police operation.

 

Many of you will know the identity of the injured men, at this time we the police, are not overly confirming their identity simply to give them and their families the time and space in which to recover from their dreadful ordeals. Our thoughts are with them, and my officers remain in close contact. I am pleased to be able to report that one of the injured men has been released from hospital and he is resting and recovering at home.

 

It is important for me to acknowledge that theses were very serious incidents, but please be reassured that they are very rare, and there is no longer a threat to the community of Herefordshire

 

Clearly as I have indicated earlier our investigations has progressed significantly and I am now able to pass on some of that detail, Again whilst the identities of those involved in the commission of the offense may well of been revealed by other sources of information, now they have been charged with offenses I necessarily will not be disclosing their details myself.

 

On Friday 5th April 2013 (with the agreement of the Crown Prosecution Service) charged a man in connection with the two stabbings.

He is a 47-year-old man from Peterborough and he appeared before before Hereford Magistrates Court during that afternoon charged with encouraging or assisting in the commission of indictable offences, believing that one or more will be committed ( under the serious crime act 2007)

 

The charge is in direct relation to the attacks on the two men in Westfailing Street and on the footpath between Golden Post and the Belmont estate on Tuesday afternoon (2 April)

He has also been charged with a burglary which took place at a house in Kington on the same day (2 April)

He appeared before Hereford magistrates Court for a second time during the morning of Monday 8th April 2013 at which time he was remanded in custody and is now in prison awaiting his trial.

A woman in her 30s, who was also arrested in connection with the stabbings, was detained on the 4th April 2013, under section 2 of the Mental Health Act and taken to a secure unit outside Herefordshire where she is being assessed and remains.

At this time, we are happy that the three other men, all from Kington Herefordshire, who were arrested over the knife attacks, had no direct involvement with the stabbings and have been released without charge in relation to those offenses.

However one of them, a 42-year-old man, has been charged with handling stolen goods in connection with the Kington burglary and has been bailed to appear before Herefords Magistrate Court at a later date.

A second 47-year-old man has been granted bail pending further inquiries into assisting an offended wanted by Cambridgeshire police and also for handling stolen goods in connection with the Kington burglary.

A 43-year-old man has been released on police bail in relation to the offense of handling stolen goods,in connection with the same burglary.

 

As I have previously explained we have many officers committed to the investigation where we uncovered information leading us to suspect others of criminal offenses we will pursue them. I am sure this gives confidence to you all that we are professionally investigating all aspects of both the stabbings and the related matters we have uncovered. I will re-emphasis the point that we are entirely happy that we have arrested the offenders for the stabbing offenses, and no threat to the community now remains. To demonstrate this point I can also tell you that officers carrying out inquiries into the burglary at Kington arrested two more people during the afternoon of Friday 5th April 2013 - a man and a woman in the Belmont area of the city, also on suspicion of handling property stolen during the burglary. They have also been released on police bail whilst our inquiries into them and their criminal activities continue.

 

It remains for me to conclude by re-iterating the point that members of the public who believe they may have information relevant to any aspects of our ongoing investigation to contact West Mercia Police on 101 and ask for officers at Hereford, or please approach any of my staff who will be patrolling your areas whilst they continue with reassurance and high level visibility patrolling over the next few days.

I thought I would tell you of my complaint to First Group concerning the 74 bus service:

Sent 16th February

"Experienced the local bus service last night. We arrived at 9.55pm to catch the 10.05pm departure from the bus station at Tesco, along with 12 other passengers, to travel on the 74 service to Newton Farm - which then failed to arrive. We would have to wait another hour for the next bus at 11.05pm which together with the travelling time of 15mins to Newton Farm meant that we would have got home nearly one and half hours later. Not a good advert for using buses. This happens quite regularly on this service and the £6.70 taxi fare didn't help either".

 

First Group acknowledged 17th February:

"Thank you for contacting us. We aim to respond to all enquiries within 14 working days, but hope to respond sooner. If you have not heard from us within this time, please accept our apologies and contact us by phone on the number shown on our website".

 

First Group replied 25th February:

"Thank you for contacting First and I apologise for the delay in getting back to you

 

Your comments have been passed to the Depot Manager for investigation where the service will be looked into and the driver concerned identified and interviewed. As soon as we have had a response, we will be in touch as soon as possible. This can take 7-10 working days".

 

Follow up reply 20th March:

Thank you for your contact regarding the issue you faced with the No.74 service on 16 February and I apologise for the delay in my response.

 

Running our buses on time is one of our key priorities as it is vitally important that customers are able to plan their journey knowing that their service will arrive as advertised in the timetable. We are working strenuously to reduce delays and have intensified our monitoring processes to identify late or early running buses and understand underlying causes. Our buses also benefit from a remote satellite tool so that we can properly monitor their movements and take corrective action to ensure adherence to the timetable.

 

Having re-investigated your comments with the depot, they have checked the records onboard the vehicle and confirm that on the date in question, the driver was still issuing tickets in the Bus Station at 2204hrs and has not left the stop before the scheduled time of 2205hrs. On this occasion, we are unable to uphold your complaint".

 

My response 24th March:

Thank you for your reply which was rather disappointing. I can assure you that myself and at least 12 other people were waiting for that last bus on the night in question. However in view that the computer says the bus was standing in the bus station at the correct time it must have been a ghost bus!

 

I cannot be bothered to continue arguing the toss with your company and accept that your company will continue to run the Hereford 74/74A bus service as you see fit and not for the benefit of your customers.

 

Thank you

 

Martin Gilleland

 

PS: My partner returned from Malvern on Thursday 21st March had to wait for 74 bus for nearly an hour between 3.30pm and 4.30pm before getting home.

Does anyone else experience missing buses from the timetable?

While out today I came across this planning notice on Waterfield Road proposing the construction of a car park. When I attended the public meeting at Eastholme before Christmas I got the impression that most of the gathering were against the car park being situated here, especially the anglers, as it was too far from the Belmont Ponds. The anglers would have liked a car park off Haywood Lane closer to the ponds. Has this application being advertised in the local press as you can easily miss the notice on the lamp post.

The letters in the box on the planning application state the application is a planning application and affects a public right of way, agreed. However at the bottom of the application are further letters and D catches my eye as this would state that the proposed development does not accord with the provisions of the Development Plan. Is the development plan the same as the Unitary Development Plan? In which case because this land is protected public open space I would have assumed that any development would not be allowed. Has anyone else been consulted about this proposal? Any comments to the council by 3rd February 2012.

Please find attached the minutes from the parish council meeting held on 6th December 2012

December Minutes.pdf

Please find attached the minutes from the parish council meeting held on 25th October 2012

October Minutes.pdf

Royal Mail is the single largest deliverer of unaddressed junk mail in the UK; roughly one in four leaflets is pushed through the letter box by the postman.

The opt-out form Royal Mail will send you can be found here:

Opt Out Application.pdf

Please note that filling out and sending this form will not speed up the process of opting out. Royal Mail will simply send you a new form to complete – just one example of how needlessly complicated the opt-out process currently is.

After you have completed the form Royal Mail will post to you, your postman should stop delivering unaddressed items within six weeks.

Alternatively, you can send an e-mail or write to Royal Mail yourself:

• optout@royalmail.com
  
• Freepost RRBT-ZBXB-TTTS
  Door to Door Opt Outs
  Royal Mail
  Kingsmead House
  Oxpens Road
  OXFORD
  OX1 1RX
  

Consequences of opt out

At the moment, Royal Mail is allowed to deliver three unaddressed items per household per week (a limitation that is likely to be scrapped). The main consequence of opting out is therefore that 150+ fewer leaflets per annum will be pushed through your letter box.

It should be noted, however, that according to Royal Mail many of the 150+ items are unlikely to be unwanted. The opt-out form therefore warns you that if you decide to opt out, you may miss 'important information from local and national Government'. Our advice is to simply ignore this warning. It is unlikely that important information is ever sent using the door-to-door scheme, if only because more and more people are opting out. If local or national Government has something important to tell you, for instance about elections, they will make sure that the information is widely available. Door-to-door leaflets are just one of many ways in which local and national Government can communicate.

Ours is the greatest Country in the World. Deep down of course I do know that this is not so but it's what I believe and I am proud to be British. Weve given the World many wonderful things such as a language, our culture, the arts and democracy. Weve also given the World a bucket load of things that perhaps we shouldn't be to proud of but, that said, our Nation and the fabric that binds us together is really something special and we are fortunate to be able to say we are British.

From my aforementioned comments you'd be right to conclude I have the little islander mentality and I make no appologise for this view of my own Nation. But, I am not inward thinking, I do understand the new world order and I am not keen to get out of Europe. On the contrary, if things were right and as they should be for me and my Country men and women, Id want to stay in the EU.

But, sadly they are no longer right and to the long term benefit of my Grandchildren and having voted in the last European referendum in the 70's I can say that this union has drifted to a place where I no longer see as a place I am keen to be amongst.

For most people who are described as Euro sceptics, at the very heart of their frustration is the scale and vastness of the influx of millions of people from other EU countries and the cost that this places upon our public services which our Nation paid for and which is now available to anyone who settles here.

In January of 2015 the conundrum of Romania and Bulgaria will be placed upon our doorstep and possibly millions will arrive in search of a better life and our public services will be called upon to care for these people. This is not a difficult economic problem. We cannot afford to care for anymore people who choose to come to our Country.

The public services that we have and we often take completely for granted are there because of the efforts and price paid by our ancestors. These things were not easily won and we should think hard about balancing our desire to be seen as welcoming and our need to care for our own.

The cost to us now is overwhelming and the future cost may mean that our public services will no longer be available because of the huge strains placed upon our economy by the free movement of people who understandably seek a better life.

For me, if there were renogiated conditions which resulted in controlled and capped immigration I'd vote to stay in the Union. However, if as I fear no agreement could be reached then Im for leaving the European Union and regaining control of our own destiny.

The economic problems that would result from our departure from the EU are many but, our trade freedoms would allow us an open door to the emerging markets around the World and we would not be tied by Brussels and their autocratic rules that limit the level of our trading with the emerging markets of the World.

Ive no doubt that to leave would be a huge step to take but I know my Country and I know that our spirit would see us prosper in the future.

How would you use your vote?

This made me smile so I thought I would share it with you all...

I noticed this on the wall next to the bus stop along Abbotsmead Road. I am surprised that nobody else has reported it yet, not sure how long it has been there, maybe it was done at the same time as the welcome to Hereford sign? certainly looks like the same style again

This must of happened last night. This is disgusting and it is clearly now getting worse! The Police need to start patrolling in this area more in order to catch these vandals!

This is both sides of the gates leading onto the Bishops Meadow (Hinton Road). I noticed it this afternoon, again, this looks like same writing to me as the others.

This is a nice welcome sign coming into Hereford. Some sad person has decided to illegally spray the word Poland across the word Hereford on the welcome sign coming into Hereford on the A465 Belmont Road.

(You may have already guessed which road by the amount of traffic in the picture)

If the Council have anything about them they should instruct Amey to remove this immediately or at the very least cover it, so lets see how long this takes them to sort out.

I have reported this directly to Amey who have informed me that several signs were sprayed during the night and that this would be removed as a matter of urgency today.

In The Guardian today Eric Pickles' announces that he is slashing local authority funding by up to 8.8%.

Financially weak councils will go bust and others will be forced to drastically reduce services to cope with cuts to town hall budgets outlined by ministers on Wednesday, local authorities have predicted

The warning came after the government revealed that councils in England would face spending reductions of up to 8.8% from April, with an average cut of 1.7%. The communities secretary, Eric Pickles, described the settlement as fair and said the onus was now on councils to do more to cut costs and pursue "sensible savings" to protect public services.

Following his cut The Rt Hon Eric Pickles MP, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government released today his:

50 ways to save: Examples of sensible savings in local government

I wonder how many of these have been adopted by our council especially as it's the Conservatives in the riding seat, and it is our council tax going up 1.9% from April 2013.

1. Share back office services

2. Community Budgets - Bring staff and money together

3. Use transparency to cut waste

4. Tackle duplicate payments

5. Clamp down on corporate charge cards

6. Special spending controls

7. Tackle fraud

8. Claw back money from benefit cheats

9. Get more for less by improving procurement

10. Buy together

11. Stop the scope for procurement fraud

12. Utilise £16 billion of reserves creatively

13. Improve council tax collection rates

14. Encourage direct debit and e-billing for council tax

15. Close council cash offices

16. Better land and property management

17. Hot-desking, estate rationalisation and sub-letting

18. Open a ‘pop up’ shop in spare office space

19. Close subsidised council canteens

20. Cancel away days in posh hotels and glitzy award ceremonies

21. Open a coffee shop in the library

22. Cut senior pay

23. Share senior staff

24. Scrapping the chief executive post entirely

25. Introduce a recruitment freeze

26. Freeze councillor allowances and end councillor pensions

27. Cut spending on consultants and agency staff

28. End expensive ’leadership’ courses

29. Cut spending on head hunters and expensive adverts

30. Review and reduce absenteeism

31. Scrap trade union posts

32. Charge for collecting trade union subscriptions

33. Stop spending money on commercial lobbyists

34. Stop translating documents into foreign languages

35. Reduce the number of publications and media monitoring

36. Earn more from private advertising

37. Cease funding ‘sock puppets’ and ‘fake charities’

38. Scrap the town hall Pravda

39. Stop providing free food and drink for meetings

40. Reduce first class travel

41. Cut mileage payments

42. Video conference instead of travel

43. Help the voluntary sector save you money

44. Cut printing costs

45. End lifestyle and equality questionnaires

46. Sell services

47. Hire out the town hall

48. Lease works of art not on display

49. Save money on computer software

50. And finally… ask your staff for more sensible savings ideas

To check out the reasoning read the document here:

I was talking with a young guy who cycled into this post and hurt himself the other week. I am surprised that he has not taken legal action for some sort of compensation.

This post is well redundant and seems to serve no purpose, so why is it still there? obviously dangerous in this case...

While I have been out and about, I have noticed that there are lots of dead unsightly posts.

Why is this? is it that Amey or who ever is responsible can't be bothered to remove them or what? I found another here near the top of Newton Farm, on the walkway down towards the school and another one here near the 'hardly ever open waste of money' Newton Farm police station.

I am sure there must be plenty more, feel free to add any that you find, can these be removed at some stage?

In response to the many calls I have received from Colin James about the litter on the Great Western Way and the fly tipping to the rear of Charles Witts Ave in Hunderton, Colin has suggested a 'Big Clean Up Day' 

A meeting has been arranged with all Belmont ward councillors, Bethon Fortey Enforcement officer, Community Protection Team officers and estates Managers of Herefordshire Housing Ltd, this meeting will take place on Thursday 17th March to discuss clean up costs of these areas to enable this big cleanup to commence.

I will keep you advised of the outcome of the meeting.

Please find attached the minutes from the parish council meeting held on 13th September 2012.

September Minutes.pdf

I was walking along the great western way the other night and noticed a fair amount of litter, the whole area is poorly lit at night too and very overgrown in parts, which must be nerving for people walking along there alone. Who is responsible for litter, grass, hedges and lighting etc?

If I ever was appointed to this Office, I'd have a suit of clothes befitting my status as the Watchdog and I'd be found in a small wooden hut at the back of the Town Hall.

My role would be simple and straightforward. To reward good performance and punish those that had underperformed and wasted public funds.

I'd interview all the Council tiers of management. And there's lots and lots of them. To many for my liking. They'd come to my hut and I'd, 'Hello what a lovely day' and I'd reassure them that the huge hyper dermic needle containing a generous dose of Sodium Pentaphol would only be accutely painful for some five minutes.

Then, after delivering this highly effective truth serum and giving the recipient time to become sedated and unable to defy my will, I'd say, 'Is your role within the Council of benefit to the public', to which they'd no doubt say, 'Excellent question. My job is a complete waste of the publics money. Thank you very much.' I'd then say, 'What would a reasonable person do given that you and your job are pointless?. Of course the answer would be, 'Dismiss me straight away and save yourself a lot of time and expense. I'm a complete waste of time if my opinion is worth a jot'

Then after they had recovered I'd give them a slice of Melon and reveal to them the results of my findings informing them that they were sacked.

As for the Waster's of Public Funds and I have in mind the inner circle of the Council Leadership (Note..Not you Glenda and no other Independent Councillor) they of course would enter my hut and I'd say,' You did a wonderful job lasty week when you directed Amey to fill in a pothole'. He or she would of course be pleased and reply, 'Thank you very much. Its nice to know I'm appreciated'. And to reward them for their good work I'd give them a piece of chocolate and point out, 'Isnt chocolate lovely. Its Cadburys you know and if you do well there's plenty more where that came from'.

But then I'd mention the other things. The things that upset us all. The things that require something other than a piece of Cadburys chocolate. Afterall you'd be a fool to give one of our leaders a piece of chocolate if they'd underperformed or wasted our funds.

I'd then say,' you've wasted an awful lot of money recently. The Hereford Sign for example that says 'Here You Can'. He or she would of course understandably argue their point and I of course would be a fool not to hear them out. But then I'd have to punish them for wasting public funds.

I'd then deliver my verdict and punish them by shoving their fingers into a domestic household electric socket.

They of course would then be compelled to ride the lightening bolt and experience 250 volts coarsing through their body. Mind you, it would'nt be anything terminal. Just ten or fifteen seconds of electricity to encourage them not to waste anymore of our cash.

These of course are just ideas. If they dont like chocolate they could have a custard slice or a sweet.

I'm also equally open minded about the electric shock treatment. It could be something less intrusive and frightening such as being hit with an instrument across their toes or fingers.

What you think?