twowheelsgood

Sorry, that should say 'John Venn name should be reinstated' - memo to self not to post after midnight!

Planning's role is to determine what is submitted and only that. Everything else is politics. Objections must refer only to the application - subjective views on where it should be sited, for instance, are pointless and detract from the point.

It's not listed - the Civic Society tried a few years ago to get it listed to no avail. I rather like it in a perverse way, but the original John Venn name should be reinitiated - Mrs Haider did a terrible disservice to Rev Venn's memory when she renamed it.

They'll do it in August when people are on holiday ...

Disagree entirely - if you employ an estate agent to design you a building (which is what they have done) you end up with what we were shown - a shed, and an ugly one at that. That is why planning legislation exists - to ensure that the built environment is the best it can be, to everyone's benefit, within established guidelines. This proposal ignores all those guidelines. The present fire station has some considerable architectural merit - so it can be done. The magistrates court is not a bad building at all - there is no reason why that level of design and quality could not front Bath Street. It is a simple brief after all - 4 large garage doors and some office accommodation. That should not restrict in any way a design of quality that will enhance the conservation area coming forward (my emphasis - this is what the legislation demands). That doesn't overcome the training rig issue though ...

Cushman & Wakefield are 'real estate agents' who 'provide commercial real estate services to help clients turn fixed assets into dynamic assets'. Hence the complete absence of any architectural merit.

duplicate

We knew it would be bad, but never as bad as this! It’s a shocker!! Of course the rather fine Scots pine goes as well - council trademark - before you do anything fell some trees. Who can forget or forgive the felling of the centuries old boundary oak at the new cattle market? Or the limes … both completely avoidable.

Been - there 4 other people there whilst I was there. The proposal is even worse than anticipated - a single and two story shed, quite appalling, wouldn't look out of place at Rotherwas, but in the Central Conservation Area - what are they thinking? Told one of the reps it looked cheap and nasty - he said it certainly wasn't cheap! There is a massive training rig at the back - three storeys and a pitched roof, but all open steel frame (the same as they have at Peterchurch) - that'll be nice for residents in Central Avenue, when they're burning off an old car or two. Terrible - does it 'enhance the conservation area' - specific criteria for such an application - most definitely not. Again, we have to wonder why the rush. I asked the rep - if there was a better site but a two year wait, would you wait? He said yes.

I suspect long established shops such as Philip Morris own their property and don't have to pay exhorbitant rent to absentee landlords, trading from offshore tax havens. We've seen the rent at New Look in High Street disclosed as £450k pa, with business rates probably the same again and staff costs and other overheads pushing it well over £1m pa needed before it makes a penny. From a few frocks?

So have the HT got it wrong? "The people behind the BID steering group include representatives from Herefordshire Council, Hereford City Council, Visit Herefordshire, Young Enterprise, as well as businesses and other organisations such as All Saints’ Café, Fit Clothing, Harrison Clark Rickerbys, Primark, Chave and Jackson, and Hereford Cathedral." This is the same situation as Hereford Futiles - representatives from the Council on the board, until it all went pear shaped and, to avoid disclosing information, those directors suddenly became 'individuals'.

From the H & W Fire Authority, 8 May; Work gets underway on new fire station at Great Western Business Park, Worcester St. Modwen, the UK’s leading regeneration specialist, has begun work on a new fire station at its Great Western Business Park in Worcester on behalf of Hereford & Worcester Fire Authority (HWFA). Derek Prodger MBE, chairman of Hereford & Worcester Fire and Rescue Service, added: “Our current fire station in Copenhagen Street has served us well for the last 70 years but lacks modern training facilities and is no longer fit for purpose. This new facility will enhance our service to the people of Worcester and support the work of our firefighters.†Great Western Business Park, off Tolladine road, is located half a mile from Worcester City Centre and within two miles of Junction 6 of the M5 motorway. My emphasis - if they can locate the Worcester one out of the City, why not the Hereford one? Have they considered Rotherwas, particularly given the large fires there recently?

Nothing to do with the council - more to do with protecting the anonymity of people in need who have been helped by the Society, financially or otherwise.

I meant the District Council - of necessity they are on the Steering Group - I just hope they are kept in check and not allowed to hijack the scheme at the eleventh hour, taking all the credit for doing nothing and then in all probability screwing it up. I'm with Aylestone Hill - too often these things are talking shops for the suits with no real work on the ground ever materialising. I'd like to see the City running itself as it used to when there was the District/County arrangement - a much more balanced and fair approach with checks and balances, unlike the unitary scheme foisted upon us.

My thoughts exactly - it’s the kiss of death if the council push in to lead this.

dippy - yes its listed (the L in the application number) and yes it’s the old New Market Tavern, now the Old Market Inn, in the new Old Market development! Formerly owned by the Council, hence its shockingly neglected state prior to the development, I suspect this valuable freehold and free house was bundled into the giveaway deal to British Land.

Presumably the works to the 'Old Market Inn' have already been done ahead of any planning decision - one rule for the big boys, one for the rest of us ...

Ask a neighbour if they have space - we have reciprocal arrangements with several of ours. Make sure card is folded flat and plastic milk cartons are squashed down, but don't squash tins (makes them harder to sort at the other end). We only have the smaller green bin and my wife and I manage to fill that comfortably every fortnight - and we're obsessive about recycling everything possible. If you have some clear recycling bags, use those, but, ultimately, you may have to black bin bag it to just to catch up. Ubique - having walked up and down Bewell St a couple of times yesterday and today, the amount of litter and rubbish piled up and lying everywhere is just unbelievable. A disgrace. Bewell St could be a little jewel for shopping like Church St, but sadly it resembles an open sewer, made worse by the terrible failing paving. It reminded me why I do most of my shopping online.

I saw one of these being installed in Falmouth recently - clearly, BT have done a deal with someone to replace phone boxes with money boxes, retaining a basic stand in the rain phone on one side. If they weren't festooned with writing they wouldn't look ok, but in a conservation area surrounded by listed buildings, somewhat garish. Perhaps they've done a deal with the council as well. Such is progress I guess.

It's not 9 months work! It's a £130k contract over about 9 months, split into 'Phase 1 scoping 1-2 days a week and then Phase 2 mobilisation 3-4 weeks days a week' with no more specific detail. So, considerably less than full time.

Along with the Pizza Hut on Newtown Road - another dereliction of duty by Planners and a poor greeting to city visitors (as indeed KFC by the railway).

I meant the roof of the Waitrose multi-storey, where the unsavoury doggy-doings at the Garrick could be observed at a safe distance by the puffers.

Send them to the top storey car park - I don't want to be served by staff who smell of smoke, who hang around a back door, letting smoke waft back into the building, who stand/slouch/sit on the side of the A49 for all the world to see and who, invariably, toss their stinking butts in the road. Smokers are the worst litterers in the country, with cigarette ends and matchsticks being the most common form of litter. Around 122 million tonnes of cigarette litter is dropped EVERY DAY across the UK, which costs Councils (ie you and me) £342m a year to clean up in England alone (albeit nothing at all in Hereford as they abandon sweeping the streets). Worst still, a cigarette butt contains about 4000 dangerous chemicals which wash into waterways, harming wildlife and creating a serious biohazard. A butt takes 12 years or more to biodegrade. Despite all this, most smokers don't regard themselves as creating a problem.

Indeed, quite please with that one - perhaps it should have its own thread - word of the week.

I understand the Magistrates building was a paean to the folly that is PFI - in other words, we'll still be paying for it even if it is knocked down!