twowheelsgood

Whilst POPLA appears to be a quasi-judicial service, it has no statutory status. It was established by the British Parking Association (BPA) and is funded by the parking industry. It is operated independently and administered on behalf of the BPA by London Councils, who already provide statutory tribunals for parking, traffic and other enforcement. They handle over 600 appeals a week, which is rising rapidly as the word gets out about the shysters operating these scams. 

Corporate Services had 68 appeals registered against them with POPLA from 1 April 2013 to 31 March 2014, of which 10 were allowed and 38 refused with presumably the balance rolled over to the next year.

if as an example, there is a gas leak in Widemarsh Street, I suspect people would be a little upset to have to wait a week for a committee to give consent to Gas board for road closure!.

Poor example - statutory undertakers do not need the councils express permission to open the highway, particularly when there is a gas leak.

Bloody madness - and  once that is done, they are going to cut it again to 900 watts in three years time. Of course, if we weren't in the damned EU thing it wouldn't matter a jot ...

Propaganda and spin as ever from HC. It may be 7 months work, but the bridge has been closed for several years (but not closed enough to stop the odd cyclist ...) - a terrible dereliction of duty by the council and a massive inconvenience. A FOI request about the true cost of these works might make interesting reading, given that it goes right back to Amey's involvement, who, I understand, forestalled works with the inevitable endless and expensive ecological surveys. As the whole thing was eventually subcontracted to Owen Pell, a more than capable local civil works contractor, it begs the question, yet again, why do we need BB just to add their 25% or more mark up onto someone else's work, and for what?

Bodge and get paid 3 times instead of once - now, who else in Herefordshire has that business model ...

Another issue that has come to light via a friend, who lives in a flatted development - a conversion of a large listed building - they presently have large Sulo wheelie bins for their rubbish, into which they put their black bags. These are contained in an enclosure. When they go fortnightly, they will need twice as many Sulo bins - who will supply these and where will they go? Will the Council supply them and will they also pay for an enlarged enclosure - which would need planning permission and listed building consent?

It's only a matter of time before this happens, following which there will be cost cutting and dumping of unprofitable departments, with 'Living Places' no doubt first in line. And then where will be ? It'll be the Jarvis/Amey stitch up all over again. Or do the sensible (and cheapest) thing and revert to direct labour?

http://www.adjacentgovernment.co.uk/housing-building-construction-planning-news/balfour-rejects-carillion-takeover/

I'm sure they must have a jargon machine for writing this sort of effusive, buzz-word laden twaddle, 'to successfully ensure the delivery of outcomes'.

Twowheelgood - from what you say there is soon going to be some more of the Public money spent on more accommodation for the Constabulary somewhere else ?

Yes. There has been a long stated need for a new Police station in the City - Bath Street is no longer suitable. I read a report a little while ago, but can't find it just now - it was highly critical of the Council for messing them around over a long period. They still have the training field off Widemarsh St, and this is where they want it, but the Council have other ideas (but won't be pinned down on any of them). In Bromsgrove, they've built a shared premises with the Fire Brigade, but they've made it clear that won't happen here (guess they couldn't play nicely together), and this was also confirmed by the fire brigade rep at the recent consultation.

On my ward walkabout two weeks ago in Newton Farm / Hunderton with BB steward as part of that walkabout was also the fields area (Shaw walkway) where the picnic benches are he took photo's of the benches. He has been on Holiday but back tomorrow I will contact him in the morning to see when this work is going to be done.

What was his response? Coming up for a year now ...

Venns Lane is way, way worse than Folly Lane - it too has been marked out for repairs, but whether this will then include resurfacing I don't know. Lets hope they clear the blocked gullies at the same time.

Proved by the building the WM Police use with BT at the rear of Sainsburys.

 

Which they must shortly move out of as the lease expires and won't be renewed. The Bath Street station is too small and no longer fit for purpose (despite the 'stop gap' £8m extension to the side) and they should have been moving into a new police station built as part of something called the Edgar Street Grid, but they didn't allow for the endless obfuscation up at Brockington Towers. Now that the asset strippers have left town with a bag of our cash and a 250 year lease on a hugely valuable town centre land, progressing the 'civic quarter' and other such worthy projects seem to have been quietly dropped by our Council. No surprise there.

Herefordshire just gets its money from rate payers, who can not afford to pay more and Government hand outs.

 

The Tories will be gone next May, things will be very different after that. Please bear with those of us who are trying hard to undo the

The damage done over the last few years.

Complete nonsense, and I would hope that you know it. Even a casual glance at the Council's 2014/15 tax leaflet shows that Council Tax funds only 25% of spending, with government grants making up 32% and the Dedicated Schools Grant for 2014/15, excluding amounts going directly to academy schools, a further 23% (£75.4m).

We were told (by Councillors) that things would be very different when Amey went - they are - they're much, much worse now.

You'll have to try harder than that to convince the electorate you're worthy of our vote ...

Don't see this working in Herefordshire. Councils have to bid to set up new housing zones across the country. There are hopes this scheme will help build up to 200,000 new homes. To receive funding, councils need to consult on a local development order on the land.

We've got lots of very small parcels of brownfield land - petrol stations for instance - but none that would merit a 'housing zone' - I guess that is aimed at huge abandoned industrial complexes, such as Longworth was. If the Inco Alloys site ever fell empty, that would probably qualify. But what would these zones achieve that the planning system doesn't already? Unsurprisingly, the government's announcement doesn't say. If it means Council's push developers to brownfield sites and refuse greenfield sites, their Section 106 income stream will plummet, and they won't like that. Remember, our Council think they can build an entire bypass from developer contributions from allowing building on greenfield, grade 1 agricultural land ...

What is really needed is not yet more hand outs to Councils to waste on meetings, but tax breaks and incentives directly to the developers willing to take on these sites. On-costs on contaminated sites are both massive and time consuming to deal with.

The whole VAT issue on construction is a complete mess - this is what the government should be looking at. Take it off works to existing buildings (extensions, listed buildings, conversion to dwellings) and put it on new houses, which themselves could then be exempt if on a brownfield site. Mmm, not that hard to work that one up ...

You would have thought that a well-known (to whom? Not me) global brand (really? Like Nike for instance?) would be able to type the correct web address for its sister company www.herefordshirerrecruitment.co.uk. Perhaps they're too busy 'adding value' and the such like to bother with the basics. Big mistake.

The West Mercia local area boundaries are bonkers - it splits Hereford City Northside and Southside - but south side covers some of the north and vice-versa and St James is covered by both! How is Joe Public supposed to know who to call - if there's an affray in Nelson St, for instance, it could be north or south, depending on which side of the road! And what if they cross over before the Police arrive? 

Do the minimum, badly, seems to be BB's maxim.

I wonder how much damage the roots have done to the drains below - judging by the weeds vigorous growth I suspect they broke into the drains and have wreaked havoc. I bet no one bothered to lift that inspection cover.

 

Herefordshire Council

This is current advice relative to green wheelie bins - it doesn't relate to the forthcoming black wheelie bins, where you will indeed be able to stuff them full of black bagged rubbish. It is confusing though, but confusion is something that the council excel at.

Saw a Police Officer and a CSO riding bikes together down Central Avenue today - said hello as I was so surprised to see them out and about!

Wow - in the particulars is a link to a site where someone has put together a fantastic history of this property and the occupiers. It's here -

http://www.jlb2011.co.uk/specials/index.htm

Cute little Mexican midget … yeah, I saw one of those talking to the fisherman down by the Wye one day ...

David Bennett, CE of Sanctuary (our 'preferred partner' for housing within the ESG and a 'not for profit social enterprise') picked up £308k in 2012/13, up from £287k the previous year.

Hmm.

 

Shame the previous River Island premises aren't "helping Hereford stay on trend".

 

Still a complete mess. I have no faith in the statement from Herefordshire Council, reassuring us that the situation is "resolved." As with many things in life, actions speak louder than words. And to date, there has been nothing.

I've said before that it is well within the Council's remit to rectify this situation - they have the legal obligation to protect listed buildings. They have the right to either implement the work and recharge it to the owners or to compulsorily purchase the site, do the work and then sell on when complete - another council has done just this and made a profit to put back into the coffers.

That our council won't do either, indeed consider the matter 'resolved' is a disgrace and merely reinforces their contempt for High Town and the people of Hereford. They dance only to the tune of the money men. They will have to account for this next May.

Oh, and that 'statement' issued last June was June 2013 by the way, 14 months ago ...

Just had a holiday in Gwynedd - guess what - their fortnightly collections are to be extended to every three weeks. I fully expect Herefordshire Council to follow on with that in due course. I also noted in the local press that Gwynedd Council spent £118k in the last year replacing broken, stolen or lost bins - has this been factored into our councils alleged 'savings' this scheme will bring?