Colin James

Look how much that has grown in such a short space of time. How often do they cut the grass and surrounding bushes?

Well funny that you have asked that question as they normally come about 4 times a year, they actually came today which was a laugh, a young girl on her own carrying a large petrol strummer, talk about struggling with it, to be honest the way she has cut the grass edges was a waste of time, I actually filmed her but the battery died on me before it completed, but if I tell you from the second she arrived in the close to the time she left was definitely no more than 10 mins. Here is how she thought strimming grass should look once the task is completed...

Do we know what the cost for this little lot will be ?

This is what happens when requests are ignored...

Do you all remember when I asked for the Tree's at the bottom of Glastonbury Close to be cut down and bushes cleared? Well after many discussion between myself Cllr Powell and Amey eventually, a few men were sent up to clear the open space area. (Nov 2009) At the time the supervisor from Amey suggested that they only need cut back the tree's, both Cllr Powell, myself and other residents said it would be better and safer (preventing kids climbing on the spiked metal fence surround McDonald's) if the tree's were cut down totally, but no he insisted that they would leave stumps... I told them then that they would need to come back within a year or so, no no no he said it will be at least 4 or 5 years before they need pruning again.

Well this is what they looked like when Amey had completed their work



And this is what it looks like today



I guess it's time for another call to Amey eh..

Yes it is a terrible colour, I am glad that someone else had the same thoughts as me. Another total waste of money, and I bet it was a stupid amount too! :Angry_32:

My daughter has entered several local talent competitions. She won Junior Text Factor in December last year and was a finalist in Hereford's Got Talent this year. It is her 16th birthday today, so I have created a little website for her, feel free to check it out



Steph James

 

HEREFORD ACCESS FOR ALL

All the Fun of the Fair (for disabled people that is!) Project

For over two years now we have been campaigning to improve disabled access to the Fairground Rides and other attractions on offer at the Hereford May Fair plus other similar events around the County which involve fairground type attractions. We believe that our campaign is probably the first time in the history of the Hereford May Fair that any serious attempt has been made to ensure full inclusion for disabled people and their carers at such events.

We have thoroughly researched the case for full inclusion and the detailed aims of our campaign are underpinned by our personal lived experience of disability, plus a range of informative statements in documents published by the Health and Safety Executive, Equality and Human Rights Commission, Disability Rights Commission, Improvement and Development Agency, Disability Law Service (with reference to the Disability Equality Duty in the Public Sector), United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and now also the recently published Herefordshire Council Herefordshire Equality and Human Rights Charter 2010.

 

Full details attached below

HEREFORD ACCESS FOR ALL May Fair Leaflet.doc

Glenda, yes he did call me but gave me the same answer, explaining that it was not ideal. What a pain to be honest, the council do not make it easy. Best part was tat there were bigger vans than my car at the tip and because they had windows they were allowed in. They had 3 times more waste than me.

I drove to the tip earlier in my company car (back is kitted out with samle ceramic tile boards)with 5 bags of old kids toys and a bag of garden grass waste. I was told this is trade waste and I need to pay or collect a permit from the council. I explained and showed the man that this is household waste, but he refused to let me in. There was a car there with about 20 full bags of rubbish, but because he was in an estate car (which was actually bigger than my car)he was allowed through??

I came hom and phoned the council, they said we will put you through to waste department, eventually I got through to the council offices in Bromyard? I asked the woman if she could give me th number to the Oval offices, she explained that she did not know of this office and suggested that I call the swithboard again. I again called the swichboard and explained what had happened and again asked for the waste department, this time I was put through to planning! :Angry_32: the guy explained that he knew a lot about waste, so I asked him how I go about getting a permit, he said I needed to go to Garrick House (City Centre) but I needed to take the vehicle registration doucuments?? I explained that this was a company car and that I did not have the documents, then he said that I needed to provide a letter from my company explaining that I had permission to use the vehicle and it was ok to use it to drop off waste, what the hell has that got to do with the council?? I have decided that I will leave all the rubbish on the street and the bin men can take it on Monday and if they refuse it will stay there!! what a joke! It's no wonder that all this fly tipping happens, the council do not make it easy for you do they.

I cannot be the only person that has a pickup.

Welcome to Belmont Voice Andy hope to see you here as a regular.

St Francis Centre, I think would be a good location.

If your looking at issues that need addressing try looking in the Police & Crime Forum HERE I think you will find most of the problems facing Newton Farm.

As for the hub, this could be used as a place to hold meetings and open days etc.. maybe a coffee shop where locals can pop in and air their views daily...

I totally agree with the police station being open 24 hours over the weekends!! this is a must!

Be interesting to see what the parish council's thoughts are or their guidelines on this subject, no comment as yet I notice.

Still waiting for a reply....*yawning*

Almost a year on and still nothing has been done to replace or actually use these notice boards, they look an eyesore in the current state!

Personally I think the garage is so close to the road I can't see the different myself, any lorries coming into the garage and not going to make any more noise than the lorries coming down the Belmont road. I think making the garage 24 hour would be good. There is a poll on here somewhere.

I am trying to settle a small argument here, did the Tesco garage used to be open 24 hours?

Yes the garage did used to be open 24 hours until a few years back when they extended the store and car park and the garage was moved to it's current position. I think it should be open 24 hours now, but apparently some resisdents have complaints about this, even though Tesco was there before the immediate houses, I should know I have lived here since the site was built 21 years ago.

Personally I prefer the green signs to the plain white ones

Colin, I advised you when you rang me that the yellow box at walnut Tree Ave was put in some 15yrs ago at the same time as the speed bumps which residents felt that there were to many in a short distance away from each other. Two weeks ago Walnut Tree Ave was closed for resurfacing the road, Amey were obliged to re-paint the box in because it was covered with the resurfacing, so in actual fact there is no new box.

Yes you did and I also told you that I would put my comments and a picture on the website. I agree that the yelow box has been repainted like new! after the road resurface but as someone else has pointed out, once Amey repainted it, they have now taken full ownership and responsibility too including the current legal guidelines, that they have referred too at the Belmont roundabout. I was advised that any work that Amey do or even renew comes under their guildlines as set out by the DOT, in theory they have now adopted that particular piece of work, be it a road sign or cutting a hedge. So based on that Amey should of put a "keep clear" sign there and not renewed the yellow box, it is irreveilent if its been there for 15 or 50 years, it's wrong! Well according to Amey anyway...hence why we could not have one.

Since my site visit last Wednesday with Amey manager Justine Heath that I arranged,and the report I posted earlier regarding yellow box at Tesco roundabout, I have this afternoon spoken with Justine Heath, although it is not possible to have a yellow box without traffic lights,I am of the opinion lights would only make the matter worse, I have come to a compromise with Amey to paint

"keep clear" signs on the road at the junction with Northolme Road, Abbotsmead Road and Southholme Road coming onto the Tesco roundabout. this will bring this long over due matter to a conclusio. I hope residents will accept my decision. I will be speaking with Mr Carhill at Amey tomorrow to see how quickly they can do this work, taking into account the present weather conditions.

There is no consistency here, originally back in May 2008 I requested yellow boxes on the roundabout, I was advised that yellow boxes were not permittd where there are no traffic lights, again, like the difference in the keep clear signs around the city, I find brand new painted yellow boxes in Walnut Tree Avenue;

There are no traffic lights anywhere near this location and this was only painted during the new roadworks last week! This is on the juction between Walnut Tree Avenue and Home Lane.

I imagine now that we will be told, ah this has been here for years so that's ok...however, surely the minute that Amey re-paint these signs they take responsabilty, so if this is not permitted, I am of the opinion that Amey are in breach as they should of corrected this especially now that they have accepted the responsabilty?

This is so frustrating as this works well in this location.

I have been somewhat confused for sometime about our street signs. They always used to be quite nice, for example like this one;



But none of them are the same, they vary quite a lot, I would assume that it would make sense and look smarter if they were all of the same format, but they are not. Whitefriars Road, the sign as you approach on the left is the one above (green) but the one exactly opposite it is like this one from the other end of the road;



As you drive around you then come to Chancel View, again a different sign;



Then you get to Glastonbury Close, now the one on the right as you approach is this one;



But the one exactly opposite is this one (which needs replacing)and they are getting cheaper...



Just an observation, but I just thought that it would be nicer to have them all in the same format, obviously the 1st green ones are the smarter more attractive signs but they have got cheaper and more tackier over the years. So is there a standard format to street signs?

To me, it is false economy to use the cheaper signs with stickers as they have to be constantly replaced, the last sign has been replaced a few times as the lettering just wears off. Surely it makes more sense to use more solid robust painted signs that last for years and years.

I think if Amey painted some lane guidance around this roundabout as Colin James has suggested it would help. Most of the traffic entering the city is almost already in the right lane, but that lane should be for turning right only, so a right arrow in that lane and a straight on arrow in the left lane I think would help.

 

Yes I spoke at length with Justine about this idea and would I think it would help.

Justine asked us to monitor the traffic, so here is a picture that I literally took 15 mins ago at 9.25am this morning, as you can see the new signs are NOT working!! So I fail to see how Councillor Edwards thinks it is?

As you can see the person in the grey car cannot get out! Maybe a solution would be land guidance?

Another

I had a very long 45min conversation with Justine Heath from Amey today, she kindly took the time to explain to me the restrictions and guidelines that they have to work within with regard to road signage, some of which to be fair I was unaware of.

The new signs I have measured and they are within the tolerances as set out by the department of transport. I have suggested to Justine that maybe a compromise could be to have the same signs repeated in the right hand lane, as most of the traffic coming into the city is already in the right hand lane as you can see from the pictures.

Like this picture;

To be fair Justine has emailed the DOT with these suggestions, also asking for their recommendations and guidelines on how we can overcome the current situation. She has advised me that the DOT can take up to 2-3 months to reply but as soon as they have she would come back to me. She has also suggested that guidelines around the roundabout may be an idea, as really the right hand lane should be used as per the highway code (for traffic going around and not into town, the left hand lane is for the traffic going into the city, although based on the position of the roundabout it is easy to see why traffic finds itself in the right hand lane).

I understand the Councillor Edwards seems to think that the current signage is ok, (as per his email to Amey) and working well? he obviously was not in the traffic at 8.15am this morning then, as it had made no difference what so ever.(Unless he was on his bicycle) I still had to fight my way out of the junction as I do most mornings. Jutine also confirmed that she was well aware of this ongoing problem as she had previously lived in Belmont and was also subject to these traffic problems on many occasion.

Now that I have been given all the facts and details from Amey, I think it only fair that I offer my sincere appologises for my initial outburst, condeming them. This was down to being slightly misinformed and a build up of frustration as it has taken 3 years to have these signs implimented, only for me to feel greatly disappointed as the end result was not what I believed it would be.

As suggested by Justine Heath, I would like all members to monitor this junction reporting information and pictures where possible in support of our case, which I think is a great idea. Justine commented that this website was useful and hopefully she will now register in order to be able to give our members accurate information from time to time so that we have the clear facts before we comment.

Justine could not comment on the Barton Road sign as she was not involved with that, so that one is still unexplained...

I would like to extend my appreciation for the time she gave me today explaining all the details and issues that she faces with regard to the guidelines set out by the DOT. It may be a while before they come back to her with their suggestions but in the meantime all we can do is monitor the situation.

I would also like to thank Councillor Powell for her continuing efforts in trying to resolve this issue.

Councillor Powell, when I spoke with you yesterday, you told me that you had requested that the signs go from the edge of the junction across to the edge of the roundabout,

Having seen the photographs Colin James took today when he contacted me this afternoon, I have sent my comments to Amey, advising them what I actually said when we had site meeting in November which was: the keep clear signs needed to be put across the whole road from Abbotsmead Rd / Northolme Rd / Southolme Rd to reach the edge of the island on the other side. I have now ask for this to be put right by the end of this coming week

Anyway, with regard to sizes;

1. Why couldn't Amey just have centred the signs to cover both carriageways?

2. Can Amey now install additional signs next to the existing ones, covering the other lane (side by side) as traffic coming nto the city will automatically think that these signs are only for those vehicles in the left hand lane and not them, as they are already in the middel of the road as you can clearly see from the images provided.We do not really need a sign around the other side coming from Newton Farm as the traffic does not really build up there, we only really need to cover the junctions of Abbotsmead Road and Dorchester Way.

With regard to permitted sizes I am a little confused as I was in Barton Road earlier and could not help but notice the large KEEP CLEAR sign on the juction of Friars Street, now while the "KEEP" word is within tolerance at 2400 in height the "CLEAR" word a considerably bigger at 2850 in height, but over 3650 in width! and from white line to white line it is over 9010 in length that's nearly 30ft! covering that juction perfectly, so why is that? Maybe Amey can provide us with the answer seeing as they would possibly of installed it...

Picture below;

All we actually need is either these signs re-done and centred or additional signs put in the right hand lane, otherwise this whole project will have been a waste of time and money. The whole idea was to prevent the queues of traffic coming into the city blocking these exits and preventing vehicles from Belmont crossing the roundabout, which at the moment is not going to change unless this is rectified in some manner.

(2 Keep Clear Markings (TSRGD Diagram No 1026)

2.1 This is an advisory marking that should be used in mainly urban areas where the traffic flow to side roads or public accesses are temporarily blocked due to queues of traffic being generated by another junction. The two types of location they can be considered are:

i. Where a queue of vehicles waiting at one junction blocks back across another, thereby obstructing the flow of cross traffic.

ii. At a private entrance used by the general public (eg access to a supermarket), but only in places where it can genuinely be helpful in maintaining a smooth traffic flow.)

I am also keen to write to the paper as I think this is a joke, but I will wait to see what the outcome is to be fair.

I cannot believe how the new signs look. This is the result of the new KEEP CLEAR signs

How useless is that! restricted to one lane, so cars coming from Abergavenny will completely miss this and will still continue to queue preventing vehicles from Belmont getting onto the Belmont Road as you can see, this defeats the whole object and anyone trying to edge their way out from Belmont will cover this little sign!

So I thought I would help Amey out by giving them a little clue on how it should look...

Well we have the keep clear signs, but I cannot believe that they have limited them to just the inside lane!! When I compromised on the "Keep Clear" signs I assumed like anyone else would, that they would have been put across the whole section, this is not going to work as people traveling down from the Abergavenny side are already in the center of the road coming around the roundabout, unbelievable...

We only need ONE 'keep clear' sign at the tesco exit.

Typical-you ask for ONE, then THREE come along!

Mmm I had the same thought but best I do not complain as this may only confuse them, which will then lead to more meetings and delays... :Smile_32:

This should of been done a long long time ago to be fair, all it takes is a man from Amey with a template and a can of yellow spray paint, not rocket science really. I notice that the 20th is today and it is a gorgeous day, so lets see if this actually happens.

On 08/03/2011 at 16:31, Glenda Powell said:

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.

This is long overdue, surely this is really a council problem and they should be cleaning this public area weekly? But looking forward to a full day where we can all get stuck in!