twowheelsgood

All available funds this year appear to have been invested in several tins of white road lining paint - there's been an outbreak of white line renewal throughout the City - seemingly regardless of the potholes and the general crumbling surfaces it is being applied to. Complete madness. Once again - what are our ward councillors doing about it?

Unfortunately, in England, there is no legal requirement to display ratings in premises at the moment. Those that do well often do display them, those that don't, well, that's a pointer!

How many staff are on a junket in Birmingham to collect it then?

I thought the "arms length" point was worth mentioning because as the extent of the Hoople fiasco becomes known there may be attempts to portray the company as some sort of out-of-control, rogue entity. This shouldn't be allowed to wash. The Council are supposed to have direct control over it,  just like one of their own departments (although I am tempted to add, like Michael Caine in Get Carter, "since when was that good enough?")

Given Cllr Matthews comment "I  had to obtain this information from Companies House, because members generally have never been briefed with respect to the workings of Hoople Ltd, which is after all financed by us, the taxpayers of this county" it would seem that the Council(ors) have no control (or knowledge) at all.

I've said this before, but I think it bears repeating. Hoople is not an arms length company, it is a "Teckal" company - under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 the Council is supposed to exert the same control over  the company as it does over its own internal departments. Its primary function is to provide services to its shareholders (i.e the Council and whatever has replaced the PCT) on a not for profit basis.  Only 20% of its activities by turnover can be for third parties and potentially profit making.

 

Arms Length tends to be a term specific to housing management (as in the recent Grenfell Tower tragedy). For the ex-councillor to claim that Hoople is arms length demonstrates woeful ignorance at best,  and at worst deliberate disingenuousness.

I stand corrected on the terms (and it was me providing the information to the ex-councillor, not the other way round), but the point I was making is still valid ie other than having heard of it, the ex-councillor had no idea about how Hoople worked or its limited accountability. Your ref to dimwit councillors is on the nail.

Nice to see the Planning Committee following the advice of their officers and supporting their own planning polices by refusing this application

At the same meeting, an application on the other side of the County was approved for a dwelling for a disabled person, contrary to planning policies.

Just a couple of fields away from the Sutton St Nicholas application, permission was granted for a new house a little while ago - contrary to the same planning policies. The applicant was a former Tory councillor's brother.

Let's not forget Cllr Greenow was granted planning permission for a new house in the open countryside a little while ago - with no extenuating circumstances and contrary to planning policies.

It's the C word again - consistency, or lack thereof, one of this Council's many failings.

I spoke to a former Herefordshire Councillor today who had no idea that Hoople was an arms length company … despite it coming into existence whilst serving as a councillor.

Building Regs are widely mis-understood. Individual materials do not pass Building Regs (although there are requirements for CE marking etc, replacing the old British Standards). A combination of materials will make up an element ie a floor, wall or roof. Combinations are endless. It is for the applicant to demonstrate that their required combination satisfies the numerous requirements which may include including fire resistance (numerous variations e.g. spread of flame, combustibility), water resistance, thermal resistance, sound resistance, air resistance, structural stability and others. There are no prescribed construction methods - there are suggestions, but they are just that. This has been the case for many years - it is not a new development.

The amount of rubbish spouted over the last few days by the media and politicians, all of whom suddenly think they are experts on 'Part B', beggars belief. They grab a word like 'sprinklers' and repeat it ad-nauseum and it builds its own momentum. That said. sprinklers within individual flats would be extremely effective and would have stopped the fire at source - I've seen them demonstrated and it is no surprise that the Fire Brigade have been asking for domestic sprinklers for years - they really do work (and it's only a very fine spray, not the deluge you get in commercial buildings). You can fit out a new house for £2k.

Part of the refurbishment was supposed to include new smoke vents at the top of the stairwell - these open automatically when there is a fire to keep the stairwell clear of smoke. No one seems to have picked this up as they clearly didn't work. Neither did the dry risers, which meant the fire brigade couldn't get water to the higher levels. It is a litany of failures by another Council 'arms length' company, with a truly tragic outcome.

The Council's press release for the opening of this plant is now online, heavily edited from the previous PR in March, quoted above, to skew the glory to Herefordshire;

https://www.herefordshire.gov.uk/news/article/315/herefordshire_waste_will_help_to_power_the_country

Note our previously invisible Chief Executive makes a rare appearance, presumably because royalty were cutting the ribbon. The press release is written to give the impression that Cllr Bramer single handedly built and delivered the project on time and on budget himself and also nowhere does it state where this facility is (in Hartlebury, Worcestshire, not Herefordshire). The link to the Council's EnviRecover page is equally skewed to give the impression that this is a Herefordshire facility, when in fact all of our waste now has to be driven to Hartlebury.

Good letter in this weeks HT by Cllr Matthews, restating the massive losses that Hoople are making, which the Council seem unable to address. I've quoted it here. The 2011 launch of Hoople where savings of £33m over 10 years were stated is now looking rather optimistic at best.

Watchful eye

I'm listening to Radio 4 now and it is staggering that Grenfell residents and neighbours are saying that there is still no disaster management in place - no one knows what is happening and no one is co-ordinating anything, no one is telling residents what is happening, hence the angry scenes that nearly erupted into riots last night. Gavin Barwell is on, less than impressive, saying it will happen today - we'll see - but is dodging why it didn't happen immediately. I understood all Council's had disaster management scenario's in place, but not in one of the richest borough's in the Country it seems. Absolutely disgraceful, bad enough that this happened in the first place, but to compound it by a lacksadaisical response is unforgivable. Some on the spot sackings of over paid, smug and insular Council 'director's' wouldn't be out of order on my watch.

Did anyone attend? I was supporting a Bike Week event doing a 10 mile time trial and dodging the holes, ruts and gravel that form what was once a road through Clehonger.

Responsibilities

Standard issue we know best attitude - decide, consult, ignore, do.

Introducing lots of traffic lights on Roman Road - there's a surprise, we need more of those like a hole in the road. So, 450 houses and zero improvement to the existing road infrastructure to cope with the extra load.

Kamal Indian Restaurant before and after;

 

Kamal Indian.jpg

 

Now

 

Kamal.jpg

 

 

I've asked Planning Enforcement about this, because I think they have been a bit naughty ... the conversion has permission, but there are conditions ... let's see what they say.

I cannot help but notice that more and more commercial properties are having a change of use to become residential. Personally, I would prefer to see an empty property being used however, for me, it is about finding that balance between satisfying the need for homes or allowing the constant shrinking of Hereford's commercial properties.

 

One of my concerns is, if the council allow the change of use from commercial to residential to often, how long will it be before residents start to complain about the 'business's next door', being to noisy or about smells, lights, people, traffic etc...

 

I think that this conversion in Eign Road looks terrible. 

 

Eign Road.jpg

It's not as approved - I have already complained to Planning about it. Unfortunately that small area of Eign Street is rapidly becoming a shanty town, despite being in the Central Conservation Area.

The shop to the RH side is also due to be converted under the same permission. Two 'bedsits' barley big enough for a bed each.

Traffic equally awful again this afternoon - I assume it was the same temporary roadworks, but who knows. I achieved the staggering average speed of 3mph for my journey across town (and that was heading away from the centre) - again I had another delivery, as I normally cycle anywhere in the City where my average speed is probably 12mph.

Maybe if the next government gets a free hand they will crack on with building the bypass and damn the democratic process!!

 

I will say however that I believe Mrs May took a punt on holding this election and we will land up with a hung parliament...what do you think of that then? Not quite the mandate the lady wanted which could mean another election further down the line.

Prescient that you should mention the democratic process - here we have the Councils timetable for the bypass where it would seems that planning permission is a given ...

Belmont Road isn't the A49 and, let's be realistic, a bypass is, according to the Council, 5 years away to a 'phased opening', which in reality means 10 years away, if not more. A lot can happen in that time, not the least a couple of elections, Jim Kenyon running the Council, the hugely over-budget western bypass cancelled and the eastern one started all over again ... The Council are doing absolutely nothing about current traffic - which we all know is hidebound by the useless, outdated traffic lights that blight every road, with dozens more to come on the link road. 

Traffic once again a nightmare today around noon - it took me 55 minutes to get from Ledbury Road to Grandstand Road (I had a large heavy delivery to make)! The whole city log jammed. I heard on H & W that temporary traffic lights on Belmont Road were causing problems - is that all it takes to grind the City to a halt?! The cost to business must be mind boggling. Yet those in power do nothing and those who pay their wages can do nothing. Honestly, it makes me want to move to the middle of Wales ... 

Good call, thanks - I will try it out!

Maths are the weak spot for Cons full stop!

Labour don't do too well either, as the odious Ms Abbott has shown time and again.

I still cannot agree to arming all of our Police for numerous reasons. We need a swift response and internment is looking increasingly attractive - round up the 3000 known suspects and lock them up - build a camp on Dartmoor, nothing fancy just barbed wire and containers. We simply can't go on with the softly, softly approach - we see it time and again being abused. Look at the raids on the Jalsagor - illegals are simply told to make their own way to detention centres - as if that's going to happen! We also need to bring back those 20,000 police that we have lost and just get tough on who we let into the UK, even if they have a UK passport and just happen to be returning from Libya ...

Looks like they've started early, this on multiple pages;

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