Colin James

 Colin there are often bad cyclists as there are bad motorists. I have seen the behaviour of bad cyclists in London but this is not the majority of cyclists and certainly doesn't apply to many biking around Hereford.

In the last few months cars and vans have been used as terrorist weapons to kill and maim people but I do not claim that all car drivers are terrorists! However, a bad motorist will do more damage than a bad cyclist. 

Cyclists are not permitted to ride on non designated pavements. Likewise, cars aren't permitted to drive on pavements and yet how many times have pedestrians tried to get passed cars blocking pavements around Hereford. It is not unusual, especially outside schools to see parents having to steer pushchairs into traffic because cars are blocking pavements.  As I said we should all respect each other, and to do this we should all respect Highway rules. I understand that The Highway code actually permits cyclists to cycle 2 a breast as car drivers should view all cyclists as if it were another vehicle and give them 1.5M clearance when passing. 

I agree it is not the majority of cyclists and I thought that I made that point clear but I do not agree that a bad motorist will do more damage than a bad cyclist because that has to come down to the individual circumstances of any incident, but I have witnessed a 3 car pile up in central London only 2 years ago, which was down to a bad cyclist, who was not insured either! I can remember at the time some the people complaining to the police (who attended) about damages and that the cyclist had said that he was not insured which is something else that should be a legal requirement in my view.

I agree that cars should NOT park on the pavements and I will be running an article covering that very subject in the next week or so. I have some rather interesting photographs. 

All bikes should have a bell on them.  I use mine when coming from behind to warn people there is a cyclist approaching, if I am on a shared use path. Most people are fine about this but some seem cross when I have rung it, as if I was trying to frighten them. It is just to warn them not to meander in front of a relatively slow moving bike they wont have seen and which is effectively silent. 

I did have a dilemma when the children were young as I didn't like my children under the age of 8 cycling on the road if it was a busy. I would try and choose quiet routes, but sometimes we would be on a short stretch of busy road and then I would encourage them to cycle on the pavement for safety but to get off there bikes if there were pedestrians. I think there needs to be more respect for all people travelling, and from car drivers in particular towards cyclists. Some car drivers seem to think cyclists have no right to be there.

One long stretch of wide pavement which you rarely see people walking on is the A49 from Asda aroundabout up to the Victoria Street subway. This would be ideal for shared space, but no one seems to have done this section of pavement. Any one know why not?

Maggie I have much respect for all other road users, however in my experience cyclists are even worse in some cases! Particularly in London, they all try to be clever now by wearing head cameras (I understand the reasons why) and a lot will go out of their way to provoke motorists, believe me, I have seen it all. Many also expect the motorist to abide by the highway code, yet when it suits they will go the wrong way around small junctions and bollards, often they will mount the pavement to avoid red lights and once the other side will come back down onto the road, they will often ride 2 or 3 side by side, so it is virtually impossible to pass them in a vehicle. I see guys riding no handed while texting and this is on the pavements. They will often shout abuse too, so they are not as squeaky clean as people may think. 

 

Just a little reminder of who is who in Hereford City Council.  HCC receive a fairly hefty precept each year. 

Thank you, but I already have all of these details Denise and I have already had discussions with a City Councillor about this, see my first post. 

Look more like trees Colin

It is a disgrace ragwert, I am going to take a walk downtown and take a few more photographs shortly. I have had a chat with a City Councillor about this, so watch this space. 

Some interesting information on the history of the city defences etc.

Additional photographs;

I found this very old photograph online of Gunners Lane 

circa 1926

Gunners Lane 19th August 2017

Hereford City Walls Bath Street. (there is a Medieval City Wall hidden under all this greenery)

Bottom section of the City Walls near to Wye Terrace, bushes are quite overgrown here.

A new wall has possibly recently been erected or it could have just been re-pointed, on top of the existing Medieval City Wall, as you can see from where the cones are located.

Greyfriars Avenue (at the back of the surgery) also forms part of Wye Terrace

Location of Bastion at the back of Greyfriars surgery (Wye Terrace)

Hereford City Walls Blueschool Street (This is the slip road which runs along Maylord Orchards). This section of the City Wall is completely covered in greenery and hidden from view.

Hereford City Walls Blueschool Street from the main road, you can see that most of the wall is hidden with greenery. 

Why are our beautiful Medieval City Walls being left to ruin?

I have mentioned this in the recent topic about a number of increased weeds in our city but I do think this justifies a unique topic.

Just look at the weeds growing from the top of this section along Gunners Lane.

Hereford Voice is highlighting just how bad this has become in an attempt to provoke some action and possible restoration from the Council. Hopefully, we can encourage them to put a maintenance plan in place going forward. The Herefordshire County Council need to look at having the weeds removed and also look at cleaning and repairing any unstable sections of the City Walls.

The survival of our Medieval City Walls is very important, this is our heritage and therefore should be protected for future generations to come, after all this site is a scheduled monument protected by law.  

There was a study of Hereford's City Walls back in September 2011 details here and details about the Area of Archaeological Importance (AAI) can be found here

A map of Hereford Area of Archaeological Importance, Hereford city wall conservation management plan documents and archaeology supplementary planning guidance can be found here and here

At Last! 

The monstrosity left behind following a major fire that damaged Alban House in High Town Hereford is finally going to be given a new lease of life.

This eyesore has been left untouched ever since the fire back in 2010.

Plans have been submitted this week for alterations and extensions to form 2 ground floor retails units with 10 residential units above with 6 additional apartments at the rear facing onto East Street and a further 3 town houses also at the rear.

Quote

Proposed alterations and extensions to form 2 no. ground floor retail units with 10 no. residential units above following major fire damage.Proposed erection of 6 no. residential apartments facing East Street. Demolition of redundant outbuilding and construction of 3 new town houses to rear courtyard area.

P172823/F

P172824/L

On 18/08/2017 at 23:41, twowheelsgood said:

This is a project that the City Council could/should pick up and fund, especially the signs and vending machine.

I think Jim Kenyon has managed to get a local business to sponsor some of the signage. I spoke with Jim yesterday and he had a few concerns over the funding of my idea of a vending machine as we are not sure if the city council will put any money into the pot however, I am sure we could encourage some local businesses to support a vending machine.

The Hereford Times called me yesterday and wanted me to appear in a photograph near the pond, this is all very nice but to be fair, I am not the only person involved in this project and I pointed this out to the editor, explaining that I am more than happy to be photographed alongside the story etc but I think that it is only fair that Keith Marston and Jim Kenyon and anyone else involved is included because there are a few people striving to get the pond cleaned up and restored to its former glory with a maintenance plan in place going forward. We plan on all meeting up at some point next week. 

I downloaded this from my Spanish friends Facebook page.

Translated it reads;

Map of terrorist attacks in Europe, Poland has a strict anti-immigration policy, draw your own conclusions...

Another attack further along the coast in Cambrils last night and a hero police officer managed to kill 4 of the terrorists! 

Source

This is happening far to frequently, more terrible news. 

Sick bastard COWARDS!

HT not allowing comments though ...

They are on their Facebook page

I hear from a very reliable source this evening that the reason that the duck pond was always kept so clean years ago was that the river water was pumped through it, keeping a nice steady flow and stopping it becoming stagnant as it is now. The pump house is located at the bottom turret next to the Victoria Bridge, I know this because my source's relative used to operate it. Over the years we have gone from the Council doing the maintenance to Amey and now Balfour Beattie and we believe somewhere along the line this pump has been forgotten or had possibly stopped working and has never been maintained.

I took these photographs this evening of the location.

Si Hudson stone mason at work 

How wonderful to see that the Widemarsh War Memorial has been restored.

The restoration work was instigated by Hereford City Council - Ward Councillor Paul Stevens after he had been contacted by local veteran Mr David Williams. 

Councillor Stevens instructed stone mason Si Hudson to carry out the work, and as you can see from these photographs has done an absolutely fantastic job of bringing back to life the names of the soldiers who gave their lives. There are over 70 names on the memorial in total and their names are now being revealed once again inlaid with black paint. The restoration work will be complete within the next few days.

Councillor Paul Stevens is attempting to contact any known relatives of these soldiers and he has already had some success and has managed to contact several people in time for a rededication ceremony.

Have contacted Herefordshire Council via e-mail asking where they get these signs from.

I don't mind dipping into my pocket to buy a few and have them put up.

This is very generous of you, I am also happy to put towards any costs for signs.

We will promote the idea to put up several educational signs, maybe involve the kids at local schools to come up with design something similar to these;

Perhaps all her supporters will get together and remove it so as to save the taxpayers 

I have heard tonight that it has all been removed, not sure who removed it but apparently, it has gone. 

A few months ago we were walking past the duck pond and noticed how dirty and full of algae it had become and I commented at the time on how it had deteriorated over the years. A few days later I was invited to join a new Facebook group that had only recently been set up by local chap Keith Marston called 'The Duck Pond Hereford clean up' and I thought what a great idea, he asked me if I would help him move this idea forward using Hereford Voice as the platform. I joined the group immediately and said that Hereford Voice would help out and publicise this idea as much as possible. I have also contacted Cllr Jim Kenyon and he is also going to do what he can to raise awareness. 

I took this photograph today, the pond is absolutely covered in green algae, a lot of this is because people are feeding these ducks with bread, most of us think this is kind but in reality, bread can makes ducks ill and certainly does not contain the right calories and nutrition to keep ducks warm during the winter months. Rotting bread pollutes the water and encourages bad surface algae which kill the fish and causes diseases in ducks as well making the water smell. 

I also thought long term could we have a food vending machine like the one in the photo below installed and the proceeds from any profits made to go towards the maintenance of the duck pond...

Nobody on the grass by Steels or on the roundabout now, she just left a load of rubbish that BB will no doubt have to collect again. 

I know Andy, so this will be a great project

Unfortunately, we never quite managed a full year...

One of the posts at the back of the retail park was damaged by a lorry searier this yeaar and has not been repaired, also the store mangers/supervisors locked the gates for about the forst 3 weeks and the no longer bother, this is the result...

I collected my mrs from work at the retail park last night and we saw several young drivers pulling onto the site and parking and I said to her then, I wonder how much litter we will see in the morning...

This is the damaged post at the back of the retail park

On 11/08/2017 at 15:52, twowheelsgood said:

Setting the standard - a fine welcome to the City for those arriving by bus. Rusty, dirty, leaning (and unnecessary) railings and a bumper crop of weeds. Classy.

Yes mate, I took a photo ops these last week just forgot to upload it, also a beautiful photograph of the weeds growing out of the top of our medieval city walls, something we should be proud of not IGNORE!