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twowheelsgood

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Everything posted by twowheelsgood

  1. I would expect the security to be paid for by the mayfair, and I can see the logic for it, but private security on public streets does present some difficult (legal) questions about responsibility and liability.
  2. For the first time ever, I am considering not voting. I had high hopes of this administration, I naively perhaps thought they might change Hereford for the better, but it's been quite the opposite in an accelerated manner. It's not only the failing infrastructure and wasted money, but people's lives affected by woeful failures of social services.
  3. Another from the 'you just can't make it up' department of Herefordshire Council - local St James residents have had a letter from BBLP, advising that "we are currently carrying out remedial works following a quality review of the initial works undertaken as part of the cycle contraflow scheme". St Owens Street will once agin be closed for night works from 27 March. Perhaps if the work was done in daylight, it might just be to a better standard? It couldn't be any worse - with over 40 years experience in construction, this £1.2m scheme is some of the worst work I've ever seen. Let's not forget this was a scheme costed at £254k, that somehow ended costing nearly 500% more, yet less than 3 months after completion it's being dug up again. The Council's response to complaints is to the effect they can't do anyhting about it, BBLP are autonomous. No one elected them. The current administration came to power on the promise of a fundamental review of BBLP, but, like the traffic lights promise, nothing has happened. As the great John Lydon once said “Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?”
  4. Agreed, and I don't imagine for a moment that it will be done to the same standard and his successor will be left to take the flack after May. There's a certain irony in the fact that they've created exactly the same 'trip hazard' by raising the tarmac level in St Owen's Street, despite all of the agreed drawings showing the stepped kerb was to be maintained. Pedestrians now use the cycle path as an extension of the narrow pavement.
  5. Sniping at the previous administration by Cllr Harrington is all well and good, but at least the work was done to a very high standard with very high quality materials. Under his watch, we have the opposite with the St Owen's St cyclepath, with some of the shoddiest and sub-standard construction I've seen with 40+ years experience in construction. Who's he going to blame that on?
  6. We've been here before. In 2007, the Edgar Street Grid (ESG) masterplan was formally adopted. This was to provide a "unique opportunity to create an exciting and innovative regeneration scheme adjoining the city centre hectare site is expected to take in the region of 20 years to reach completion and once achieved will help to strengthen Hereford’s role as a sub which will add real value to the experiences offered within Hereford City and its wider catchment. The redevelopment of this under utilised 43 hectare site is expected to take 20 years to reach completion and once achieved will help to strengthen Hereford's role as a sub regional foci and regenerate the local economy leading to increased prosperity for the city and county." Well, that plan completely failed, serving only the asset strippers and money men who well and truly took the Council for a ride. Given the dismal failure of this administration to deliver on just about anything, why will this one be any different. What most residents want is just the basics fixed. It's not glamorous, there are no photo opportunities or lucrative contracts for out of county construction firms, but it's actually what we pay our council tax for.
  7. Change in some councillors coming very soon I think. Repairs to roads to make scooters safe to use will take some while longer.
  8. Yes, but all that was promised by the present administration in the run up to the elections. We even had a video by Cllr Harrington extolling the virtues of how well the traffic runs when the lights are broken! And yet ... four years later they haven't done a single thing to change them. In fact, more lights have been added. I've discussed it with my ward councillor - he freely admits BBLP run the highways show (in cahoots with certain officers) and there is nothing elected members can do about it. No one elected BBLP. A roundabout at the end of St Owens was lobbied for instead of the mess we now have - it was designed by Ben Hamilton-Baillie some years ago, it would have worked. It was dismissed by BBLP - I assume they want the ongoing revenue from traffic light maintenance.
  9. "Herefordshire Council will receive £19.9 million to boost local people’s use of public transport with better cycle lanes, improved station facilities and new safety measures for pedestrians." If the appalling £1m+ mess in St Owen's Street is an example of what to expect, then heaven help us. "New safety measures for pedestrians" - simple, resurface all of the existing pavements to a proper standard, it doesn't need consultations, endless designs, and outside consultants who soak up a good part of any funding. Just good quality housekeeping is what's needed - it's not glamorous, Councillors can't cut a ribbon and get a photo-op, but it will win votes (unlike the St Owen's St mess).
  10. Security reasons limit advanced warning, and it was a private visit as such anyway.
  11. Given that it will probably take 18 months to build and commission, where are they going in the interim? Won't that need another station? No mention of that in the supporting documents.
  12. This would be unbelievable, but under the present administration is par for the course. How does a short section of kerb amount to 690m2? And £1.3 million? That's £1884m2 - that's a new build house rate. It's all utter madness, and with our money.
  13. I don't believe more than half the driving population carry blue badges, but that increasingly seem to be the provision - look at the current railway station parking, where half was made over to disabled some while ago, and is set to be 4 out of just 7 spaces remaining under Cllr Harringtons crazy 'transport hub' (with very little transport allowed in it).
  14. As I said nearly a year ago, the ward councillor should be on top of this (perhaps not literally) and pulling together various bodies to get it sorted. It's not too long now until the elections, so all the councillors that we haven't seen for several years will be door knocking to tell us what a good job they're done and asking for our vote. Perhaps walk them round this mess.
  15. Shockingly mediocre scheme, clearly done by people who've never been to Hereford, or been made aware of things like the May Fair. Why are there two major consultants working on this (one of whom specialise in motorways and airports, with no record at all of sensitive historic centre townscapes)? Cost to us?!! Visuals must have been done by the work experience lad/ladess on a Friday afternoon. Why do we keep paying for this sort of rubbish. There's already a very good and adopted townscape document - stick to it, make a decision, do it.
  16. Planning permission has just been granted to replace the glazing with insulated panels. This follows a change in ownership of the freehold in 2017. Companies House shows no charges against the property, so where is the Council's charge?
  17. We're in the middle of the most extraordinary reset in living history - Brexit, covid, energy costs, Putin's madness, rudderless government, climate change and so on - never has it been more important to concentrate on the UK becoming more self-sufficient, in food and energy at least. The madness of building houses on prime quality agricultural land has to stop. It's bad enough that out of touch politicians are now telling farmers to stop growing wheat and plant trees instead and paying them handsomely to do it. Trees won't feed us. Housing targets come from central government, the volume builders (who largely fund the tory party) will always take the easiest route (green fields) if allowed. We have huge amounts of brownfield land, even in Herefordshire - use that first. Yes, it costs more, but so be it - build more intensively to help with costs - the Victorian terraces that people love to live in are some of the most intensive housing ever built. Secondary (and some pride) shopping areas declining rapidly - lots of space there for housing. It all takes a bit more effort, which is something public servants are generally averse to.
  18. Councillor Harrington's 'strong commitment to addressing the climate and ecological emergency' would be better demonstrated by making even a token effort at sorting out the traffic lights and traffic flows in and through the City (as promised at the last elections) - standing traffic here, there and everywhere belching out toxic fumes, resulting in parts of the City not even safe to breathe in. A Mickey Mouse moss pile at one such spot is a sticking plaster on a massive boil - addressing the problem, rather than masking it, would surely be a more honest way to go. As for EV's - few can afford the massive premium they initially attract, especially in the face of fiscal storm hitting this country. New ev points are not going to win the election in just nine months time.
  19. Work is starting at the end of the month, despite detailed concerns by 33 objectors, including the ward councillor. The section between Cantilupe St and Bath St is to have vertical posts included with the lane demarcation features and the spacing of these be reduced to ensure vehicles cannot enter the contraflow cycle lane. I am reliably informed that costs have already further risen to £1m. Politically and economically, the timing could not be worse, but still the Cabinet Member ploughs on (despite saying, only a little while ago, that he was uneasy at the then cost of £300k).
  20. I think energy companies have discovered that the direct debit mandate effectively provides them with free money. The Direct Debit Guarantee to the consumer seems to be worthless, despite claiming to be 'monitored and protected by your own bank or building society' (which, given banking's reputation, isn't saying much). I've had issues in the past with the major suppliers, and had a smaller one go bust on me, but have been with Octopus for a couple of years and found them reasonably fair and open. I think if you have a SMETS2 smart meter (as I have), that makes a big difference to how they manage their direct debit, as it makes their projections forecast more accurate. The downside of course is that come the energy shortages, they can shut off your supplies remotely! So far, it's gone up once from £106 to £183, they've told me it should be £221 but I've ignored that. Unfortunately, this government have no interest in sorting the mess out - it suits their friends in business very well and I don't see Truss changing the status quo.
  21. Seems bizarre - why don't they just put it in their own bin?
  22. You can still report them via the website in my link above.
  23. All it needs is a couple of teams of conscientious men/women/other gender with vans with a selection of kit whose job it would be to permanently go around the City, street by street, clearing weeds, debris, graffitti, broken and illegal signs, getting gullies cleared and generally proactively tidying and maintaining, and within twelve months the place would look completely different. Our street hasn't been swept for three years - it used to happen about every 6 months, it's that constant unseen reduction in services that is increasingly manifesting in the run down appearance of the City (and the County). Yes, councillors will bleat on about reduction in income, but what they have is still being squandered at an alarming level, so that argument doesn't really stack up in my view. It's nitty gritty housekeeping we need, not endless vanity projects, but then it was ever thus.
  24. Yes, I'm afraid they've had plenty of time to make significant differences to traffic and air quality with small, common sense changes, but no, nothing. The City itself is filthy, run down, covered in weeds and graffiti, roads full of holes etc etc. On the ground, nothing has changed for visitors in 3 years. "We are working hard in a number of ways to reduce emissions from vehicles" - really? Has JH even read what some dopey staff member has written for him?
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