Harveys and Benson for Beds enter into Administration.

Harveys goes into administration with 240 jobs lost and branches under threat. 

Bensons for Beds, which is owned by Harveys' owners Blue Group, will see around 50 of its outlets close, leaving between 150 and 175 open.

Blue Group formally appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers as administrator on Tuesday.

The move leaves the future of Harveys hanging in the balance, with PwC looking for buyers for the business and its three manufacturing plants. Harveys is not currently taking any new orders but will honour existing ones, according to its website

Harvey’s have had financial trouble for the past 12 months and have been seeking a new buyer. Most stores were due to re-open today, with staff spending the past two days cleaning showrooms.

The two furniture retailers operate from 269 stores across the UK and employs 2700 in total, 700 of which are directly employed at Harvey’s.

Both Bensons for Beds and Harvey’s also had a change of hands last November, when former parent company Blue Group was sold off by Steinhoff to Alteri Investors for an undisclosed sum.

Alteri Investors, which owns Blue Group, has decided to restructure the business so that Bensons will become a standalone business. Bensons is the second largest bed retailer in the UK behind Dreams in terms of market share.

Military charity support move to new distribution hub 

An essential role for Herefordshire Council during the Covid-19 response has been to provide Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to staff carrying out critical business.

Since the start of the pandemic, the council has been sourcing, buying, distributing and storing PPE stock for non-NHS settings across the county. Many care providers have had difficulty accessing PPE due to high national demand, so the council has also provided free PPE to these sites. Since early April the Council has provided care providers with over 6 million pieces of PPE including over 1.2 million surgical face masks.

As we prepare to live with the long-term impact of Covid-19, the council has created a new Herefordshire PPE hub with support from Operation RE:ACT, Team Rubicon UK’s response to the Covid-19 outbreak.

Nigel Jones, the team leader for RE-ACT and his amazing team of volunteers gave up their own time to help the council pack, load and relocate around 25 pallets of vital PPE to a new, secure location.

Alistair Neill, Herefordshire Council’s Chief Executive, said:

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“Sourcing and distributing PPE remains of the highest priority to ensure the safety of council and care provider as they carry out their essential duties. We set up a temporary distribution hub for PPE in the first week of lockdown, and our new PPE hub will enable us to continue our supply in the longer term. I would like to thank the Operation RE:ACT team who gave up their time to assist with moving PPE stock to our new, secure centre.”

Herefordshire Council and Operation RE:ACT were also assisted by:

• Eagle Plant Hire Hereford, who provided the Council free use of a self-drive Manitou fork lift; this was expertly driven by Cllr Jim Kenyon.
• DLT Training Ltd Bridgend in South Wales, who provided the Council with a large van and volunteer driver;
• Total Produce Foodservice Hereford who provided the Council with a large van and another volunteer driver;
• Herefordshire Council’s library service who filled up with PPE and drove the library van between the old and new PPE sites.

We do not publish national news articles very often and would prefer to keep our network for Herefordshire however, because of all the hard work already done in trying to contain the virus and the dedication from the NHS and other key workers, we felt compelled to post this article because if people continue to ignore the guidelines we may end up with a second wave.

We have all seen the pictures of thousands of people flocking to the beaches this week across the UK during this period of hot weather. Bournemouth beach was a classic example and a major incident was declared yesterday after thousands ignored health advice, with widespread anti-social behaviour, gridlocked roads and huge crowds on the hottest day of the year.

Bournemouth East MP Tobias Elwood said 500,000 visitors were in Dorset yesterday – almost as many people as living in the county.

Maybe Bournemouth council should take some responsibility here for not putting social distancing measures in place...But people should equally be responsible for their own actions.

This was Bournemouth Beach yesterday

Photo courtesy of The Telegraph - Bournemouth Beach

We should look at other countries to see how they are creating safer beach environments for the public. 

This is a brilliant example of how they should apply social distancing at Jesolo Beach in Italy

Photo courtesy os Skyline Webcams - Jesolo Beach Italy

View the LIVE Jesolo Beach webcam here

It can't be that difficult surely.. your thoughts?

In the governments final daily briefing broadcast yesterday chief Medical Office Chris Whitty reminds us..

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"The advice to stay at 2m if you can do, still remains. It is a 1m plus rule and it is with mitigating conditions which people must take seriously"

Boris Johnson announced social distancing rules will be eased, allowing pubs, restaurants, hotels and hairdressers to open from 4 July in England.

The prime minister said people should remain two metres apart where possible, but that a "one metre plus" rule would follow.

A very small fraction of our population are temperamentally drawn to what seems like a noble cause and are dangerously susceptible and vulnerable to ideological possession. For these people, mostly with Far Left leanings, they’ve convinced themselves that any oppression, real or imagined, is the direct result of an oppressive patriarchy which they’re intent upon destroying.

And so, once these slavish ideologues settle upon their latest noble cause their hierarchy create an ideology, they hoover up their temperamentally drawn followers to the chosen noble cause and they take control of all media language that demands that any objection to the cause is heresy, racist and are the thoughts of bigoted cruel and insensitives who have an inability to display empathy and are in some way are cruel or even evil.

Rather like the era of Joseph Goebells where you identify a threat, terrify the people and convince the masses that they’re being threatened, they begin to purge the noise of opposition and the relevance of any dissenters, thus creating two groups. One which is good and one which is bad. Because of noble causes that the Far Left are drawn toward, ideologies are formed and as is always the case with the Far Left, they become tyrannical.

And noble causes are good. There’s nothing wrong with a noble cause. The problem with them is the ideology that accompanies them. Whether it’s Women Equal Pay, Brexit, Transgender issues, Climate Change and Black Lives Matter, every single one of them evolves into tyranny to exclude any voices that disagree with the narrative that everything is the fault of an oppressive patriarchy.

When do we know when an ideology has become tyrannical and its slavish followers have become irrationally possessed by their ideas? When we are all expected to do and say things that publicly demonstrate just how ashamed we all are of ourselves, our gender, our ethnicity,sexuality and what we all really think but dare not say because we don’t want to be labelled in some negative way.

The sports hall at Hereford Leisure Centre is used to seeing groups of people come together to get active, but recently it has welcomed a new type of team which has been flexing its muscles and pulling together for an entirely different reason.

Hereford Leisure Centre may be currently closed to the public but for the past 3 months it has played an essential role as the Emergency Delivery Hub for the County.  The large space in the sports hall and good road access meant it was ideally positioned to receive and distribute supplies, with the centre able to adapt at short notice to its new community role.

Matt Smith, Hereford Leisure Centre Manager said,

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“Herefordshire Council worked with Halo staff to set up the centre to first distribute food  to people who needed to isolate due to being at high risk of Covid 19; to then becoming the distribution hub for essential PPE to care providers across the County.”

Cllr David Hitchiner, Leader of Herefordshire Council, said

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“We are incredibly grateful to the Halo team for supporting the Council in its emergency response to Covid 19 in making sure food reached people who needed it and our care homes and care providers had essential personal protection equipment” he continued “the Halo team where incredibly accommodating and their input invaluable with their community ethos evident in the support they gave at this challenging time”

Matt went on to say,

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“Halo is a charity and social enterprise so it was important to us to play our part and to support our partners in the Council. Until the space is able to safely welcome back our customers, it was great to see it being used for such an important community service”

High School fundraising in memory of Kieran Joyce has so far reached £7,650 and the just giving page will still be open for a couple more weeks, you can donate HERE

Kieran Joyce was 15 when he died in September last year from a previously undiagnosed heart condition. 

Students at Weobley High School started the 7-11 challenge to get active and raise money for Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY).

George West the PE teacher at Weobley High School wrote to us today to express his sincere thanks below. 

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"We have received messages of good luck and encouragement from over 10 professional athlete and had members of the public that never knew Kieran join in the 7-11 challenge.

We have posted these updates and videos on our PE Facebook Page

It would be great if you could thank the Herefordshire public for their generosity from the entire Weobley community as their money will help screen many young people in Herefordshire and pick up and undetected heart conditions.

This will hopefully stop another community having the tragic loss that we suffered when Kieran died last September. Kieran hated losing and he would see this as a massive win for the C.R.Y charity".

 

Kind regards 
George West 
PE Teacher Weobley High School

Herefordshire tourism project awarded £440,000 of Marches LEP funding

A major campaign to help Herefordshire's tourism and visitor economy recover from the devastating impact of the coronavirus lockdown and February’s flooding has been awarded £440,000 by the Marches Local Enterprise Partnership

The money will help launch a co-ordinated drive to promote the county as a fantastic, safe destination for day trips and also staycations if the lockdown restrictions ease sufficiently.

It is part of a £1.6million package of funding agreed by the Marches LEP across Herefordshire, Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin to support businesses hardest hit by the Covid-19 crisis and earlier flooding.

Herefordshire Business Board and Herefordshire Council are behind the plan to promote the county’s huge range of tourism attractions, retail and leisure opportunities to both local and national markets.

Their plan includes developing a new destination website supported by a smartphone app and local and national marketing and PR campaigns to attract day trippers and families and couples seeking staycations as soon as it is safe to do so.

Mandy Thorn MBE DL, chair of the Marches LEP, said the partnership was delighted to support the initiative.

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“The tourism and visitor economy has been particularly hard hit by the double impact of the lockdown and floods and large numbers of businesses have suffered as a result through no fault of their own. This sector is so important to Herefordshire and it is vital we get it back on its feet as quickly as possible.”

Frank Myers MBE, chair of Herefordshire Business Board, said the plan would help support the tourism, hospitality, leisure and cultural economy as well as parts of the local retail and manufacturing sectors.

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“We have examined the detailed evidence of how the county has been affected by both these events and believe this sector urgently requires action to support its soonest-possible recovery.

“This campaign will allow the county to safely encourage day visits and take advantage of the anticipated peak in the staycation domestic visitor market in the summer and autumn as and when lockdown restrictions are lifted.

“This support will also have a significant impact on all related supply chain businesses such as food and drink producers, wider retail, hotels and visitor attraction suppliers.

“The key challenge will be to deliver this initiative with urgency in order to rescue as much of the 2020 season as we can.”

 

Councillor Ellie Chowns, cabinet member for environment, economy and skills, said:

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“Covid-19 has had a huge impact on our local economy, as it has throughout the nation, and in Herefordshire this has compounded the damage inflicted by the flooding events earlier this year. It is vital that we all do everything in our power to support the recovery of our visitor economy as soon as possible, so it is fantastic news that the Local Enterprise Partnership are providing this funding. The boost will be particularly welcome for the tourism, hospitality, leisure and culture sectors, as well as elements of the retail sector. These seasonal businesses are currently losing trade as we enter their peak season.

“Herefordshire is a perfect destination for anybody looking for an outstanding natural environment and wildlife, beautiful open spaces, and wide ranging outdoor activities. Hereford and our market towns are also ideal for those in search of vibrant rural centres of culture, with opportunities ranging from the majesty of Hereford Cathedral, home of the world famous Mappa Mundi, and boutique shopping experiences, to the incredible variety of high quality, locally sourced food and drink that is available across the county. With excellent transport links, Herefordshire is perfect for day-trippers from outside and within the county.

“We are delighted that this funding boost will provide support during such a difficult time, and encourage everybody to find out more about what makes Herefordshire a world class visitor destination by heading to the visitherefordshire.co.ukwebsite.”

 

The majority of the LEP funding has come from loan repayments from previous job-creating investment projects the partnership has supported.

Restricted opening of bars, pubs, cafes and restaurants

Potentially on Saturday 4 July, the Government may allow bars, pubs, cafes and restaurants to reopen, but there is still some debate as to what will be permitted, what social distancing measures will be adopted and in what form.

Herefordshire Council press release 👇

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Whatever the case, it is almost certain that there will be a requirement to maintain some form of social distancing (currently set at 2 metres separation), although there is speculation that this may be reduced before 4 July.

It is clear that whatever measures are put in place, the internal standing or seating capacity of your premises is likely to be considerably reduced and this in turn will raise challenges for your business.

One of the ways forward could be to make use of the outside areas of your premises, such as pavements and other open spaces. We are looking to work with you to consider the feasibility of increasing the amount of available space in Hereford and the market towns that may be used for pavement cafes and bars and would encourage you to consider this an option for your business.

Both the council as the licensing authority and the police are keen to support reasonable proposals, but want to ensure that this is done in a safe way, which will protect both your customers and your staff, as well as the public and local residents. This is likely to take the form of a variation for those businesses with a premises licence for alcohol, although we may suggest temporary event notices are applied for in the short term.

Regardless of alcohol being served or not, there will also be a requirement to acquire a pavement café licence from the council if you intend to apply for six or more items of furniture to be placed on the highway or public realm, for example tables and/or chairs.

Our officers and the police are keen to discuss plans for reopening and would be available to visit your premises and offer free technical advice as to how this could be best achieved. If you wish to expand seating into public spaces we would like you to draw your proposals as a scaled plan drawing showing where tables and seating could be located. We suggest this plan is based on two scenarios - firstly if social distancing remains at a distance of 2 metres and secondly if the government relaxes it to a distance of 1 metre.

Please email your scale plan drawing to licensing@herefordshire.gov.uk with the name of your premises, your name and phone number and if possible your plans and proposal. One of our officers will then contact you and make an appointment to come and visit you as soon as possible and free of charge.

Our highway colleagues are independently consulting the market towns on the reallocation of road space, which may help support any proposals for outdoor pavement seating.

We are also considering how planning rules can be initially relaxed to facilitate outdoor seating for the hospitality sector and will be able to advise on this in due course, as we wish to support and encourage businesses to utilise the open space in our historic city and town centres.

We hope this will help you to make your business viable in the face of the current Covid-19 restrictions.

 

Riverside Primary School in Hereford is taking part in a new national government study to assess and monitor the prevalence of Covid-19 among pre-school, primary and secondary school pupils and teachers.

On the launch of the study, which will initially collect data from up to 100 schools from across England, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said:

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“A critical pillar of our Covid-19 testing strategy is surveillance – testing samples of the population to gain a deeper understanding of the spread of Covid-19, especially in those who may not have symptoms.

“This study will help us better understand how common asymptomatic and mild cases of Covid-19 are so that we can support parents, pupils and teachers and support staff, and inform our ongoing response to this new virus.

“Generally, children have been shown to be asymptomatic. This surveillance study will seek to better understand rates of transmission in children and adults within schools over the coming months by swab testing to see if they have the virus.”

 

Pupils and staff at Riverside Primary School will be tested weekly until the end of the summer term for Covid-19. Results will be returned within 72 hours with plans in place if there are any positive test results. 

Emma Shearer, Headteacher of Riverside Primary School said:

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“We were pleased to be asked for our school to participate in this study.  Research programmes of this kind are crucial in helping us to understand more about this new virus.  We feel very supported by our school community who see the value in this and are willing to take part. Swabbing is entirely voluntary and children and staff can change their mind at any time.

“The study involves a simple, non-invasive nose swab each week. This is not the same as the nose and throat swabs used in different testing centres. Children taking part have received at Covid-19 Warrior certificate.”

 

Herefordshire Council has been working closely with Public Health England to support the school to take part, and parents, staff and governors have been consulted as part of the process and preparation. 

Karen Wright, Director of Public Health in Herefordshire added:

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“This is an important part of efforts to understand the current pattern of infection within children and young people and support plans for the opening of schools wider to pupils in September.  

“We expect that this additional testing will identify cases of Covid-19 that would have otherwise not been reported. Some people can carry the virus but not have symptoms, so this will enable us to develop a greater understanding of community transmission.”

 

Hundreds of businesses across Herefordshire that did not meet the criteria for previous government Covid-19 grants could now benefit from a discretionary grant fund. 

To date, around £55.2m has been paid out to more than 4,700 businesses in the county in government grant funding support in response to the impact of Covid-19, however not all businesses have been eligible for these grants.

The government has now introduced an additional discretionary grants fund which will help provide assistance to some of the businesses that have not had access to other support schemes. The discretionary grants fund managed by Herefordshire Council will award grants reflecting the size of business, level of fixed property costs and scale of impact experienced.

The amount of funding the council has received is limited at £3.2m, so there is a set of eligibility criteria which each applicant will need to meet.

Businesses eligible to receive this new funding must be a small or micro business, charity, or social enterprises with a turnover of not more than £10.2m and fewer than 50 staff.

Applicants must be either a small businesses in shared offices or other flexible workspaces; market traders with fixed building costs who do not have their own business rates assessment; bed & breakfasts which pay council tax instead of business rates or charity properties in receipt of charitable business rates relief. 

Cllr Ellie Chowns, Cabinet Member for Environment, Economy and Skills, said:

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“The Covid-19 crisis has hit many Herefordshire businesses very hard, and I know this has been a deeply worrying time for them.  We know that there are many who have not been eligible for central government grant funding to date, so I am very pleased that this new grant is now available. It will provide much-needed assistance to some of the businesses that have ‘fallen through the cracks’ of existing support schemes. 

“Unfortunately the funding we have been given is very limited – not enough to plug all the gaps. In distributing this funding we are trying to help as many businesses as possible, while continuing to press government for further funding to support the local economy and help us build back better.”

 

Applications must be received by 23:59, Sunday 28 June 2020.

Further details, the full eligibility criteria for businesses and how to apply can be found on the Herefordshire Council website at www.herefordshire.gov.uk/discretionarygrant

I never know which sub title I should put a forum under so just randomly choose.

Anyway with the new subscription charge for the Hereford Times can some well informed person tell me and anybody else who may well be interested that if you pay for the HT digitally do you have an actual HT to read on line (similar to the way Hereford Journal used to do it) or do you just have access to certain reports that are posted online by HT?

Further more if you enter a shop and buy a copy of the HT I think I am correct in assuming you can only access a certain amount of reports on line 

Clarification required I took out a monthly on line HT sub but don't think I will keep it going if there is not a copy of the HT to flick through on line 

I  am surprised there are no complaints about Queenswood parking fines on here, possible because a lot of tourists are caught out by this scam.

I recently received a Parking charge notice for failing to pay £1.50 for 40 minutes parking.  The parking charge amount due is £100.
I checked Tripadvisor.co.uk, since September 2019  Queenswood has received 27 complaints about parking fines out of 35 reviews, most that complained also said they would never visit again.

I wrote to Queenswood to ask if they would consider cancelling the fine, they haven’t replied.  
How can this situation be ignored?  Frightening off tourists who will spend their money at places that welcome them, not Hereford.  It’s a disgrace, I felt ashamed to be Herefordian when reading the comments about why people were fined.  In my own case I went for a quick walk alone during Coronavirus lockdown, avoiding all the runners and cyclists in town.  I thought it was public land , the leaflet I received with the parking charge states it is retained in public ownership through Herefordshire Council  and leased to the 2 charities for 99 years. As such I assumed that using a parking machine was a health hazard and was the same as city parking machines. The place was closed and deserted. I tried to pay by phone but the location number was not accepted. This is not the way to encourage tourists to visit!  Who should I write to who would be more interested  in promoting Hereford instead  of grabbing money and scamming tourists

Car park users in Hereford will be able to enjoy 30 minutes of free parking, to make it easier for people to make essential visits.

In response to covid-19, Herefordshire Council recognises that there may be many people who need to visit the city centre for essential reasons such as to visit pharmacies. To make this easier, and support local businesses, parking for up to 30 minutes in on street pay and display in Hereford will be free, until 6 July 2020.

Herefordshire Council ceased charging at the start of the Covid-19 outbreak so that residents could go about their essential business without the need to find money for parking and enable them to limit social interaction.

Parking charges are an essential element in the operation of our city and market town centres. By charging for parking, we are able to limit the length of time vehicles are parked in one place, which allows for greater freedom of movement and more opportunity to find a parking space for all our residents.

The council are continuing to support NHS and Critical Care staff during this period by providing free parking, which can be arranged through their employer. Free short stay on street parking is also available in all of the market towns.Cllr John Harrington, Cabinet Member for Infrastructure and Transport, said:

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“We are delighted to be able to offer up to 30 minutes of free parking for essential visits in Hereford. It is a difficult balance to ensure that our local businesses are supported throughout our recovery from the Coronavirus, but that we also prevent further spread of the illness.

“We have listened to residents and businesses and with this offer of 30 minutes free parking, we can ensure sufficient parking capacity while encouraging people to visit our local shops and businesses.”

 

To avoid receiving a Penalty Charge Notice please park considerately and comply with the parking regulations that are in place. 

If you have a parking problem please contact parking services at civilparkingenforcement@herefordshire.gov.uk

Monsoon Accessorize stores to close as 545 jobs to be axed, unfortunately Hereford store will remain closed.

Fashion chain Monsoon Accessorize is to make more than 500 staff redundant after being bought out of administration last night.

Monsoon Accessorize’s founder Peter Simon bought the brands and intellectual property, the head office and design teams, and its distribution centre in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire – but not the stores.

Around 450 jobs were transferred to Adena Brands, the new group company, while 35 shops have permanently closed and 545 staff were made redundant.

The stores which it expects to permanently close are...

Basildon

Bexleyheath

Burton-on-Trent

Camberley

Canterbury

Carlisle

Chelmsford

Cork

Patrick Street A, Republic of Ireland

Cork

Patrick Street B, Republic of Ireland

Crawley

Derby

Dublin, Republic of Ireland

Hereford

Hitchin

Huddersfield

Kilkenny

Lancaster

Lincoln

Liverpool Airport

Maidenhead

Maidston

Middlesbrough

Newark

Newtownabbey

Northampton

Southend

St Albans

Staines

Sutton Coldfield

Taunton

Telford

Trowbridg

Truro

Tunbridge Wells

York Davygate

Beattie Avenue, Hereford will be closed from Monday, 15th June for eight months whilst residential development and highway modification works are completed by Harper Group. 

Please see attached diversion map. 

Following on from previous closed topic, parking charges in the news again. You can see why the councils are keen to implement the charges as soon as possible. Overall in 2013/14 councils in England made £667 million from their day to day, on and off street parking operations. After capital charges the net surplus was £549 million.

By law any surplus must be used for transport projects. How about free car parking? If people do not drive into Hereford to shop, the traders say it will force many to close and then the council lose the business rates as well - double whammy!

Car parking charges will come back into force from Monday 15 June in line with Government advice regarding the lifting of lockdown

In line with Government advice regarding the lifting of lockdown car parking charges will come back into force from Monday 15 June.

On 24 March, car parking charges were suspended across the county and the focus of parking enforcement activity has been on tackling unsafe parking, providing free parking for NHS workers and supporting the police to enforce social distancing.

The need for good parking management is now greater than ever as the economy recovers, and businesses rely on the population returning to the high streets. The demand for parking is expected to increase significantly as the lockdown eases, and charges are required to effectively manage parking and vehicle movements.  

The country bus station car park in Hereford will remain free for NHS staff so that they can continue to be supported, while work is on-going in relation to their future parking requirements. 

Holders of a resident parking permit that has expired or is due to expire, are advised to submit an application if they haven’t already done so.

Cllr John Harrington, Cabinet Member for Infrastructure and Transport, said:

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Parking charges are an essential element in our towns and city centres where demand for parking space requires careful management. Throughout this crisis Herefordshire Council took the decision to temporarily suspend charges to allow key workers and those going about their essential business to do so without worrying about purchasing a ticket. 

As we return to work, there will inevitably be an increase in car traffic, and it is therefore more important than ever that we park considerately and comply with parking regulations to ensure goods and services can be delivered, and parking spaces are available to all.  

We would like to thank motorists for parking sensibly during the COVID-19 lockdown, and it is important that we keep up the good work. We encourage people to choose active modes of travel, such as cycling and walking, wherever possible.

 

To avoid receiving a Penalty Charge Notice please park considerately and comply with the parking regulations that are in place. 

If you have a parking problem please contact parking services at civilparkingenforcement@herefordshire.gov.uk