Adrian Bridges

At last hopefully the eyesore will be removed and a smart and vibrant building constructed as can you imagine a smart new Oval regeneration and a grotty old toilet block in the middle of this.

Greenknight I totally agree, 4 years of further cuts and borrowing from the Conservative sin Herefordshire, then we have 5 years of the Conservatives cuts at National Government oh help us with the NHS as Cameron or the Conservatives in Hereford will not.

Jim I am offering too Tracy help in getting settled in, issues outstanding in the Ward etc as others would have just walked away. Like folk do when handing over a job. Regards Adrian

Agree as the vote was split. We should have now been talking about an administration hopefully lessons will be learnt

Chris Agree it is now time to push the BLUE out of the County Adrian

Colin Obviously disappointed but the last 4 years has been a real honour to serve the Community. I will pass my knowledge over too Tracey and will over the next four years work with our new Ward Councillor through the Belmont Rural Parish Council. I know how daunting and demanding this role is and the dedicated time required to fully fulfill this with a full-time job in hand too and of course a family. If it had been Conservative then no chance. Regards Adrian

Herefordshire Independents have all agreed collectively not to accept this back payment. Given the financial concerns at Herefordhsire Council, the Herefordshire Independents have decided not to accept this and each current Independent Councillor will be writing too the Chief Executive, Alastair Neill informing him of their decision. Councillor Jim Knipe - (Wormside) and myself (Adrian Bridges) have already written too Alastair Neill informing him that we do not wish to accept this back payment. A comment on Hereford Times website has also been made to this effect. I wonder what the Conservatives will do?

Sustainable transport an excellent initiative for moving people. From my experience working in the transport industry is for a feasibility study to look at the likely usage and costs to bring this to reality and the routes as it would need to connect key employment areas to key housing areas, so places like Rotherwas and linking the City would be a must, plus the frequency of the service as to make it viable and attract a good patronage. If then the business case stacks up it would more than likely attract central Government Funding through a sustainable transport grant like other tram routes that have been built recently in the UK.

With the Rail Link the proposal would be provide link off the Newport to Shrewsbury line to provide a new station in the heart of Rotherwas a park and ride facility, plus allowance for long term for a freight hub. The Birmingham to Hereford services would then be extended to / from Rotherwas. A timetable study had already been undertaken before taking this to full council and London Midland have supported in principle Herefordshire Council taking this forward. What has to be remembered that as it has been to Full Council and voted on it becomes part of the Councils Transport Strategy. The benefits are 1 - Direct Service to / from Birmingham 2 - Extend job opportunities further to the East and North of the County and it is proven with a rail link businesses are attracted to areas because of this. 3 - No long term maintenance costs as Network Rail take full responsibility of this

A one of your Local Councillors you have my full support and we be pressing with the Adminstration and Balfour Beatty to reconsider this as it will have a detrimental impact on the way the County / City and Towns will look. We rely on Tourism and if we start to put folks off visiting then then will impact on the Local Business's. All the Best and if there is any updates will place a post on the VOICE

Just to clarify a couple of issues raised above:- 1 - My Company actually gives me time off for Volunteer work which covers all aspect of Parish Council / charity work etc this is quite a substantial amount. 2 - Also my hours are flexible to suit the above, thus I can give as much time without the detrimental effect on my work and still support the electorate. In fact my Company actively encourages this volunteer / charity contribution and even matches funding and recognises the value of this unpaid work in the Community. 3 - Modern Technology like this forum / WIFI / Mobile phone and access to the internet also ensures I can communicate as effectively. END.

Here we go another pot of money borrowed this must now be up to £600 million Development Circa £100 million Waste Contract £40 million ?? and will rise Link Road £27 million need to borrow this Western Road £250 million they want to borrow this Balfour £20 million How much more do the Conservatives want to keep borrowing using the excuse of a low interest rate?

If I recall I think the canal aspiration was part of the Egar Street Development but was pulled becuase it was deemed too expensive (may be wrong) which is a real shame as look at other cities where canals / waterays are provided this brings in addtional visitor footfall.. Birmingham / Bristol I do appreciate these are bigger cities.

I think that we certainly need a proper link. Colin is right I am impressed with Bristol with the new shopping complex, it is also fully covered by a lovely glass roof, it feels like outside but in the dry nice and bright. I have also suggested this idea for a glass covered roof for the Maylord Shopping along the back of the Butter Market as this will give a feel of a covered area, this would create a nice covered shopping area connecting this to Widemarsh Street. The Local Councillor tells me he is not on the working group for the Butter Market and has no say.

Here it is a bit late as i have been away for a couple of days without internet access. Herefordshire’s Independent group have given very careful consideration to the invitation from the Conservative group to form a coalition including a minority of cabinet posts. The Independent group, as always, has focussed on protecting and promoting Herefordshire as the prime requirement for any decision we make. We have taken the time to listen carefully to the proposition, have consulted widely in our existing and prospective wards and openly debated the proposed coalition today. The unanimous outcome is that the Independent group should decline the invitation. The reasoning supporting this decision is that our group felt that this has been proposed too late and provides far too little particularly at this stage of the current councils lifespan. It is unfortunate that the offer of a "Golden Coalition of all the talents" was not made at the beginning of this Council in 2011. The current proposal appears to be driven by a desperate and disingenuous attempt to cling on to power following the recent loss of overall control. The Independent group will, as ever, support all that is good for Herefordshire and will advise, co-operate, warn and oppose when appropriate. We intend to continue promoting positive and constructive policies for our county and will protect the electorate and council employees wherever possible from the recent and future excesses of the current administration particularly given the dreadful state of Herefordshire Council’s finances. The Conservatives, and ‘It’s Our County’ are registered political parties who are funded externally, are constrained by party dogma and we also believe they are open to the influences of groups and individuals from outside Herefordshire. The Herefordshire Independent group contains individuals whose clear and transparent motives are quite simply whatever is best for Herefordshire. Herefordshire Independents believe in a stable economic future for the county which can only be delivered through tighter control of the council’s assets, revenue and costs and a clear programme to improve the county’s infrastructure including reconsideration of the proposed Link Road, improved passenger and freight rail transport, an Eastern by-pass for Hereford City, development of new employment at The Rotherwas Enterprise Zone, and smaller sites in Ledbury, Bromyard and Ross on Wye and sympathetic development of sufficient protected affordable and social housing to accommodate the workforce that these new jobs will attract. The Conservative group have already set the council’s budget for the next financial year. During the remaining few months of the Conservative leadership of the administration, the Independent group will continue to support only the policies and actions that we believe are helpful to the future of the county. All future spending will be carefully scrutinised and vigorously opposed if it does not provide the very best value for money and meets our criteria for the development of the county’s economy. It is hoped that the other opposition members consent to apply our joint numerical advantage to good effect. Only the Independent group provides unbiased vision and commitment to deliver tangible progress in the areas that will secure the future of Herefordshire. Over the coming months the Independent group will release a set of simple but effective policies which will provide the positive underpinning vision to kick start the county’s growth and drive Herefordshire forward over the next 5 and 10 years. Our policies will be transparently originated, clearly presented, fully costed and will meet the aspirations of growth and improvement expected by and deserving of the people of Herefordshire. Some members of the Council will tell you that ‘It’s Our County’, The Independent Group faithfully assure you that it’s actually YOUR County and we are here to secure it for you.

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Just to advise you the duck sign has finally arrived. But if you visit the site Balfour has put it on a new post and behind a bush. I have raised this again with Balfour and asked them to move to the original place and at a height so motorists can see this. As a Ward Councillor I cannot understand why they did not use the original post,.

This made me laugh

Update, I too reported many of the posts that are a potential hazard even including photos of these with the exact location. Chasing up the outstanding works Amey intially claimed they had completed the works as previously reported by both myself and Councillor Powell. I have now taken Amey to task through Councillor Graham Powell - Cabinet Member for Education and infrastructure over not only the lack of actioning our reports / no feedback or timescales for completion, There is also the claims work has been completed when in fact is has not and in many instances not we are also on many occasions never even giving a works order number to help us follow these up. So we have to then duplicate work. I have to remind Amey that they are accountable to all our Council Tax Payers including the Councillors who pay thier salaries. Also many job requests also get lost in their reporting system which ironically always seems to be the difficult to do ones. If you do have any issues then please either post on the FORUM (pun not intended) or email myself with the details ie:- date of report / location and issue and I will find out where it is in the process of works. abridges@herefordshire.gov.uk Regards

Please do attend and raise any issues or concerns Thank you

Good afternoon, Andrew Lee Jones from Amey has replied back today and agreed to relocate the Duck sign in the vicinity of Haywood House. Regards

Colin, More use than a chocolate fire guard, I will ask Amey to cut the trees and hedges back. Regards Adrian Bridges

As District Councillor we have had an opportunity to comment on the proposed Tesco Application. However, if there are issues that anyone has then an email to ABridges@herefordshire.gov.uk would be most welcome as any representation or comments would be appreciated. Thank you Councillor Adrian Bridges - Belmont Ward

Just to clarify - All Planning Proposals by Herefordshire Council do in fact come to Planning Committee as there is no authority for delegated powers for this to any Officer.

As Local Ward Members we will have the opportunity to argue for or against the application and there is still some unanswered issued that I have asked to be clarified from the Officer prior to the Committee on the 22nd Feb.