herefordman75

Several very large ones appearing now between Clehonger and Madley. Three in a cluster on Bowling Green Pitch (heading towards Clehonger) just past the left turn into Clehonger, and a very large one, almost a 1/3rd of the way across the road, just before The Comet (same side - about 3/5 miles past the Eaton Bishop Turn).

My mum and brother have just got fibre in the Golden Valley, was switched on last week - not bad considering up until June of last year BT were telling her that she shouldn't be able to get any broadband service up where they are (even though they have had internet since the early 2000's)

I don't think you will get very far with your pursuit to be fair, as you they aren't really doing anything wrong with their ad. It could be construed as misleading to some, however, as such, there isn't actually a fixed retail price on anything. Most of it is based upon the net price plus a mark up to make a profit margin. All they are doing here is buying a part, making up a price for it based upon labour rates etc and selling it at an all inclusive price - nothing wrong with that per se - as essentially, there is no labour charge included on the invoice.

Re opened now - will still take ages to get the traffic chaos cleared though

The difference in the council tax banding between us and Westminster is not really comparable, as Westminster has a higher population density than we do in Herefordshire, hence the lower figures. When you factor in the cost of housing in the borough, you can top £1200 a week for a bedsit. They do really need to look at the bandings for CT for inner London and the rest of the country.

The Starbucks reference is interesting, I am sure there was an episode of the Simpsons set in the future where each shop in a precinct was changing to a Starbucks every five minutes or so.....

It's the same whichever border you cross Ragwert. Head to Abergavenny and the road improves drastically after the river bridge at Pontrilas, head towards Brecon and the story is the same, lovely smooth pothole free roads. We had to go to Builth a few weeks back, and they were resurfacing about 3 miles of road between Erwood and Aberdw (roughly) the proper way, stripping it back to a decent under surface (could even see the old white lines) then over topping with fresh black top, not the usual poor job we have here, slap some tarmac in the holes, tamp it down, then spray some wet tar and sprinkle with chippings.

I think a lot of them are going by the "Thou shalt not throw money at a scam" Bobby

The B4352 from Clehonger to Madley is quite bad as you leave Clehonger (weirdly there was a section resurfaced properly last year, only on the Clehonger side though) through Cagedale. On the other side, Bowling Green pitch is quite bad, same for the road outside the Gooses Foot estate at Kingstone. Plenty of broken surface on the approaches to the roundabout at the A49 end of the Rotherwas relief road too.

I agree completely Maggie - our roads are getting worse by the day. It's putting me off getting back on my bike to commute to work come spring, not keen on damaging myself or my bike.

£250 for a spring??? Doesn't really make sense as they are just a coil spring. I could buy one from a local motor factors for about £50 that would do the job just fine.

My OH managed to have a scrap with a vacuum cleaner as it fell down a flight of stairs (long story) which resulted in a painful wrist injury. We went to Asda clinic first, and to be fair to them, they did advise us to go straight to A&E (this was beginning of December), as they suspected a fracture. We then spent 3 hours sat waiting to be seen, after that it was a swift visit to x ray, and back out of the door. The waiting room was full (it was as a Sunday afternoon/early evening) and there was a steady flow of incoming patients (one guy came in with a dislocated ankle and was waiting in a wheelchair for almost as long as we were to be seen).

It is a sad state of affairs that it is closing down, although I suspect a lot of that is the proliferation of "gourmet" coffee chains popping up, the lack of investment in the actual building (looks the same as it did back in the 80's - and probably before that too!) and maybe even the change in shopping habits. Since the shops started closing at that end of High Town, people don't feel the need to head that far along the street, stopping at Costa on the way down, or even Mcdonalds instead. There are many reasons, none of which we will really find out, unless someone knows the proprietor, until then it's speculation. I just hope that whatever they can sell from the business to cover the debts incurred are enough to not affect the owners personal situation.

@Greenknight that would make more sense than altering the A49 to Ross to accept more traffic, especially as it would then be a quick link to the M4 and the motorway network. It would also shorten journey times for HGV traffic as they wouldn't have to go along the M50/M5 to go southbound M4 etc The Pontrilas bottleneck wouldn't cause too many issues as I suspect they would either build a bridge over the railway line, or construct a new bridge for the line to pass over it.

The A49 wouldn't be viable as an alternative to the M5/M6 unless it was duel carriageway from Shrewsbury to Ross, it just doesn't have the capacity - think Dorrington, Church Stretton etc Wales have done it right with the duelling of the A465 from Abergavenny all the way to the M4 (eventually anyway - Merthyr end by Asda is next to be done after they finish Black Rock) it really is a nice journey from the top of Black Rock to Merthyr now

Denise - I believe that allpay pulled the plug on new installations due to some legal implications (and possibly planning/technology advances to 4g networks) on their church broadband scheme. As an example, my mum had to cancel her fixed line broadband earlier this year due to constant drop outs and poor service (well under 1mb speeds) and now has a box from EE which runs on the 4g network, which gives her upwards of 35gb data downstream - BT tried 23 engineers and still couldn't find the problem (more than likely the 40+ year old copper cables) and told her in no simple terms, we can't find the problem, keep complaining and we will disconnect you!

I suspect it may be too far gone for the majority of potential investors, would require some fairly major work to bring it up to a decent standard. I suspect it may be out dated with respect to the latest electrical/fire safety regs by now. The current owners really have let it go badly over the last few years.

Bobby you are forgetting the annual "charity" fests where these celebrities beg us to give a tenner to the chosen "charity" - why don't they donate 10% of their own wealth to said charity - or even as Bill Gates etc have done and donate nearly all of their wealth to solving problems? Makes me baulk when you look into the salaries the heads of these "charities" pay themselves, most are on 6 figure sums. I don't have anything against charity work, I just disagree with the top echelons being paid silly amounts of money for what they do.

Nice to see a new shop opening - too expensive for my wallet though I'm afraid (besides which, I'm not a person who is concerned with designer labels anyway)

Isn't that the same as the new builds by keepmoat at the oval? I'm sure there was a clause in the contracts for those regarding an annual charge for grounds maintenance and upkeep of equipment ie the play areas. Surely they have an obligation to inform new tenants at point of sale?

@ Adrian - we actively avoid any reality tv that is broadcast, preferring decent drama (Blacklist for example) and good documentaries. I did notice yesterday, that there are more young viewers watching the new David Attenborough show Planet Earth 2 than watching the latest round of X Factor - so maybe the tide is turning.

What about The Heart of Oak at the bottom of Edgar Street? Isn't that currently vacant? Personally I would have thought the old Indian restaurant at Stretton Sugwas would be perfect - just out of town, nice location with a good sized car park

Well said Bobby! I was beginning to think I was in a minority with this so called "entertainment" that is rammed down our throats constantly. It's no wonder the population are descending into mindless sheeple - they are being brainwashed by these "entertainers", most of which should have been put out to grass years ago. "Reality" TV is cheap to make, the spin offs from merchandising & premium rate calls and texts are what makes the money, along with the lucrative advertising in between the, um, "program" (if you can call it that)

Fantastic to see it restored. Remember sheltering under the wings in the rain numerous times. Wonder what happened to the helicopter that was out the back and the APC (think it was a ferret?) they had inside

Hope they do - will save a trip to Gloucester (or Worcester) for a good value carvery, as long as it's a good standard of course. Some of the Toby's we have been to are disappointing, with Gloucester consistently being the best (in our opinion anyway)