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twowheelsgood

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Posts posted by twowheelsgood

  1. As building professional, who lives just a few yards from the Fire Station, and having been inside it on several occasions, I can assure everyone that there is very little wrong with it. Whilst it may no longer suit the requirements of the Fire Brigade, it most certainly does not merit demolition. It is actually rather a fine example of 1950's architecture and would convert in flats very nicely. Everyone from the PM downwards bangs on endlessly about sustainability and making best use of our resources - and it is enshrined it in planning law - so where is the sustainability, or logic, in demolishing a sound building (particularly for a bloody car park)?

     

    The bus station would make a good site, no doubt of that - it even has two accesses as the present station. Yes, there is supposed to be a new 'transport hub' at the station, but when? This is the issue - the council are incapable of rational decisions and achieving set timescales, which affects third parties, who have to move on to often less suitable sites because they cannot wait forever.

     

    Why didn't the Council make the Rockfield site into a (temporary) bus station - indeed they still could. Releases the present bus station and the jobs a good 'un - no meetings necessary. Or is that too easy?

  2. I note today's HT editorial has another swipe at the 'mendacious meddlers', claiming 'all manner of wider opposition can rally' around a 'totem' ie the Working Boys Home (or Bath St offices as the HT calls them). Perhaps she's sore that the HT story has only attracted 4 comments, yet HV has 130 comments and over 2000 views. Frankly, its an absurd stance and does the HT no favours.

     

    As Colin notes elsewhere, the power of social media knows no bounds and HV reflects that.

  3. The one way starts where the road narrows - just in front of that blue Saxo car. If you cycle the length of the track (which isn't highway and  therefore isn't one way), the road that you join is two way, allowing you to carry on your merry way. As a solution its about as good as it gets (I use it regularly) given the mess of junctions all around it.

  4. In September of last year I asked the Marches LEP if Jarvis was still on the board as Leader of Herefordshire Council, as indicated on their website, as he had resigned in June 2013. The Executive Co-ordinator replied 'We do need to undertake a number of updates to the website and just lack capacity to do so at present. Cllr Jarvis is no longer on the LEP Board. Cllr Tony Johnson took over when he became Leader. We are hoping to make updates this Autumn when more hands arrive in the Team!' They or may not have those hands, but the website remains unchanged.

     

    Also noted 'Working on behalf of the Marches LEP Board is a subsidiary board for the management of the Enterprise Zone in Herefordshire, at Skylon Park'. From that it seems that Skylon Park has little to do with Herefordshire Council!

  5. It's going to be a "linear park and vastly improved public realm which will help to unite the (OLM)  with the city centre."  That’s what it said on one of the master plans, so it must be true.

     

    There will be dedicated crossing points, with traffic control, and you also have the option of chicken running to the middle section to lock/unlock your bike.

     

    Obviously what is being built bears no resemblance to the original proposals, having been 'value engineered' by Stanhope, so I guess we'll have to wait and see.

  6. Beggars belief. So, just what does economic development do these days, given that everything has been outsourced to Hereford Futures, the huge pile of salty bricks is almost done (and has put the local electricians working on it out of business, by the way) and that the council have no money to spend (they say) and are selling/giving away everything in an end of year fiscal frenzy?

  7. "A partnership to build a world class broadband network for Herefordshire and Gloucestershire"

     

    Really means - just give us the £12m and clear off and don't come back asking silly questions like what do we get for our money and when.

  8. Bloody hell, who thinks up these ridiculous trumped up names for their departments? Digital Strategy Task & Finish Group indeed - tell us what you really do, if anything. Tell us why you're paying through the nose for London based web design. Tell us why the Council's web site appears to be illegal - whose task was it to ensure it complied? 

  9. On 16/03/2014 at 00:31, Biomech said:

    I would, but, in all honesty, it doesn't interest me, I just think it's a pointless idea :P

    You know, I did notice that it looked abandoned during my "30 ******* minutes" of sitting in gridlocked traffic :P

    I don't know what's happened to that media center opposite sainsburys but that was part of the colleges at one point, I think last I saw it was covered in scaffolding

    That's now Nelson House and occupied by the Council, as much of Plough Lane is now occupied by Hoople operatives. A slate blew off in the recent high winds, triggering a massive H & S scare and building evacuation.

  10. Roger, I asked HH about the life span of the windows and it is correct, I had my windows change in 2012 and they had been in place 10 years. I also asked if the rubble from the demolision of all these flat in the redevelopment was going to land fill, they said NO the stone will be crushed and sold to a reclamation yard, I suggested it could be used as hardcore beneath the foundations of the new units, I was told they would consider that.

     

    My Victorian windows are 110 years old and still in excellent condition - 10 years is a pathetic lifespan - an absolute minimum should be 25 years. You don't use hardcore under foundations - they bear on virgin ground (or are reinforced some way). I assume you mean under the floors - you would not use crushed hardcore for this because of possible contamination issues. If the ground is disturbed, a concrete beam and block system would likely be used. Crushed hardcore is however ideal for drives and paths.

  11. Let's be realistic here, if this "university" goes ahead, it's not going to be a nice university campus, it's going to be lectures in meeting rooms and back alley buildings dotted around the city. Look at the art college, that's now spread to various "media" centers all over town, filling old rooms and buildings like the old job centre.

     

    Keep up - the council have taken over the old job centre, spent a load of money refurbishing it and (I believe) have moved their Bath St staff into it, ahead of a cosy deal with the Fire Brigade. They've also taken over the old Bulmers lab premises in Whitecross Road, Nelson House, currently scaffolded after a slate blew off. As an aside, they're also altering Plough Lane and spending millions on the Shire Hall.

     

    The plans for Robert Owen/University at Blackfriars show two large new blocks to be built on the site. From their Q and A 'Beginning with as few as 300 students at its inception, the university will grow to 5,000 students between 2020 and 2025. The New University will be established in the immediate environs of Hereford City and will evolve campus hubs in several locations throughout the City.'

  12. All peripheral reasons helping the massive shift to online shopping. Its probable that the walk-in supermarket boom is nearing or is past its peak - the future is online with much smaller stores to see and touch certain goods before having them delivered to your door or nearby 'locker'. There's a reason why the OLM is the only 'shopping centre' opening in the UK this year.

  13. The Council don't give a stuff about John Venn's heritage. He is buried in the Commercial St graveyard, with his sister and aunt, and the Society were stalled for about 6 years when they were asking the Council for something to be done about the condition of the graveyard. In 2006 they were told that a wonderful new company called ESG would manage its restoration. When it became obvious that nothing was going to happen, they undertook to restore the grave itself in 2010 - when asked to contribute towards the modest cost, the council refused to offer a penny (in fact they demanded a fee for a license, which was ignored). The City Council contributed I believe £1000.

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