Frank Smith

I know it must be very difficult for serving Councillors to comment upon our fears for Hereford. Perhaps some of them feel as we do. Im sure that they must but somehow or other whatever the dynamics are within the Council, particularly those who have their hands on the levers of power, this has to change and its the Councillors who are sympathetic to our views who can bring about this change.

Without some intervention and a change in the way business is conducted, our rapid fall into ruin will only accelerate.

We have some serious problems to address and many of those problems are to expensive for us to resolve right now. But there are a thousand and one little things that the Council could do now which wouldn't cost a great deal. Like extending the hours to enable visitors into the City to get some food. Keeping our City clean and tidy, giving some attention to the way we present our home to ourselves and outsiders. A lick of paint here and there can do wonders.

The Council only need to grasp the new reality, stop wasting money on pointless gimmicks, stop paying huge consultancy fees, shine some light on their decision making and listen to what we have to say.

This Council are charged with leading our communities and to do that they should inspire and tap in to people's hopes for a better future and get the best out of what we still have.

If the Council do these things then gradually the cynics will cool, they'll tone down there criticism, people will quickly see that we are doing the right things, there is a sensible course plotted and then our confidence will grow. And when that happens we will recover.

I totally agree with bobby47's comments, spot on!

What timescale did you give them to complete this work Councillor?

Do we have any update Cllr Powell on your last comment?

All done

I cannot believe how stupid they are at times. Why do they not just remove the posts, they have all the equipment it would take them a couple of hours to remove the lot!

Hurray hurray hurray and leave the damn lights off too. What a pleasure it was driving into the city this morning. 

Time to write to the Hereford Times as this is pathetic, how long now since Amey were made aware about these dangerous posts?

Frank, apparently the one outside the fish shop in Hunderton is still being used by the resident association because they think the new one is not in the right place. The maps have been removed because they were not what was asked for and was poor quality. They have to be replaced at no extra cost.

There should be no extra cost if they are not what was asked for. Glenda may I suggest that you look at the notice board in Hunderton it is not being used and has not been used in years

I have spoken to Andrew Lee-Jones at Amey this morning about the incorrect positioning of the signs, also inviting him to come on here to see the comments, he advised he would look into my complain as he was not aware the signs had already been put up.

Whilst out on Newton Farm yesterday morning I ask the men cutting the grass to cut the weeds, they said they couldn't because they were from Herefordshire Housing and the weeds are Amey responsibility. Does it really matter who cut them down as long as someone does!

But you spoke with Amey operatives on Thursday 16th according to your posts above, so why did they not do it then?That was almost 2 weeks ago.

These weeds are still there, I noticed late this afternoon

I think just employ robots as clearly they have no common sense, seem to spend more time putting the things right, more cost effective if they get it right first time around.   Even I can see that these signs are pretty useless as they are.

Well done Colin for cleaning the sign post, looks new 

Ask them to remove the others while you are at it Glenda please. There is another vile blue unused notice board outside the chip shop in Hunderton. I have noticed that the maps have been removed from the new notice boards now? what's happening with these?

I was intriged by the above comments so I came to have a look for myself and yes Mick and Colin are correct, this is a half finished job and the standard of workmenship leaves a lot to be desired. My shoes are covered in this horrible pink grit, this path should be tarmac.

It is not level, why did they not level it out nice and flat first?

I spoke to a woman walking her dog and she was not impressed either, she also thought it was not not complete, I told her that I think this is completed and again her reaction was like the other people, that it should be tarmac.

It is no wonder that the Oval is described as a dump. Priorities are all wrong and yes I also think the the notice boards were a complete and utter waste of money. They still have those old blue South Wye ones in place, that nobody has ever maintained, they look a state and in my opinion should of been removed long ago. 

Well based upon their performance overall I hope someone else gets the contract!

Looking at the photo where the crain is, is this not the parking area for people with disabilities that they are destroying!

Will not be a bad thing this city has nothing but disabled parking! none left for non disabled people now

Interesting...so are they closing the one at the garage?

Why FREE? I do not get anything for Free

As the quality of the bags have become very poor I am happy to buy my own. Although the council has not indicated an alternative I would not be in agreement if they considered charging for black bags as they do for the green bags.

Not everyone can afford to buy their own bags and some will not want too, so expect a lot more fly tipping at a much bigger cost to the council, very short sited indeed.

Time to remind Amey and our Councillors about this daily problem! I last spoke with Justine Heath from Ameyon Friday 9th of September 2011 with regard to her supposed letter/email she send to the DOT, she told me that she would come back to me and never has!! (There's a suprise) well I don't go away easily, I can be like a dog with a bone! So I will give her another call on Monday for an update.

 

Some lane guidance or bigger KEEP CLEAR signs is clearly needed as I get stuck on this roundabout EVERY MORNING! the traffic along the Belmont Road is getting worse and worse and I have also noticed it is not just a peak times either now....I will be starting an additional topic with regard to the Asda roundabout and the stupid waste of money traffic lights that need to be turned off, but lets see if we can get some sort of a resolve on this problem first.

 

Depending upon reples or in Ameys case often NO REPLIES I may even write to the Hereford Times as clearly very little is being done in my opinion and I will be naming all parties concerned.

 

To be fair to Cllr Powell she has been very helpful so far with this issue.

Good for you Colin and as you predicted these TINY signs have NEVER worked, they should of got it right first time! So now you have to try and push for your idea on lane guidance because as you picture shows currently when traffic approaches from Abergavenny side they are already in the middle of the road, completely missing the TINY signs, so maybe lane guidance will force them onto the signs.

I have had a reply by phone this afternoon, a works number has been raised for the inspection / removal of the various posts across Newton Farm / GWW that has been identified. In regard to the graffeti on the fence an officer from Amey will be visiting the house the fence belongs to to ask for the removal of graffeti.

Well Cllr Powell posted this as far back as March (almost 4 months ago!) and on my walk about today all of the reported posts along the GWW and Newton Farm are still in situ dispite the dangers the some pose :Thumbs-Down:

I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on this but I don't think this is quite the way it works.

 

The actual tax band your property falls within is based upon a national calculation which is based on property values. However, what you pay within each band depends upon the council tax set by your local authority and is made up of lots of different parts including a levy by the police and a parish element which is based upon the precept or funding requested by the parish council. Unitary authorities such as Herefordshire Council (which provides many of the services for local residents such as bin collecting for example) are capped but parish councils are not, which is why many of the larger authorities are now trying to pass on financial responsibility for some services to parish councils. Both Hereford City Council and Belmont Rural are parishes and hence able to set what they feel is an appropriate precept element to your overall council tax bill.

 

As residents living in a parish only pay the parish element for where they live and this can be the reason why there's a difference in the amounts paid by Newton Farm (City Parish) and the Belmont Estate (Belmont Rural parish) for the same banded property. The City is, of course, a much larger Parish and provides much more in the way of facilities and services it its own right than Belmont Rural does hence it's precept requirement is much higher than BRPC but then it's split amongst many more households.

 

Hope this helps explain it a bit.

This is a very good explanation thank you.

Interesting...

Congratulations Colin on your superb letter in this week's Hereford Times, what you wrote was spot on.

You should become a Councillor we could do with the younger blood!

I have to agree with the two Cllrs for Hinton & St.Martins ward who wrote in the HT this week against Asda filling station. In 2003 when the Asda application came before the Central Planning Committee the area they want to put the filling station on was for housing,the traffic lights installation was a part of the planning application at that time therefore it is doubtful that a condition in the present application will be to remove or perminantly turn the lights off! The traffic congestion at this point as everyone agrees is unacceptable to the people coming from the South of the city. A filling station at Asda will only make the matter worse!

Personally I do not think it will make it any worse as you have to leave via this exit more or less now. I think if this is used as a slip road out (give way - left turn only)rather than the current traffic lights exit it will hardly have any effect. But something needs to be done about those main lights! when they are not working the traffic flows! This is well known, so why are they not looking at this?