twowheelsgood

Pretty poor sign - the top third is devoted to BB/HC - in fact 'Danger' is about half the height of the BB logo!

How about the top third saying 'Danger' in red? Stick the corporate drivel at the bottom.

I saw this earlier and thought it was funny 

 

#cutgrasshfd.jpg

I think this is on Tupsley Rise - if so, at least the nettles hide a ton of litter dumped on the verge which has built up over the years and never been cleared - the sign itself is dirty and has a big dent in the bottom edge - what a welcome to Hereford

Indeed, surface water throughout the county has been a major issue since Amey stopped clearing gulleys 10 years ago, contributing to the collapse of our road structure through flood and freeze. I've reported dozens and dozens over recent years and not a single one has been actioned. Yesterday, I noted the new tarmac at the Barton Rd junction with the ring road was laid to a gulley that was blocked solid - does no one have any pride in the job anymore? Having said that, I did see a sludge gulper in Kyrle Street last week - that WAS a first!

I doubt it, this is how they work - fob you off lie until you get bored, move on or die. 

According to the HT the freehold was estimated at £1.25m. With Council debt now at £200m, the fire sale continues it seems, but it ain't going to make a jot of difference. All our silver will be gone and then what will they do?

The City's 'jewel in the crown', used and abused by those in power to suit their own means, passed around consultants so they could all have their fill of fees before being discarded, open to offers from allcomers. What a disgraceful outcome and what a disgrace this Council are. How much lower can they sink?

The Highways Agency are working here at the moment (at night) - I cycled through the junction from Barton Rd yesterday. Brand new tarmac at the junction, abutting a gulley blocked solid with weeds growing out of it - standard issue 'not our department, guv' I suspect. Usual numpties parked in the Advanced Stop Line box as well ...

I fear they would soon be cut down to easily saleable packs at car boots ...

Turning it into hay is a good recycling - dumping it at Brockington would just be a waste!

Another slice of madness not widely discussed or known is that BB are concentrating on resurfacing C class and unclassified roads throughout the county - this was a harebrained scheme developed by the former Cllr Hamilton before he had a tantrum and resigned. The remotest of lanes that might only see a few vehicles a day are now being completely resurfaced, yet the plan, confirmed to me personally by Hamilton in a letter, is to effectively abandon B and A class roads for the time being, with only makeshift repairs, which is what we are seeing. Some of these roads, such as at Hampton Bishop are benefitting from government flood money, but they wouldn't have been done otherwise. Hard to fathom the level of idiocy that pushes through a scheme like this. Similar to one that abandons mowing the grass I guess.

Just to show I'm not making it up, I saw this today -  it’s a 500m stretch of lovely new tarmac which has been laid on a no-through lane which serves a single property. Having been nearly shaken to death and struggled to avoid lethal potholes along Aylestone Hill (east side), Venns Lane, and Whitecross Rd whilst on my bike, I really question the vaidity of such work - it simply cannot be the best use of limited resources. Ironically half a mile down the road, longstanding flooding is still blocking the road and a little further on Ruckhall Mill bridge is still closed two years on since its temporary closure.

Do we really need a cabinet member for grass cutting, for goodness sake? Particularly when there isn't any being done! It's madness!

Colin, the bulk of this thread has disappeared, including my original pictures.

I went past the site today and I guess this is what passes as a repair these days under Balfour Beatty. It's very sad to see everything sliding into disrepair and decay.

Whilst I was there looking out over the huge area of uncut grass, it occurred to me that this would make really good organic hay - any farmer should get two cuts off this field through the summer.

Glenda, how about a bit of lateral thinking and offering it to a farmer in exchange for a free cut or two? There'll be usual health and safety ninnies moaning - give them a red flag to wave while the tractor is around.

Seems like a good idea to me - anyone else?

I with you dh, having been out on my bike this morning and seen more of the council madness that is driving this county to become its own little third world.

What?! Not Merton Meadow car park - the one they're going to dig up for housing - say it ain't so ...

Remind me what he DOES again.......!!

Tailor made for a certain Mr Bretherton methinks. These arrangements always headline on how many millions it will save over 10 years - £30m in the case of Hoople I recall, £??m in the case of NHS/Hfds Council, £??m in the case of Amey etc etc - its never a saving though - its bigger salaries for those who nab the top spots and after 3 or 4 years it falls apart and off they go to set up the same sham at another authority.

The last of those is for Poundland going into the old TKMaxx - internally illuminated signs were a complete no-go in the City until the OLM arrived, and then all the rules were quietly put to one side. Those Debenhams signs are a travesty. I shall object to these outside signs being internally illuminated.

 

The Independent today:

 

Academic warns of public-sector debt being held by investors on the other side of the world:

 

Mr Clifford said: “We’re getting to a situation where a fire station in Stoke gets to be a debt somewhere in Singapore. That just feels instinctively not to be right. What was the real cause of the financial crisis? Banks lending without knowing where their debt really is. This [PFI flipping] stuff feels like part of that whole process again.â€

 

This should sound alarm bells down at Bath Street! Sorry about going off topic, but I couldn't work grass into this reply.

 

The civilian fireman at the public consultation told me categorically that the new station is not a PFI project - the funding is coming from central Government. It is still designed by an estate agent though. I think the new Gloucs ones are PFI funded. 

 

Decant definition:

 

Decanting is a legal definition used to explain the process where residents are required to move from their homes due to reasons 

 

Permanent Decant 

When a resident is moved out of their property and there is no intention to return them to it or the tenant has been moved on a temporary basis and it is agreed by all parties the new property is more suitable for them to remain in. 

 

Temporary Decant 

When a resident is moved out of their property, to enable work on the property to be carried out, with the intention of returning them to the property at the earliest opportunity. 

 

This term is used a lot by Housing Associations.

 

Decant in the context of the councils's response to Colin's FOI request is the cost of moving offices - they have £0.5m set aside for shuffling around the city as they come up with increasingly ridiculous property strategies. Seems a lot money to pay removal men ...

dippyhippy - the £4m is for Plough Lane refurb only. The Shire Hall is a separate cost, I believe in the region of £3m. They have also just taken on and refurbished the old job centre in Bath Street at a cost as yet unknown. As if that were not enough, of course they also now have the old Bulmer lab in Whitecross Road (Nelson House?) which is being re-roofed following a couple of slates blowing off in the bad winter. Cost - £silly. Odd that Plough Lane was originally meant to be the HQ to enable all other buildings to be sold and services centralised. Instead they keep expanding, despite claims of reducing staff levels. Brockington Towers is scheduled to go on sale this year - for lots of housing in the grounds no doubt. Is there any hope they will get the market rate, or will it be a quiet London sale again?

Generally capital budgets attract specific grant monies from government,  which is why councils prefer to knock things down and start again. They build something with a capital grant, spend nothing on maintenance at all for say 25 years, declare it beyond reasonable repair and then apply to government for a grant for a new one. This equally applies to our roads. Of course, during those 25 years, the accounts and council tax collect for repairs and the like, which they are then free to divert to the latest crackpot scheme or senior salary.

It’s a very lazy, unattractive, environmentally damaging and and ultimately costly way of doing things.

Another example is the ridiculous 'improvements' to King Street - some while ago, a perfectly normal junction was changed, resulting in something which was dangerous, with literally dozens of accidents there. After a while the council could demonstrate to government that this was a dangerous section of road and got a grant to improve it (£0.6m). This they have now done, building a dangerous 'improvement' which in due course will be ripped up again.

Lets just that say the construction business does very nicely out of these arrangements ...

And, as we've come to expect, no comments allowed on the HT site - censorship still alive and well under the new editor then.

The paper was free in the City but we that live in the " Sticks" had to pay 50p for it .

 

I also thought that it was a better paper than the HT - thinking perhaps that the HT might now reduce the cost of their paper bearing in mind that it's possible that more advertisers ( except Biomech ) will use the HT for advertising .

 

Always sad when people lose their jobs , wish them well .

A monopoly will never result in prices being reduced! Just the opposite I imagine.

Another good word for the Journal - I've always liked it - it seems to me that the letters page was better and, perhaps not so much now, but they used to do some pretty good digging of council dirt (of which there is always plenty to dig).

As I understand it, the council have prioritised road repairs over more or less anything else that BB were/are doing.

 

In order for MORE money to be spent in this area, LESS (much less !) will be spent in other areas. i.e. cutting the grass.

 

Kind of like robbing from one bit of the budget, to fund another!

Another slice of madness not widely discussed or known is that BB are concentrating on resurfacing C class and unclassified roads throughout the county - this was a harebrained scheme developed by the former Cllr Hamilton before he had a tantrum and resigned. The remotest of lanes that might only see a few vehicles a day are now being completely resurfaced, yet the plan, confirmed to me personally by Hamilton in a letter, is to effectively abandon B and A class roads for the time being, with only makeshift repairs, which is what we are seeing. Some of these roads, such as at Hampton Bishop are benefitting from government flood money, but they wouldn't have been done otherwise. Hard to fathom the level of idiocy that pushes through a scheme like this. Similar to one that abandons mowing the grass I guess.

Wait what? So why did HH get involved at all? If they can cut some random peoples grass they can come and cut mine!!

Dear Lord, we're getting there! For the last time, they did it as a 'goodwill gesture', having been leant on by Jim Kenyon to help.

And these bins. With £500,000 being saved by cutting the collections 50% then who's pocket is that going into? Presumably Balfour Beatty tendered for weekly collections of black bins.

 

Bins are nothing to do with Balfour Beatty - that service was flogged off to Focsa some years ago. Focsa Services UK Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of FCC Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas, S.A., a global, market leading Spanish company. So, a good share of our council tax goes to shareholders in Europe. Here You Can keep it global. 

The ward councillor will be pivotal in the process.