SON OF GRIDKNOCKER

Welcome to Herefordshire, you Cornish evacuees! Unlike your former county (now overrun by metropolitan chattering classes, I gather), Herefordshire remains one of Britain's best-kept secrets, thanks largely to our council's inept marketing department. Coffee shops are always an essential starting point on any foray into a city's centre. Well you'll be glad to hear that Starbucks has been-and-gone. The coffee in All Saint's Cafe is good but pricey; and the service in friendly Ascari's (apparently its founder once had dreams of being a Grand Prix racer) is friendly, but its coffee is only Second Division quality. For the supreme dark espresso (or try their amazing 'Flat White') and a cordial reception from owner/ manager Nicola, make Sensory & Rye (corner of Union Street and Bath Street) your Staging Post for any of your city centre explorations. The cafe's 'retro-industrial' decor is particularly memorable.

Me neither mate. But I do wish you'd sling your hook!

An unintended spin-off created by White Elephant Way (aka the Link Road), and clearly evident in Colin's picture at the top of this thread, is that this city has a railway station to be proud of: visually far more exciting than either Shrewsbury, Newport or Temple Meads. This Grade II listed building is the overall responsibility of Network Rail, though rather unusually for this ham-fisted organisation, it managed to foist a full-repairing lease for the structure's maintenance and improvement onto Arriva Trains. "What improvements?" I hear you ask. Apart from the two disabled lift towers, very little. Most of the woodwork needs a good coat of paint and the fact that the entire first floor has remained empty for more than a decade is nothing short of a disgrace. Has anyone any thoughts on what this huge area might be converted into?

Pleased to see that cyclists and street-savvy pedestrians are starting use the excellent Brian Wilcox Back Passage, which connects Union Street with Morrisons' car park.

So was it worth the wait and the almighty disruption of the last two years? And will it, when all the bills are finally in (like the true costs of Blueschool House), turn out to be an extremely expensive white elephant? A Voice poster recently queried what the council will call it. May I start the ball rolling with this suggestion: WHITE ELEPHANT WAY. One serious omission seems to be total lack of tree planting along the new road's route, though token sections of the banking around the former Rockfield DIY site have been planted with evergreens. Any phule know that trees lining heavily-used urban highways are very effective pollution filters. Yet White Elephant Way seems to have none, as far as I can see. Lots and lots of traffic signals, but no trees.

Having Harry Bramer in charge of contract management policy is an inspired idea.

Agree 100% with Denise's two posts above about the shameful way that Herefordshire Council has treated these poor local farmers. I wonder how Cllr Johnson ever manages to get to sleep at night.

Sorry, I'm not offering to 'fill in the blanks' vis-a-vis this poor old lady's demise. But I would guess that if you could a) get through on the telephone and speak to someone at West Mercia Police Authority and b) enquire precisely how many successful prosecutions have thus far been brought against cyclists riding on the city's pavements, the answer would probably be: "This is an on-going situation which we recognise and accordingly a cross-community group has been set up (with Home Office funding) to explore the problem".

So basically it's a big shed with all the architectural elan of that two-storey Portakabin extension to the Robert Owen Academy. Plus ca change; plus ca la meme chose!

By contrast, Debenhams' store in the Old Market precinct invariably has more sales assistants than shoppers. At the time of its opening, the rumour was the retailer had been given a six-year rent-free occupation of this giant unit. If memory serves, we are shortly approaching the sixth anniversary. Interesting times!

"The lack of commercial interest...over a number of years..." is estate agent weaselspeak for: "we just couldn't be arsed to go out and find a High Street name that was willing to take the building on. We stuck our board up (with our Birmingham phone number on it) but nobody contacted us." Plonking a 17-unit residential block (if the Planning Committee rolls over to have its tummy tickled) alongside a lively city centre disco-pub seems to me to be social engineering gone mad. But then most council planners are head-bangers.

I'll support Denise's 'Pricey Way' as the name for the complete Link Road. For the secret footpath linking Canal Street and Station Approach, discovered by Aylestone Voice, how about 'Wilcox's Back Passage'?

Back in June, Aylestone Voice drew attention to the fact that a footpath / cycleway had been created, linking Canal Street with Station Approach. Everything is a lot tidier down that end now: bollards, kerbing, grass, galv fencing. But not a single directional sign! I sometimes wonder if there is a special unit at Plough Lane entitled: KEEP OUR LIGHT HIDDEN UNDER A BUSHEL. Yonks ago (Councillor Wilcox was in charge of Highways, so that shows you just how many yonks it was) the admirable local rail pressure group Rail for Hereford contacted the council to suggest that directional signs for travellers arriving at Hereford Station (for such things as the Three Choirs Festival) would be enormously helpful, should they want to make the journey on foot, avoiding traffic, and were unfamiliar with the city's layout. A simple enough request, you would have thought: six or so signs on posts (first directing people to this 'secret' footpath, then along Coningsby and Widemarsh Streets) would probably have costs about 100th of the cost of that fatuous computer-generated 'drive-through' video of the Link Road. The RfH suggestion wasn't even acknowledged.

Wholeheartedly agree with Bobby's post. We've long passed through PC; now we've become a nanny state. Watch out for the furore that will envelop Eddie Izzard's attempt to get himself elected onto the Labour's National Executive. Most puzzling of all is the fact that this young lady's Facebook indiscretion and court appearance were actually reported in that bastion of Free Speech The Hereford Times! The local newspaper whose website editor felt it inappropriate for the public to be forewarned of the arrival in the city of Prince William.

The Plough Lane suits are remaining remarkably tight-lipped about when precisely their showpiece Link Road is to be officially opened. As with the long-awaited (and much-delayed) disabled lifts at Hereford Station, several dates in the Supreme Leader's diary have had to be scratched out. Betting is now: "Not this side of Christmas." Of course, logically, the ribbon-cutting ceremony should be performed by the new Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Roads. But at this rate of progress he'll probably be Prime Minister by the time the road is finished.

I certainly didn't have any trouble reading it. This is a 24ct King Bobby rant. Who else who posts on The Voice could manage such an articulate 130-word single-sentence paragraph?

I accept that, in this day and age, the telling of bureaucratic porkies is now the norm. Who can watch smarmy Monsieur Barnier each night on TV and not see his nose growing exponentially, Pinocchio-like, with every falsehood he peddles. Several years back (before Brockington had been smashed by the wreckers' ball and the council's development company was still quaintly dubbed ESG), I sat through a planning meeting which discussed the pros and cons of acquiring the family-owned DIY Rockfield warehouse. Pre-Wilco, this was the best retail shed in the county for bargains. I happened to be sitting in the public gallery directly behind Rockfield's owner, who was crestfallen at witnessing the sudden and unwarrented demise of his family business. OK he laughed all the way to the bank in the end; but it was the utterly spurious claim by council officers that the building stood in a direct line of their Blessed Link Road that I find still find so disgusting.

It all has a rather nice symmetrical feel about it, doesn't it? 'Wrists have been smacked' 'Lessons have been Learned' 'Lips are sealed' 'Collars Have Been Felt'. "Move on please, there's nothing to see here in Plough Lane."

At long last! Brockington may have gone under the demolition contractor's wrecking ball. And there are still a few timid souls hiding away at the back of the Shire Hall. But finally, collars are being felt in Plough Lane.

Silly-billy Bobby. It was probably that apple-dunking on stage in the FC's holy water bucket which affected your hearing. It wasn't The Old Rugged Cross the congregation was singing, mate - it was the Red Flag!

Pirated minutes of a recent Freedom Church management committee meeting:- ITEM 17 Problem of unauthorised overnight sleepers in the entrance porch of FC's Commercial Road premises. The three options for the committee to consider are:- 1) call the police; 2) offer the sleepers Christian sanctuary and a hearty breakfast; 3) erect a security roller shutter (estimated cost: £850). Option 3 was passed unanimously.

BLUESCHOOL HUB Service of Thanksgiving HEREFORD CATHEDRAL For the deliverance from perdition by SWAP of Officers A B & C Processional hymn: Lead us heavenly Johnson, lead us O'er this authority's financially-blighted sea. Feed us, guard us, bung us For we have no hope but thee. Yet possessing every blessing Tony Johnson, our Godfather be Sermon by the Dean of Hereford ( the Rt Rev'd Whats-his-name) on the theme 'Lessons Have Been Learned'. Collection (to raise funds for the post-service pi*%-up in the Lichfield Vaults). Mine Host::Bill 'Gis-us-a-job ' Norman. Special stand-up comedy act: Andrew 'You couldn't make it up' Lovegrove.

Slightly askew to this thread's main theme (homeless sleeping rough outdoors), but a good friend of mine worked for many years at the Hereford branch of the Samaritans. He said that they would often get a visit from an itinerant vagrant (once called 'men of the road') who just wanted a bit of warmth and a free cup of tea and a biscuit. One regular told my friend that amongst the men of the road, word spread that Hereford was a 'no go' area, for the simple reason that it has no refuge (unlike, say Worcester or Gloucester). The best place to kip, he said, was in the pedestrian tunnel connecting Eign Gate with Whitecross Road, though even there, one was in danger of 'getting a kicking' from homeward-bound disco revellers. If it wants to put its compassionate Christian money where its mouth is, why can't FC join forces with HC and create a state-of-the-art refuge on its site on the Rotherwas Road, which I believe it purchased a couple of years back for a sum somewhat southwards of £1-million?

Can you re-phrase this in legible English please? Try not to get so excited when you're typing.

I understand that the need to have a lift installed in the new building was only recognised by said resident pi*% artists at the 59th minute of the 11th hour. How the chosen lift manufacturer / installer must have rubbed his hands with glee!