twowheelsgood

Traffic was diabolical today. Took me 30 minutes to get from Bath St to the bottom of Widemarsh St from 5.30-6pm. I've never seen northbound Widemarsh St log jammed before. Perhaps being able to turn right into it from Blueschool Street is increasing the load, but those clever traffic engineers would have modelled that scenario ... wouldn't they?

Are Parish Council's tied into the Council's contractor in the same way as the Council are? Surely not, and if not, were tenders sought for this work from other contractors, as I've no doubt that half a dozen reputable local firms could have done it better and cheaper (and would have still been around to deal with outstanding/defective items). 

 

William Pulling

 

William Pulling and Co were important Cider Merchants and Gin Distillers in Hereford from 1813 to1979.  When the business was sold in the early 1980s they left 150 years of invoices, letters, bank books and ledgers.  Some were thrown out, but a large number survive.  These are currently being catalogued by volunteers in the Cider Museum.  They include good records for the 1820s, 1840s to 1860s, the 1890s and 1920s. 

 

Societies which Mr Pulling was associated with: 

Herefordshire and District Working Boys Home (1887, 1888)

 

William Pulling began as a cider merchant and extended his interests into river transport, the bark and slate trade and finally, into one of the biggest drinks trades in the region.  He began making gin in 1813 and continued until 1939, using the same stills but different recipes, finally developing the Hereford Dry Gin brand. 

 

Come as see how gin was made in Hereford   

The Pulling Exhibition is running April 23rd to end of October 2014.

The Cider Museum, Pomona Place, Hereford HR4 0EF

 

There was a bonded warehouse in East Street, opposite the Methodist Church, that was converted into terraced houses in the 1980's and is called 'Pulling's Mews'. I assume that this was originally owned by Pulling - some of the documents in the link refer to a bonded warehouse in the vicinity of St Owen's Street.

Who does own the new shopping centre

British Land.

12.15, 2.15 and 4.15pm I was told by the Old Market Hereford - looks good - might take the grandchildren.

Councillors were summoned to Brockington a few weeks ago and those who turned up were told by BB that they were going to cut the grass areas three times a year instead of seven with the exception of areas for sport. 

How about Councillors summon Balfour Beatty and tell them what to do? Something seriously wrong with priorities here. As megilleland says - too much tail wagging the dog. Goodness knows Amey were bad enough and how on earth have we got into a deal that is even worse? 

I have learnt that apparently this is not an option because the. Library is a Listed Building and the Council are prevented from carrying out the required work

 

It's a grade 2 listed building which means the interior can be changed but not the exterior.The phone box next to Orange tree is also grade 2 listed   

No, the interior is protected as well. However, that does no preclude it being altered.

As for Internet customer 'services' - if anyone has seen how badly they run their facebook page, it will be worse than useless. Perhaps that is the idea. As we've mooted, we're on the tipping point of asking why do need/pay for a council when they do so little.

Given that the council are now indicating that the present fire station will be used as university accommodation, the land swap makes even less sense. The Bath Street site is twice the size, and much less constrained, thus twice as many flats or whatever for the university, without all the legal and other costs. It doesn't make sense. But then, very little of Hereford Future's legacy does.

They have got the budget for new offices in Plough Lane though eh! I don't feel at all sorry for them. 

Hereford City Council are not Herefordshire Council. The City Council is a Parish and doing its best with some £750k pa and no government support. 

You have to ask yourselves this one single question. Given the limited areas of business the Council now are involved in, why on earth do we sit back and pay the Council Tax?

Surely it must be time to ask why on earth do we need Herefordshire Council? With service levels plummeting or being removed altogether, yet the year on year charge increasing, we are rapidly reaching the point where we have to say enough is enough! Either we need a different business model ie merge with South Shropshire or Worcestershire, or Hereford City becomes a District Council as it was before or something else. Obviously, all the suits would love this - this is after all their sole reason for being - to reorganise, but something must be done. Nobody, as far as I am aware, asked for a Unitary authority - it was foisted on us in 1998 by a labour government, although it was originated under the tories. Something's gotta change!

You have to ask yourselves this one single question. Given the limited areas of business the Council now are involved in, why on earth do we sit back and pay the Council Tax?

Surely it must be time to ask why on earth do we need Herefordshire Council? With service levels plummeting or being removed altogether, yet the year on year charge increasing, we are rapidly reaching the point where we have to say enough is enough! Either we need a different business model ie merge with South Shropshire or Worcestershire, or Hereford City becomes a District Council as it was before or something else. Obviously, all the suits would love this - this is after all their sole reason for being - to reorganise, but something must be done. Nobody, as far as I am aware, asked for a Unitary authority - it was foisted on us in 1998 by a labour government, although it was originated under the tories. Something's gotta change!

If ever there was site suitable for housing, with a commensurate value, it is that Sutton one.

An example to start us off?

But I'm sure that if she'd have wanted to add small extension to her home there would have been all manner of hoops to jump through. As anyone who's ever lived anywhere near poultry sheds knows, the smell when they're cleaned out is overpowering. Seems to be a case of big  business calling the tune here, as we've seen elsewhere - will Mr Ashcroft be resigning? Well done to her for standing her ground.

I think that is brilliant, but only 3 words - not enough to go round to justify all the the suits. Suits cut the grass?

flamboyant - the multi-million pound core strategy covers only future new development - and this is only one part of the Council's remit. The whole thing has grown and grown, thousands of pages that no one will ever read, completely impenetrable jargon that can only result in many, many bad decisions and expensive appeals. It should have been scrapped and a new start made ages ago. The whole thing could have been done in 18 months. Don't forget, the National Planning Policy Framework, which is the top level policy produced by the government to cover the whole of the country, is just 49 pages long (plus 10 pages of annexes). 

When Adrian Blackshaw was having his turn at messing up running the ESG debacle, a friend asked him if a statue commemorating John Venn could be erected as part of the proposal - his response? Who's he? Says it all really. On reflection, the good Rev Venn would spin in his St Peter's grave to be stuck in the middle of such a godless temple of consumption.

On the subject of art, commercial developments are encouraged to provide '1% for art', so at £90m, can anyone tell me where the £900k of artwork is on the OLM please? Or any artwork … at all? Did someone whisper Debenhams signs ...

Just to muddy the waters further, the police station is, apparently, knackered/not fit for purpose/about to collapse etc and the £8.1m they have just spent on that little lean-to was a stop gap to keep the human rights ninnies at bay. Their Barton Road lease expires at the end of this year and they face a major space issue back at Bath Street  because of that. So, they may be on the move as well. Another site for housing or hey, a another option for the fire station!

Reading the report provided by Colin's anonymous contact, it is clear that the Police have been systematically shafted by the Council over a 10 year period in their search for a new site and, further 'Over this period the Council and Hereford Futures have come forward with various potential site options (details provided in the section immediately below), but it has transpired that none of these options provide credible and deliverable solutions to WMP’s requirements'.

Sadly it would appear that both Fire and Police have been planning a move for 10 years or more (the Police since 2001, when they were offered the cattle market site) and both have been blocked by the Council/Futures, to the point where they now have to do something, anything, to avoid falling foul of some legislation or other. The whole ESG debacle has well and truly blighted and done for this City.

Ah, the Core Strategy. So far behind schedule (3 years and counting), so costly and such a mess, the Council have now employed external consultants at huge cost to knock the thing into some sort of shape. Officer Ashcroft, who has presided over this monumental and hugely expensive failure, nonetheless maintains his position and £80k+ salary. Of course, it has yet to go to public enquiry, at which point the big guns such as Here For Hereford will open fire. In the meantime, the Council's failure to get even a five year housing plan in place is seeing hundreds of speculative planning applications for housing in open countryside being submitted - outraged councillors are refusing them, but they'll be won on appeal, at yet more cost to us, because, without the five year plan, that is what government policy says is acceptable. 

Plans unveiled for new Hereford fire station - HT article here 

http://www.herefordtimes.com/news/11217002.Plans_unveiled_for_new_Hereford_fire_station/?ref=mc

Razor eyes Cambo, I didn't notice the mention of the 4b site having 'prior use as a bus station'. I wonder if they mean the old depot in Friar St or even the hub at Tesco? More likely they do mean the bus station off Commercial Rd. In which case that site is still an ideal site but only the timing is slightly out, due to the slow development, which means the bus station is not free yet as a new hub has not been built down by the railway station or the new development. So, as the report states the current building is not dangerous and the structure is sound why not put the new station on hold for a couple of more years. Time for our councillors to refer this for scrutiny.

At the public exhibition of the proposals I specifically asked one of the civilian firemen if there was a better site coming available in say two years time, would they wait for it? Yes, I was told, without hesitation. I was told this deal had been put together by Hereford Futures and was given the strong impression it wasn't really what they wanted. If the Council really want to develop a site for housing, just use the Bath St site for goodness sake - they'll get far more units on that. THAT is best value.

On the right hand side of the pages is the 'againsts' - several options mention a potential issue with not being able to sell the present site in a timely manner. I suspect Futiles exploited this to push them into this deal. However, in my experience, you can sell anything if the price is right.

What about the admin cost of contacting the council to get permission to cut their grass? No doubt forms would be involved, which would have to be mailed out, checked on return, approval mailed out - would this be cheaper than getting the grass cut? Of course not. Never mind the nightmare for the hapless citizen trying to contact the council in the first place via their unhelpful switchboard (in Liverpool I hear).

Actually, I see that Ameo Ltd are a different and seemingly separate company to Ameo Consulting Ltd and Dearing is not a director of the former. However, Ameo Ltd talks the sort of management gobblegook that the council must have loved - 'Ameo is a niche interim management consultancy specialising in project and programme management for business change and transformation initiatives'. It must be a coincidence that Dearing is now trading with a very similar name ...

 

Actually 'gdj' HC paid Ameo a lot more than that, here's a few more. I haven't been through all of the Councils expenditure so I expect there's a lot more. 

 

http://www.google.ie/url?q=https://www.herefordshire.gov.uk/media/6842476/April_13_expenditure.pdf&sa=U&ei=3V9uU5GvCsG47Ab28oCgDA&ved=0CCIQFjAG&usg=AFQjCNEDNmF-1KdaKSEahkzCOqSL4dSwYg

 

Whats the first thing I see - a payment of £430 to Black Mountain Mineral Water Co - they just don't get it do they?

In March 2013, Ameo were paid £20900.

In April 2013, Ameo were paid £13200.

In August 2013, Ameo were paid £20990.

That’s just from those three links above. Is it me or do this all seem a little, well, odd?

There are pages and pages of payments to Ethica Resourcing Ltd - I assume that is for agency staff to cover for those who've been made redundant.

Neighbourhood Plan's are tied into and part of the Council's (slowly) emerging Core Strategy - now 3 years late and counting. It is debatable as to whether they will have any effectiveness when the over-arching National Planning Policy Framework has a sweeping 'in favour of sustainable development' approach.