megilleland

There is a load of timber which has been dumped behind the electric sub station which I reported to the council a few weeks ago, but nothing has been done so far. On Monday I asked some Amey operatives who were emptying the waste bins in the street if they would move it, but they said it would be Herefordshire Housing's responsibility. Herefordshire Housing estate manager obviously doesn't do a regular walkabout otherwise he would have seen this. This is the rubbish the kids are throwing around every day.

My partner waited for the 14.24 and 14.39 74 service from Newton Farm to city centre on Thursday 28th March - neither turned up.

Article in this weeks Hereford Journal:

I thought I would tell you of my complaint to First Group concerning the 74 bus service:

Sent 16th February

"Experienced the local bus service last night. We arrived at 9.55pm to catch the 10.05pm departure from the bus station at Tesco, along with 12 other passengers, to travel on the 74 service to Newton Farm - which then failed to arrive. We would have to wait another hour for the next bus at 11.05pm which together with the travelling time of 15mins to Newton Farm meant that we would have got home nearly one and half hours later. Not a good advert for using buses. This happens quite regularly on this service and the £6.70 taxi fare didn't help either".

 

First Group acknowledged 17th February:

"Thank you for contacting us. We aim to respond to all enquiries within 14 working days, but hope to respond sooner. If you have not heard from us within this time, please accept our apologies and contact us by phone on the number shown on our website".

 

First Group replied 25th February:

"Thank you for contacting First and I apologise for the delay in getting back to you

 

Your comments have been passed to the Depot Manager for investigation where the service will be looked into and the driver concerned identified and interviewed. As soon as we have had a response, we will be in touch as soon as possible. This can take 7-10 working days".

 

Follow up reply 20th March:

Thank you for your contact regarding the issue you faced with the No.74 service on 16 February and I apologise for the delay in my response.

 

Running our buses on time is one of our key priorities as it is vitally important that customers are able to plan their journey knowing that their service will arrive as advertised in the timetable. We are working strenuously to reduce delays and have intensified our monitoring processes to identify late or early running buses and understand underlying causes. Our buses also benefit from a remote satellite tool so that we can properly monitor their movements and take corrective action to ensure adherence to the timetable.

 

Having re-investigated your comments with the depot, they have checked the records onboard the vehicle and confirm that on the date in question, the driver was still issuing tickets in the Bus Station at 2204hrs and has not left the stop before the scheduled time of 2205hrs. On this occasion, we are unable to uphold your complaint".

 

My response 24th March:

Thank you for your reply which was rather disappointing. I can assure you that myself and at least 12 other people were waiting for that last bus on the night in question. However in view that the computer says the bus was standing in the bus station at the correct time it must have been a ghost bus!

 

I cannot be bothered to continue arguing the toss with your company and accept that your company will continue to run the Hereford 74/74A bus service as you see fit and not for the benefit of your customers.

 

Thank you

 

Martin Gilleland

 

PS: My partner returned from Malvern on Thursday 21st March had to wait for 74 bus for nearly an hour between 3.30pm and 4.30pm before getting home.

Does anyone else experience missing buses from the timetable?

How did it get under the iron bridge on the Belmont Road? must of been very close

The traffic reports said the load was 16ft 1in high. If you google street view the belmont road bridge advance warning sign states

16ft maximum. So there must have been a margin for error.

Quote

I have been thinking of a few idea's especially about a paper petition, think they run separately, however, I think we can still join the numbers.

The council will accept paper petitions as well as the e-petition. It is useful to note the qualifying people who can sign these.

E-Petitions Guidance

An ePetition can be submitted by a person of any age who lives, works or studies in Herefordshire or has used services provided by Herefordshire Council.

To submit an ePetition you will need to be a registered user. Registration is a simple process that just requires you to provide us with a few details in case we need to contact you about the ePetition.

Can I still submit a paper petition?

Yes, you can still submit paper petitions. A petition may also gather names and addresses in both forms - you can have a paper version and an online version, although repeat names will be removed. Both forms should run for the same period of time and must be submitted together. When submitting an ePetition request, please let us know if you are running a paper petition as well and this can be highlighted on the website.

Printable petition template here:

Colin, traffic in Belmont Road will have an amount of outside drivers just passing through the city. These people do not qualify to sign the petitions - even though they would benefit if the lights are turned off. The majority of traffic is local based, so we need to concentrate on the locals and this is where the paper petitions would score.

There are only two months left so we need to get together and boost the numbers. Would any of the local shops take the petition, can we not target the school runs, the kids nurseries, large workplaces, the pubs and town centre. Do you think we could get together and do this Colin. Any other volunteers?

A simple issue like housing for example. These people arrive and there are no houses for them to live in and so when they do get a Council home or Rented accommodation it's turned into an *** and you end up with a house containing twenty or more people who can't get proper housing.

 

The knock on effect with just this single issue is that this *** generates twenty or so bin bags which means the Refuse Collection staff have to work harder to service that one single dwelling.

Have you seen this video of an american professor lecturing students regarding arithmetic, population and energy. The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function. He explains all.

Vote UKIP. The problem with this country is that we all hope things will get better, but over my voting life, all that happens is that the ruling parties take more from you and give less back.

Regarding private householders it is important that those affected by this graffiti contact the police and get a crime number. This will help them make a claim on their household insurance. The more crime numbers issued, the greater the problem will be seen in the area, and logged on the Police website here:

Hello Colin and a Happy New Year.

Being thinking about your petition and would like to know that if there was a paper petition running parallel with the council's on-line petition would these signatures be added on to it, or do the council go on the numbers recorded only on their website. I say this because I notice that 1001 people in Ross on Wye have signed on-line for the Pool relocation. The petition ran from 22/10/2012 to 05/12/2012 less than 2 months. Did their local councillors get behind them?

I think we need to organise a petition in High Town to get our numbers up. Also we should target the major employers and get them to sign up. Any thoughts?

give us some idea of how much this costs us all.

In the Council's October monthly expenditure £41,700 paid to Worcestershire County Council Pension Fund. This is a regular monthly payment and for the year around half a million pounds a year.

As I understand it Councillors can opt in or out of their pension scheme. Some make contributions and some don't.

It would be nice if a Councillor would jump into the bear pit and explain why this has been going on, for how long it's been going on and give us some idea of how much this costs us all.

I suppose if you are a full time councillor it makes sense to join and if you keep getting re-elected the more beneficial it is to you. It's a shame that we have to pay for them out of the council tax. If I pay £120 a month council tax then I am popping £24 into their pockets. I would rather it went to some of our senior citizens.

Thanks Bobby. Its all on the internet. You just have to search for it. The Council try and make it difficult by putting interesting items in the depths of its websites (the original and their beta2 version).

Looking at No 26 on the list "Freeze councillor allowances and end councillor pensions". I didn't realise that councillor's qualify for a Local Government pension scheme, but apparently they do.

From Pensions for Councillors in England and Wales

You pay 6% of your allowances as a councillor into the LGPS. If you pay tax you will get tax relief on your contributions at the time they are deducted from your allowances and if you pay National Insurance you will pay a lower rate of NI contributions up to State pension age. Your council pays the rest of the cost of providing your LGPS benefits, which costs the council about double the amount you pay.

At a time when public sector pensions are under the spotlight, the TaxPayers’ Alliance can reveal the true cost to taxpayers of ‘employer contributions’ to the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS). The equivalent of £1 in every £5 of council tax raised in the UK is spent on council pensions. This report also details the explosion in the number of councillors claiming council pensions.

Despite fulfilling a supposedly volunteer role, there are now 4,548 councillors on the LGPS, up by over 1,000 since 2007-08.

The Pension Fund is administered by Worcestershire County Council on behalf of their own employees (except Teachers), those of the Herefordshire Council, the District Councils and other bodies in the county of Worcestershire. You can see all Participating Employers of the Fund at 31 March 2011 here on p35 & 36:

Herefordshire Councillors' Allowance scheme here:

In view of the generous benefits I would be surprised if no councillors were partaking in the scheme. Maybe the council can tell us?

On the Council's website they say they aim to respond to at least 90 per cent of complainants within five working days by letter, telephone or by visiting your property. Have they done this? If not follow the advice below and keep an up to date log of events. Has a councillor heard this noise?

Neighbourhood noise

Neighbourhood noise includes noise arising from within the community such as industrial and entertainment premises, trade and business premises, construction sites and noise in the street. It does not include general transport noise, which falls under the definition of environmental noise.

The Government takes the issue of neighbourhood noise seriously, and have given powers to local authorities to deal with noise.

In today’s society, noise is an inevitable consequence of a mature and vibrant society, but for some, it is an unwanted intrusion that has an adverse effect on their quality of life, affecting their health and well being.

The Government is working towards securing a sustainable society and a healthy environment and recognises that the management of neighbourhood noise requires a co-ordinated and long term approach that embraces various aspects of modern society, as set out it the Noise Policy Statement for England (NPSE).

If talking doesn’t work, the most common kind of formal action is complaining to your local authority about the noise problem.

Local authorities have a wide range of legal powers to act against noise and noisy neighbours. Under the law, local authorities have a duty to deal with any noise that they consider to be what’s known as a ‘statutory nuisance’. In general terms, this means that they can deal with most problems of noise where an individual’s behaviour is concerned.

It is a council’s duty to take reasonable steps to investigate complaints about noise coming from the following:

land (such as construction sites)

buildings

vehicles (excluding general traffic noise)

machinery or equipment in the street, such as construction equipment, roadworks and outdoor sound equipment

Under the Noise Act 1996 and the Environmental Protection Act 1990, the council’s powers to seize equipment are set out in detail. They are able to seize noise-making equipment and issue financial penalties to those responsible.

What do you do to complain?

You should contact your local authority, usually the environmental health department. The number will be in your local telephone directory.

If they visit or witness the noise and agree that it is a statutory nuisance, they must take immediate action. If the noise happens from time to time, they may ask you to keep a diary of when the noise happens, or leave equipment to record it. Sometimes they will measure the noise as part of their investigation into a complaint. There is no set level at which noise becomes a statutory nuisance.

How a local authority can act on noise

If the local authority thinks that the noise is a statutory nuisance, or that a statutory nuisance is likely to occur or recur, they must serve an abatement notice - which is an order to deal with the nuisance.

This may demand that the noise stops altogether or only happens at certain times of the day. A person can appeal against an abatement notice within 21 days of it being served.

A local authority can put off serving an abatement notice for up to seven days from when they decide that a statutory nuisance exists. This might be so that they can try to talk to your neighbour about the problem or so that they can use other legal powers.

Your local authority has to take steps to deal with the issue within the seven days. If these don't work, the local authority must serve an abatement notice.

If the noise continues

If a person receives an abatement notice but carries on making noise without a good reason, they will have committed an offence. The courts and the police have a range of powers they can use to punish the offender.

Courts can impose fines of up to £5,000 for individuals and £20,000 for businesses.

Complaints about the local authority

Your local authority aims to work with you to resolve noise problems.

If you are unhappy about the way they have handled the case, find out about the formal complaints procedure of your local council and make your complaint.

You can also complain to the Chief Executive Officer of the local authority or talk to your local councillor.

If you are still not satisfied about the way your complaint has been handled, you can ask the independent Local Government Ombudsman to look into your case. In certain circumstances, they may investigate complaints against local authorities and use their powers to check that the local authority followed the correct procedure under legislation.

For further information please call their advice line number 0845 602 1983 or go to their website www.lgo.org.uk

Complaining to a magistrates’ court

If, for whatever reason, the local authority does not take action, or if you do not wish to involve them, you can complain about a noise problem direct to a magistrates' court. The magistrates’ court will need to be persuaded that the noise problem amounts to a statutory nuisance.

It is important that you keep a written record of the dates, times and duration of the noise, as well as a description of it and the distress it causes you.

The first step to take when thinking about taking action through a magistrates' court is to seek advice from the clerk at the court. Before you start legal proceedings, you are required to write to the noise maker and explain that you intend to take legal action.

The noise maker must receive three days’ written notice before you begin proceedings.

What happens at court?

If you win the court case, the court will issue an order telling the offender to stop the noise nuisance and what they have to do to achieve this. The court may also give the noise maker a fine.

If the court finds that the nuisance existed at the date of making the complaint, they may award you the reasonable costs incurred by you in bringing the action against the noise maker. If you do not win, you may have to pay your own costs and the costs of the person you have taken to court.

What if the noise carries on?

If someone breaks the rules of an abatement order and carries on making noise without a reasonable excuse, they will be guilty of an offence and can be fined.

Useful contacts

Defra

Because of concern about neighbourhood noise, Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) is conducting research into this area, looking at ways to raise awareness of the problem and influence behaviour.

Defra works closely with other Government departments and outside organisations.

For further information on Defra noise policy and for more contact details, including those for a number of noise campaign groups, go to: www.defra.gov.uk/environment/quality/noise/

For more information, please contact:

Defra Helpline

Tel: (8am to 6pm Monday to Friday) 08459 33 55 77

Email: helpline@defra.gsi.gov.uk

Write to: Defra Customer Contact Unit

Eastbury House

30 - 34 Albert Embankment

London SE1 7TL

Here you are Colin the full works available on the Herefordshire Council's website. I bet you will be surprised by what they own or is it us as ratepayers?

Hello Bobby. Just to let you know the October 2012 expenditure spreadsheet is up for scrutiny. Happy reading.

In The Guardian today Eric Pickles' announces that he is slashing local authority funding by up to 8.8%.

Financially weak councils will go bust and others will be forced to drastically reduce services to cope with cuts to town hall budgets outlined by ministers on Wednesday, local authorities have predicted

The warning came after the government revealed that councils in England would face spending reductions of up to 8.8% from April, with an average cut of 1.7%. The communities secretary, Eric Pickles, described the settlement as fair and said the onus was now on councils to do more to cut costs and pursue "sensible savings" to protect public services.

Following his cut The Rt Hon Eric Pickles MP, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government released today his:

50 ways to save: Examples of sensible savings in local government

I wonder how many of these have been adopted by our council especially as it's the Conservatives in the riding seat, and it is our council tax going up 1.9% from April 2013.

1. Share back office services

2. Community Budgets - Bring staff and money together

3. Use transparency to cut waste

4. Tackle duplicate payments

5. Clamp down on corporate charge cards

6. Special spending controls

7. Tackle fraud

8. Claw back money from benefit cheats

9. Get more for less by improving procurement

10. Buy together

11. Stop the scope for procurement fraud

12. Utilise £16 billion of reserves creatively

13. Improve council tax collection rates

14. Encourage direct debit and e-billing for council tax

15. Close council cash offices

16. Better land and property management

17. Hot-desking, estate rationalisation and sub-letting

18. Open a ‘pop up’ shop in spare office space

19. Close subsidised council canteens

20. Cancel away days in posh hotels and glitzy award ceremonies

21. Open a coffee shop in the library

22. Cut senior pay

23. Share senior staff

24. Scrapping the chief executive post entirely

25. Introduce a recruitment freeze

26. Freeze councillor allowances and end councillor pensions

27. Cut spending on consultants and agency staff

28. End expensive ’leadership’ courses

29. Cut spending on head hunters and expensive adverts

30. Review and reduce absenteeism

31. Scrap trade union posts

32. Charge for collecting trade union subscriptions

33. Stop spending money on commercial lobbyists

34. Stop translating documents into foreign languages

35. Reduce the number of publications and media monitoring

36. Earn more from private advertising

37. Cease funding ‘sock puppets’ and ‘fake charities’

38. Scrap the town hall Pravda

39. Stop providing free food and drink for meetings

40. Reduce first class travel

41. Cut mileage payments

42. Video conference instead of travel

43. Help the voluntary sector save you money

44. Cut printing costs

45. End lifestyle and equality questionnaires

46. Sell services

47. Hire out the town hall

48. Lease works of art not on display

49. Save money on computer software

50. And finally… ask your staff for more sensible savings ideas

To check out the reasoning read the document here:

Just had a trawl through the internet and found these items where traffic lights are being considered for removal or have been turned off.

Traffic light free junctions: 'sharing' the space

Traffic light failure in Ealing, London, sparks trial of traffic-light-free junctions

'Remove traffic lights from Cambridge junction'

Traffic lights at Portishead's Cabstand junction to go for good

Experiment: Town in England turns off traffic lights, surprising results.

Why don't you just switch off those traffic signals and go and do

something more challenging instead?

The camera and post has been removed today.

The camera is back again attached to the same lamp post as above!

Noticed today that there is a vehicle counter across the road by the Belmont Road bridge. Also where the Oval service road joins Goodrich Grove there is a new CCTV camera positioned next to the lampost looking over the Belmont Road junction and pointing across to McDonalds. Wasn't there last week was it?

The camera and post has been removed today.

On 17/03/2011 at 16:36, Glenda Powell said:

I advised that I would send a report on the meeting held this morning regarding the GWW Big Clean Up Day. In attendance Cllr Powell,Cllr Edwards, Colette Cutter HHL, Tom Hll Amey,Bethon Fortey, Craig Sandeman ( commutity Enforcement Team officers) Sam Knox (police)

I am sending a quick update From Bethon Fortey:

Colette Cutter HHL to accertain whether they can remove back fencing to HHL

property in Charles Witts Ave to provide access route for items to be removed

Colette Cutter t6o also accertain whether HHL can provide the labour in the

form of two operatives and a three and half tonne truck.

Amey ( via Herefordshire Council) to provide two operatives and a three half

tonne truck.

Amey to assess the area initially to ascertain whether there is asbestos present.

The idea of a litter pick along the GWW was mentioned by Cllr Powell to pair with the clear up, (residents welcome to help)but we will need a date in the first instance before this can be planned.

Ideally, we want to carry out this clean up as soon as possible in April / early

May (2nd week)

I will let you know when I know more!

Bethon Fortey

Enforcement Officer

Community Protection Team

Herefordshire Council

01432 261671 / 07792881403

END

Obviously nothing came about from this missive. What went wrong?

Noticed today that there is a vehicle counter across the road by the Belmont Road bridge. Also where the Oval service road joins Goodrich Grove there is a new CCTV camera positioned next to the lampost looking over the Belmont Road junction and pointing across to McDonalds. Wasn't there last week was it?

The plastic sheeting I reported on 11th March 2012 in the tree by the garages just past/before Belmont Road bridge is still there! Photo here.

Hello Colin. More support here in The Daily Telegraph today:

National Trust chairman calls for removal of traffic lights

Nearly all traffic lights should be removed from Britains roads because they cause more accidents, the chairman of the National Trust has said. Sir Simon Jenkins called for 90% of the signals to be torn down, describing them as a form of state control and claiming that they are dangerous and slow down motorists.

Read article here: