Riverside railings need repairing as a matter of urgency

[Hereford Voice 94]

The riverside railings were severely damaged during the floods of early 2020 and again this year.

As you can see from these photographs the railings are clearly unsafe and look like they could fall into the river at anytime.

The gap that has been exposed is clearly dangerous even though Herefordshire Council contractors have placed barriers across but this needs addressing as a matter of urgency and we will be pushing the Council for an answer this week on when the public can expect these railings to be repaired.

[ragwert 387]

They do seem to pick & choose what needs to be repaired or replaced & I'd of thought these barriers would be top priority.
Take the barriers that were knocked down on the Starting gate roundabout a month ago and were replaced within three weeks and the same type of barriers in Belmont Road going to Waterfield Road that were knocked down before Christmas and still not been done.

[50inHerefordshire 1]

This access of Wye Walk to Asda direction or onto Salisbury etc was closed after the flood in Feb 2020. I know the Manager of the Kindle Center flagged up this lack of access for all walkin clients of theirs. I do not know when they opened access and put the barrier up but it is now 12 months with a unsafe solution. But it is POOR that uses the Wye Walk as access around Hereford. Hereford Council have spent ££Ms for the B4224 road closure which happened on the same day. I question the Council priorities.

[twowheelsgood 619]

On 16/02/2021 at 00:03, ragwert said:

They do seem to pick & choose what needs to be repaired or replaced & I'd of thought these barriers would be top priority.
Take the barriers that were knocked down on the Starting gate roundabout a month ago and were replaced within three weeks and the same type of barriers in Belmont Road going to Waterfield Road that were knocked down before Christmas and still not been done.

Presumably the Starting Gate work was done by Highways Agency as it's the A49T. Local work, BBLP can't be bothered, they freely admit they work on a reactive basis - until there is a volume of complaints, they'll ignore it.

[retrographics 3]

I would like to add that damage to this area started way back in 2018, the large fencing areas was only placed there in 2020 who  responsibility is it, the The environment agency, the council, the Forestry Commission for allowing all the trees down the river,  as somebody suggested that sarky comment they placed on a post I placed on Facebook, 

[freddog 0]

On 20/02/2021 at 11:45, twowheelsgood said:

Presumably the Starting Gate work was done by Highways Agency as it's the A49T. Local work, BBLP can't be bothered, they freely admit they work on a reactive basis - until there is a volume of complaints, they'll ignore it.

BBLP are commissioned by the Council to work on a reactive basis, I don't think that's the fault of BBLP but a fault of the Council and/or Central Government for not adequately funding the highways network.

[K.Butt 221]

On 23/02/2021 at 11:42, retrographics said:

I would like to add that damage to this area started way back in 2018, the large fencing areas was only placed there in 2020 who  responsibility is it, the The environment agency, the council, the Forestry Commission for allowing all the trees down the river,  as somebody suggested that sarky comment they placed on a post I placed on Facebook, 

The EA are responsible for the river banks I believe but these railings will be the responsibility of the council.

[50inHerefordshire 1]

Update 25Feb2021

I was walking over the Wye bridge and two BBLP employees were looking at the broken railings and temporary barrier fix.

I asked when the path railing repairs would be done and the BBLP employee said that their visit was the initial scope and repairs to follow.

To be continued 

[twowheelsgood 619]

Perhaps they're working to the now established 'Fownhope' method - expect a very large bill and an open ended timetable to finish the work.

[50inHerefordshire 1]

Update 31March2021 

Photo taken today, 5 weeks after my update from BBLP. 

The Fownhope  B4224 bypass is now open costing +£millions but a simple repair to make this path safe for the poor and disabled is ignored.  

To be continued.

 

[twowheelsgood 619]

Perhaps we'll get an absurdly over engineered, inappropriate and expensive concrete wall like this £2.6m one at Fownhope, in the middle of an AONB. I've already been told 'lessons will be learned' from this fiasco, but they never are and certainly never will be whilst the tail is wagging the dog.

[Aylestone Voice 131]

7 hours ago, twowheelsgood said:

Perhaps we'll get an absurdly over engineered, inappropriate and expensive concrete wall like this £2.6m one at Fownhope, in the middle of an AONB. I've already been told 'lessons will be learned' from this fiasco, but they never are and certainly never will be whilst the tail is wagging the dog.

First time I have seen this eyesore. Good grief who is in charge of this appalling abomination 

[twowheelsgood 619]

That's the nub isn't it - no one is in charge, at least from the Client side, charged with 'best use' of our money. Plenty of chiefs mind you, with their fancy job titles, it's just that they're not very good at their £100k pa jobs, they don't care, they get paid anyway, no one will sack them, jobs a good 'un for them. We're two years into the present Council's incumbency and still no sign of the election pledge to review BBLP's contract - if ever there was a reason, this must be it.

 

Edited April 1 by twowheelsgood

[Aylestone Voice 131]

16 minutes ago, twowheelsgood said:

That's the nub isn't it - no one is in charge, at least from the Client side, charged with 'best use' of our money. Plenty of chiefs mind you, with their fancy job titles, it's just that they're not very good at their £100k pa jobs, they don't care, they get paid anyway, no one will sack them, jobs a good 'un for them. We're two years into the present Council's incumbency and still no sign of the election pledge to review BBLP's contract - if ever there was a reason, this must be it.

 

Very true.

But even if the Client side were in charge what are the chances they would have considered the impact on the AONB or even consulted their conservation team. Answer = nil.

I weep for the future of this County with the self aggrandizing of the Councillors (whoever they are) and the under performing Chief Officers

[ragwert 387]

That's the wall that was prefrabricated off site only to not be used as they could not get a crane small enough to install it.
Pretty sure it was a £28,000 mistake

[ragwert 387]

Prime tourist location and what a great sight for them to see.
Bridge closed,path closed,Railings falling into the river.

[ragwert 387]

Here we are again with local social media pages highlighting this issue yet again as nothing has been done.
I'm sure some of Herefordshires Councillors are reading this so are any of you able to give some update as to when this is going to be sorted out.