Due to past political social engineering we've all been conditioned to not say anything for fear of being branded a bigot or racist. And now, in homes, pubs, streets, wherever local people gather the one subject that is sure to be muttered is the settlement of the people from East Europe.

For my part, I admire and like these people from Eastern Europe. They are well educated, hard working, they do the jobs we no longer want to do and to an employer, they are very reliable and will work for low wages. Personally speaking, if I'd been born under the fist of grinding poverty and the remaining affects of communism, I'd be doing the same thing. I'd be here in Hereford with my family trying for a better future. Who can blame them?

But of course, for all these positive things, there are consequences and one is there is a growing intolerance and anger toward the East European people and a view by local Herefordians that they are being taken for granted, our Country is being asset stripped and they cannot say anything because they will be branded a bigot. Local people complain that the East European people are taking all the jobs, much of the social housing and we are haemorrhaging vast sums of money every week when our guests send money home to prop up their home economy's.

Our Hereford community is becoming increasingly disconnected from local government and local people feel they have no voice and nowhere to turn to. Personally speaking, I have noticed that this anger is increasing and local people are desperate for change. They feel that their local public services are being swamped and understandably they worry that institutions like the NHS are not going to be there for their grandchildren.

Quite simply, I believe that if we go on not talking about the new reality to our changing society then we are going to meet disaster. Somehow or other we have to talk and be able to discuss this issue without any fear of being branded racists or bigots.

I want readers to offer their views on what we can do, how we can move forward and how we can communicate genuine concerns to local government and to the East European community without there being any hurt on either side of the issues that are sat in front of our community.

More than anything, I want to read constructive comments regarding our future community cohesion rather than mindless ranting and raving.

My forthcoming comments are not intended to hurt the feelings of those Councillors on this site who I am sure are hard working and do their best for their constituents. My view is aimed at the collective who I believe lurch from one badly thought out scheme to another.

I hope that most readers will accept that we, Our home Hereford, is not flourishing and our recession is compounded by the fact that in the past poor decisions were made that has left us with little or no infrastructure.

For my part, I really do resent much of the secrecy that surrounds the decision making of our Council. I feel that the Council are delivering their form of democracy which does not involve our participation.

Despite the Hereford Times repeatedly airing stories regarding the Council doing things secretly, they take absolutely no notice of public objection and simply just carry on.

The reported waste of our funds by the Council is in my view staggering. They recently commissioned at great expense new signs that are intended to announce to the visitor, HERE WE CAN instead of the old signs that simply said, WELCOME TO HEREFORD.

The result was, amongst the cynics which include me, Here we Can what? Have no job. Have no shops. Have no infrastructure. This was a crazy badly thought out gimmick and frankly we have so many problems its pointless for the Council to keep slipping us the public a gimmick. We simply can't afford anymore of this crazy blue sky thinking.

I want the Council to wake up to the new reality. We have no more money to waste and we cannot afford to allow this Council to continue leading us all toward the abyss.

Once again, my views are not intended to offend the Councillors who are members of this forum.

My very warmest regards.

Taken from "Have your Say" Hereford Times this week:

I WISH to draw your attention to the potentially dangerous situation at the junction of Goodrich Avenue and Waterfield Road.

 

For no obvious reason a number of container-type cabins, presumably used for storage, are parked on the greensward adjacent to the fairly new police sub-station opposite the entry/exit of the service road for Millard Close.

For the activities involved in using these cabins – which, in themselves, obscure or distract attention from other traffic approaching that junction – vehicles service the cabins and are parked on one or both sides of Goodrich Avenue and Waterfield Road, with workers moving to and fro.

 

That no incident has already occurred is, I think, entirely fortuitous.

It has occurred to me that the siting of these cabins might and certainly ought to have incurred an application for at least temporary planning consent as I doubt whether it would have been granted in view of the hazardous situation they cannot avoid causing.

 

DAVID J JORDAN, Millard Close, Hereford

I think he has got a valid point. This area of safeguarded open space has been turned into a large builders compound. Herefordshire Housing sure know how to ruin a decent green area for local people. No doubt they have plans for other open spaces bearing in mind the present governments approach to relaxations of development rules. It is a pity that they can't keep their estates tidy - the whole area is sinking fast. The area once had a youth club and church - useful community assets.

Please find attached the minutes from the parish council meeting held on August 2nd 2012

August Minutes.pdf

Please find attached the minutes from the parish council meeting held on June 28th 2012

June Minutes.pdf

Please find attached the minutes from the annual parish council meeting held on May 17th 2012

Annual Meeting May.pdf

Annual Meeting May2.pdf

Please find attached the minutes from the parish council meeting held on April 12th 2012

April Minutes.pdf

Please find attached the minutes from the parish council meeting held on March 1st 2012

March 12 Minutes.pdf

Please find attached the minutes from the parish council meeting held on January 19th 2012

January 12 Minutes.pdf

During the past few years I've noticed a worrying increase in the use of children by the Police and the Local Authority, who are recruiting kids, giving them money and tasking them to enter a licensed premises store and purchase alcohol in order to gain evidence to support either a Licence being revoked or a criminal prosecution.

These Test Purchases are conducted under the control of the Police and the Trading Standards and at some point following a successful Test Purchase of alcohol, these kids must presumably provide witness statements and their personal details or false names must be incorporated into a file of evidence that will support a criminal prosecution.

For all intents and purposes these kids become Covert Intelligence Sources and I suppose, must be filed and logged as Police Informants.

Now I ain't no expert on any of this but I do ask myself, 'is this entirely necessary' given that the Police and Trading Standards could quite easily carry out a successful prosecution by simply carrying out observations on the shop and catching a few kids who have purchased alcohol from the Licencee.

My worry is that to save the Police and Council a lot of man hours doing these observations, they are taking the easy option and using children.

My personal view is that we shouldn't be exploiting children in this way. I accept that some would say the kids are volunteers but when they are that age, do they really know and understand what is being asked of them?

I felt this for a long time and I'd bet anybody that one day the wheel is going to come off and this will become a major Policing issue and will be something that we will, with hindsight regret ever doing.

I say, leave the kids out of it and get your evidence in another way.

Shed Broken into last night at Masefield Avenue. A white cube Mountain bike was stolen. Blue writing black seat.

Any info please contact our local police.

Here are a few from St Martins and Putson

This first one is along Hinton Road


This one is just outside the funeral directors

What is happening about a new youth centre for Newton Farm? there was some talk of the former vortex site, but not heard anything since?

Can anyone give us an update?

Extraordinary Meeting of Belmont Parish Council

Will take place on

Friday 2nd November 2012

at

Belmot Community Centre

Eastholme Avenue, Belmont,

Hereford.

Commencing at 7.30pm

For the sole purpose of discussing and making comments on plnning application reference S122747/0, being outline planning consent for a development of 85 homes on land at Home Farm Hereford.

What the hell is wrong with Amey? Are they not capable of getting anything right? more importantly making things SAFE!

Apparently they have informed Cllr Powell that the dead posts are not hazardous...

I have heard back from Amey this morning in their opinion the posts are not hazzardous! and have been put in a program of work to be carried out JANUARY 2013, I have told them I DO NOT ACCEPT THIS TIMESCALE!!!! I also pointed out ALL works I have asked for to the Inspector from Amey that came out on a site visit / walk around of all of Newton Farm / GWW this morning.

Then we were told

I invited Amey inspector Neill Davies to come with me on my ward walkabout which he did last week, I have given him an extensive list of things to be done, and some have been done including some of the posts have been taken away as a start, I am going up onto the GWW in the next hour to check up there.

Then we were told

Amey has responded to my various requests 5 posts on GWW have been removed, and grass cut. tree in Muir Close been cut, hedges and dead tree removed in Waterfield Rd, hedges cut in Treago Grove, weeds hedges cut in Blakemore Close grass cut at the Oval. Further work is to be carried out in coming weeks in Newton Farm, Hunderton and down Belmont road from Clehonger turn coming forward.

Cllr Powell has also been informed that 5 posts from the GWW have been removed, well guess what? Only 1 post has been 'so called' removed but actually as you will see in the following images the 'non hazardous post' has now become extremely dangerous! As usual Amateur Amey are clearly not capable of doing this job properly, instead of REMOVING the post as you would expect, they have merely taken an angle grinder and cut it off near the base, which has now left a sharp dangerous piece of metal as you can see

QUOTE:

Central Government announcement at their conference in Birmingham on 8th Oct 2012.

Central Government has announce funding for Herefordshire Council road improvements schemes at Belmont Road and Edgar Street which are:

A49 / A465 Belmont road junction to reduce delays on the A49 northbound approaches to the Belmont road junction, the junction will be realigned to create a separate approach to accomodate A49 southbound movements into Asda's store, and u-turn movements from St. Marins street toward A49 northbound from the right turn movement into A465 Belmont road. It will be traffic signal controlled and co-ordinates with the Belmont road right turn. Scheme start 2013 completed 2013.

A49 / A438 Edgar street. The A49 southbound approach into Edgar street roundabout is a major cause for delay on the A49 route. To increase capacity this approach will be widened to create a third lane. In order to create the space for the new lane the pedestrian crossing will be slightly relocated. Scheme start 2014 to be completed 2014.

END

I delayed posting this comment due to the Christmas and New Year Break, but feel that attention should be raised to the piles of litter which I see, not only on my estate, but also around the city generally and in particular along the A465 verges between Wormbridge and the city. Is anyone going to pick it up or is it just a case of waiting until spring/early summer and hope it gets hidden in the long grass. One particular bad part of the city which I walk through every day is the lane joining Canal Road and the back of Morrisons. I know it is a private road, but it is public litter that has been dropped and together with the graffiti overlooking the burial ground, the complete scene is an eyesore. I have yet to see a human road sweeper in the city with a brush and shovel keeping on top of this problem. If it can't be reached from the comfort of a mechanical sweeper no one bothers. Also the debris that was reported at the back of Charles Witts Avenue and bordering the Great Western Way is still there after one year. How does everyone else feel about this constant problem?

From BBC Hereford & Worcester Radio today:

Herefordshire Council may privatise more services

 

Herefordshire Council has said it is looking at outsourcing a further 38 services including planning to a private company in order to save money.

 

In 2003 the authority employed company Amey to take on several of its services, including street cleaning, highways maintenance and grass cutting.

 

It said that as that 10-year contract was coming up for renewal, it was looking at what else could be included.

 

The council said it was not "looking at any redundancies at the moment".

 

If the extra 38 services, which include car parking enforcement, housing development, planning, archaeology, environmental health and pest control, bereavement services, licensing, markets and catering, are also privatised, the contract could potentially be worth £1bn over 10 years.

 

Council officials said the plans were only at their "very early stages" and were only looking at the possibility of outsourcing further services.

 

Richard Ball, from the council's commissioning department, said: "We are not looking at redundancies at the moment.

 

"This is very much about making sure we get the right quality of services. We are not under a commitment to any other outsourcing."

 

'Big experiment'

Steve Akers, regional Unison organiser for Herefordshire and Worcestershire, said it was important the council remained "transparent" over any decisions it made.

 

He said: "It's a big experiment.

 

"The spin is that this is about value for money and good quality services, but there are no guarantees of that."

 

The authority said it would be starting a consultation process over the plans, and will be holding a series of events from 20 September to explain them.

 

The Hereford and Worcester Chamber of Commerce has backed the proposals, saying they could potentially be good for the local economy.

Is this plan going to be any good for council tax payers. I don't like the privatisation of planning. What is lacking with this council is transparency and accountability.