SON OF GRIDKNOCKER

In my haste to reassure M.Preece that the distribution of largesse (our largesse!) is the norm in this county, I quite overlooked the fact that after the construction of The Old Market shopping precinct was well underway (then, for some curious reason, known as The Grid), the developers went cap in hand to the council and asked for more money to enable them to finish the scheme. Naturally, being of an extremely generous nature when it comes to doling out our moolah, the cabinet duly rolled over on its back and allowed its financial tummy to be tickled. I can't remember the sum (£500,000 I think), but I'm sure Megi or TWG can refresh our memories.

Anywhere else yes; but 'ere in 'ereford, no that's par for the course!

Saturday 9 September. 08.30hrs. Five overnight sleepers in the FC's doorway in Commercial Road. St Peter's CoE Church regularly lays on free breakfasts in winter for unfortunates who don't have a roof over their heads. Wonder why the FC happy clappers don't open their doors to provide the same sort of christian charity.

Whoever does own the freehold of the Franklin Barnes building needs to get its act together and carry some remedial maintenance on the facade before the winter, as it's in a pretty shabby state.

I should like to nominate council officer Geof Hughes for the newly-created Voice accoloade of Roadworks Muddler of the Year, for the disgracefully uncoordinated planning of the installation of the signalling systems at the eastern extremity of the £25-million Link Road to Nowhere which have now been going on for over a month. The planning of an alcoholic celebration inside a brewery come to mind.

The oak hammer-beam roof, in the upper floor of the oldest part of the building - originally a merchants' hall and (as far as I know) not fired-damaged - was described by Pevsner, in his Herefordshire volume of Buildings of England, as 'outstanding'. Since it is not going to be a pub any longer, does that mean that some lucky yuppies will have a hand-crafted 15th century ceiling for the living room of their High Town apartment?

"Partial demolition of existing buildings" is a horribly chilling phrase, although I see that the plans have been drawn up by Architype, one of the county's better architectural practices. Nevertheless, there's many a slip between cup and lip - especially when Cllr 'Flash Harry' Bramer is lurking in the shadows.

I will never forget (King Bobby was sitting in the back row at the Kindle Centre and can confirm this) Cllr Morgan's presentation to Hereford Civic Society some years ago, on the theme of the county's 'heritage assets', when she spoke movingly about feather-edged boarded rural bus shelters. I promise I'm not making this up!

According to newly-arrived Herefordian Richard Hammond, the DVLA and private mart sales of personalised number plates is now worth £100-million a year. Which seems an awful lot of money to shell out to have your name plastered across the front of your car. A relative was recently talking to a neighbour who was the proud new owner of a top-of-the-range BMW. She remarked that she was rather surprised that it sported a common-or-garden number plate, without reference to his christian name or initials. "Delia (not her real name)", he said, "when I take my wife shopping in Sainsburys, I think I can find my way back to the car without having to be reminded which one is mine!"

Wholeheartedly agree with Adrian Pitt's post. HV is head and shoulders above the badly-presented dross that masquerades as the once-mighty Hereford Times. But the carping naysayers here (no names, no pack drill) should try to lighten up and provide positive, well-constructed comment.

As it's vaguely 'Grenfell related', put this of your Need to Read list:- https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/jun/25/dispossession-social-housing-crisis-documentary-thatcher-legacy-right-to-buy

I find a useful tip is to always read through one's thoughts before posting them on The Voice. For typos, grammatical errors, punctuation and that sort of thing. Helps other folk to understand your 'stream-of-consciousness bile'. You should try it Ragwert.

If the Met's announcement last week that it was considering bringing charges of corporate manslaughter was supposed to reassure Grenfell survivors, it seems to have had the opposite effect. For a start, the seven-year-old act carries no custodial sentences, only unlimited fines (the first company to be successfully prosecuted got hit with a fine of just £38,000!). So, sitting on capital reserves of £275-million is hardly likely to give RBK&C councillors or officers sleepless nights. Secondly,, it is now being suggested that if charges were to be brought by the CPS, former Appeal Judge Sir Martin Moore-Bick's Inquiry (whose narrow terms of reference have already been questioned) might have to be halted. The phrase 'being caught between a rock and a hard place' comes to mind.

The Guardian is reporting (ok, ok Ragwert - I know we shouldn't believe everything the sandal-wearing muesli-eaters read) that one-in-five of all High Street estate agents face extinction, due to growing internet sales. So what will the city's Broad Street / Bridge Street area look like in a few years time, where there are currently 17 estate agents? Room to shoehorn in a few more coffee franchises and a couple of tattoo parlours perhaps?

The Grenfell tragedy, according to the Met, is now the largest criminal investigation it has ever undertaken, outside of terrorist attacks. All power to its elbow. But this must be cold comfort to the survivors and relatives of all those who lost their lives, when it is realised that the likelihood of charges of Corporate Manslaughter being brought against RBK&C - if successful - only carry fines and not custodial sentences. We all know how cash-rich RBK&C is, with its obscene 'slush fund' of £275-million (compare that to HC's current running debt of £125-million). A punitive fine wouldn't even dent its reserves. And heads would be unlikely to roll.

@ Glenda: sorry for getting the Courtyard event's date wrong. I shall be going too. In this thread's opening post I deliberately used the phrase 'brave Rotherwas women', recalling an image that is featured in Bill Laws's excellent history of the factory - In the Munitions: Women at War. It shows a picture (clearly composed for publicity purposes by the government's Orwellian propaganda machine The Central Office of Information) of two young women wearing full-length cotton dresses and bob caps, reminiscent of Victorian chambermaids. One woman is tall, the other is short. Both are bent forward, filling an upturned circular steel object on the floor from an enamel jug. Are they filling a coal skuttle? Or making lemonade for the Master's weekend tennis party? They most certainly are not. They are filling steel shell cases (destined for the re-supply of naval battleships at Portsmouth) with highly-volatile explosive material, in the Rotherwas Shell Filling Shed. Without protective clothing, goggles, gloves or hard hats. The skins of many of these women, who were daily exposed to the fumes from this operation, turned a vivid orange, causing them to be taunted, whenever they crossed High Town: 'The Canary Girls'.

The BBC Radio Hereford & Worcester reporter Nicola Goodwin has done some sterling work in her personal campaign to get to the bottom of the true number of fatalities and casualties that occurred following the German bombing of the Rotherwas Munitions Factory, 75 years ago. At a service of commemoration at Rotherwas (attended by three 90-year-old survivors of the raid), the figures given were 16 killed and 27 injured, though there is a suggestion that the true fatalities figure could have been as high as 40. It was Hereford's worst wartime disaster. Ms Goodwin recently discovered that the 16 known fatalities were buried in an unmarked grave at Bullinghope's St Peter's Church. BBC war correspondent Kate Adie will be talking about the brave Rotherwas women at The Courtyard on 8 September. The event will be followed by a book signing.

"...turn our social and economic modernity clock backwards by at least seventy years..." Seventy years ain't nearly far enough back ol' buddy. What we need is stocks in 'igh Town and a Witches duckin' stool, down by the Wye, where we'd drag Miss Lump-It.

Nevertheless, if the Law Society's complaints department received letters from several Voice contributors, would they not have to haul Mr Norman before their Disciplinary Tribunal?

I've no idea whether Miss Lamputt bears any resemblance to Dame Maggie Smith (aka Miss Shepherd), or if King Bobby could double as Alan Bennett, but this unfolding story bears a striking similarity to the play / film 'The Lady in the Van'. Let's hope the good burghers of Plough Lane show slightly more compassion than the snooty residents of Camden's Gloucester Crescent!

"To little or no fanfare..." Par for the course, mate. Now if Tony Johnson was suffering from hay fever, the council's dynamic Media Unit would have pushed out a fulsome Press Release, with medical report on the Great Leader's condition.. But open a traffic-free route for pedestrians and cyclists? Forget it.

I believe TWG is very well-read on this subject (ie HC's insane need to be constantly moving its Customer Services Unit - or should we now term it the CS Hub perhaps?). If memory serves, this extremely important public facility was once housed in (long-gone) Garrick House, a decently-designed building for which the architects' original brief was: "When the structure is no longer needed for offices, ensure that it can be inexpensively converted into flats." But it had to come down in order to accommodate the city's 99th coffee franchise.Franklin Barnes seemed a decent alternative. Let's move council staff down the road (once we've re-fitted at £250k). Ey-up: the planners are moving out. Let's move Customer Services again - but waste time and money cladding it in zinc or copper or protected rhino hide. Nearly ready Councillor Bramer? We've got news for you: the replanning of our listed Broad Street library building will need to incorporate an all-singing all-dancing (you've guessed it) CS Hub. You Couldn't Make It Up (except 'ere in 'ereford)

The whole district is festooned with tributes: flowers, candles, toys and ribbons. They are fixed to every lampost, bollard, telephone box and bus stop. And 'MISSING' is the word which appears most frequently. Unlike the mountains of flowers which were placed outside Kensington Palace after the death of Princess Diana, these Grenfell messages are heart-felt and very touching. Their three principle locations are outside Notting Hill Methodist Church, the Wall of Hope in front of the Latymer Road Community Centre and the Wall of Truth beneath Westway. This unfriendly concrete canyon seems to be the focal point for outdoor protest meetings, radio and TV interviews and some of the strongest-worded declamations. Like the huge graffiti, in Rastafarian colours, reading: 'Convict RBK&C of Corporate Massacre'. The most moving was certainly: 'Say a prayer for all the NO NAMES' - a reference, I imagine, to the unknown number of visitors, friends, house guests and illegal tenants who perished, but will never be identified.

Black Tomb. The definitive images of the charred hulk of Grenfell Tower were nearly all taken with telephoto lenses from the elevated Westway, which carries the M40 west out of London. At street level, the picture is very different and, if anything, even grimmer. Grenfell appears at the end of streets and pedestrian passageways, or is seen framed by the brick facades of low-rise council housing blocks. Though now a securely sealed and guarded enclave, it haunts you. My purpose in visiting the scene of the tragedy was not to glimpse the dreadful tower, but to read the survivors' poignant posters, notices and messages.

The five short-listed finalists are: Coventry, Paisley (and I thought that was a pullover), Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland and Swansea. Goodbye £22.5K!