twowheelsgood

The first thing I read was 'Manage demographic pressures/Improvements in Demand Management'. Written in the best management speak to ensure councillors don't have a clue what they're voting on. Just some highlights;

I'm not against a velodrome per se. I am against a single penny of public money being spent on it, in whatever form. If the County purse was bulging and everything was running at 100%, the roads were perfect and the elderly and disadvantaged had no worries about their care etc, etc, then, and only then, should the Council be looking forward to invest in new facilities. As we're unlikely to be in that position for the foreseeable future, leave it to the market. 

Photos 2 and 6 are let.Will be furniture shop

36 under offer now sold http://www.crossandjames.co.uk/detail.asp?propcode=CRJA_001055

37 and 38 are part of the CPO's for urban development

25 is under offerhttp://www.turnerandco.co.uk/details.asp?type=3&offset=10&propid=408

16 is to be turned into self contained flats

You missed the premier shop and black fronted shop next to it in high town.Both under offer.http://www.crossandjames.co.uk/detail.asp?propcode=CRJA_001035

34 is under offer http://www.crossandjames.co.uk/detail.asp?propcode=CRJA_001048.

 

37 and 38 are not shown as part of the CPO's for urban development (according to the Council's Compensation Guide for Owners and Occupiers).

I can't find a planning application for 16 (to be turned into self contained flats) and it wouldn't accord with policy anyway - where has this info come from?

I'd support the idea of a library in Maylords - the additional footfall would be welcome by all of the shops I'm sure. It would need planning permission of course - and that’s where it all may go go a bit pear shaped - senior offices with their own agendas ...

Some people may recall (and others may not want us to) that Maylord Orchards anchor tenant was C & A. Yet once the benefits of rent and rates free deals had faded, they packed up and left. Maylords has never really recovered, and soon to lose TKMaxx as well.

The Solicitors changed their mind. The whole Left Bank building and adjacent offices (in the stables) are still empty and for sale.

Given Jim's reassurance that no Herefordshire Council money will be spent on this initiative, does it matter? Private funding will be forthcoming if its viable - that's for them to determine. The Swinden Playing Fields circuit that mgelliland quotes from BikeRadar above is part funded by the Council.

All of this routine maintenance should have been done PROPERLY through the summer - but of course it wasn't. In fact Amey had already stopped doing pretty much anything by then and what they did was shoddy beyond belief. So, once again we're subjected to floods because of blocked gullies, potholes hidden by floods, potholes made worse by floods and, as megilleland says, further damage when it all freezes. I've submitted a load of reports this weekend via FixMyStreet of items I reported 12 months or more ago that were never dealt with then and as a result are even worse now. As a cyclist, standing water on the roads conceals goodness know what - its genuinely frightening trying to move around the county at the moment.

Bravo. I can see now why Patricia is so keen to climb aboard, regardless of nettles, thorns or anything else ...

It’s a sales brochure, not necessarily telling the whole story. By showing lots of parking, its meant to entice prospective shops to rush to sign up - the fact that some of those spaces aren't necessarily available isn't allowed to get in the way of a sale ...

That developer drawing is a complete nonsense and should be disregarded. Wall St is not going - the exit onto Newmarket St (and right turn across) is clearly shown on the latest CGI on the front of HT. Quite how they are going to make up the space I'm not sure, but I'm guessing the central reservation will more or less disappear as it heads towards Edgar St and they may make the  present pavement narrower to grab some space. The City wall is a scheduled monument - they can't just start moving things and digging willy nilly. In fact, I think the latest proposals require a variation to the planning permission, but no application has been made as far as I can see. 

Same old story of bad communication isn't it?

Which I believe the NHS paid for.

Smart move - 50 year lease. Dumb move - 250 year lease by the Council to British Land for the OLM site ... not fiction.

Two hundred and fifty bloody years. Nobody told me. Two hundred and fifty bloody years! Good bloody grief. What a lovely arrangement. Whoever negotiated this little slice of pleasure should definitely be kept well away from the table. Was it Jarvis? Tell me it was Jarvis and Im going to spit phlegm. Good grief! Two hundred and fifty bloody years. I mean Two bloody hundred is bad enough. That's plenty to bloody swallow but why add the other fifty on. Fifty years on top of two hundred. My God. Tie me down and tether me to a horizontal bar.

Is this right? The vein in my neck is bulging as I transmit this message. Tell me TwoWheels with or without an 'e' that this is a throw away remark intended to tease me.

Why two hundred and fifty bloody years? Good God. Surely the Council negotiation team could have lopped a bloody century off of this settlement.

Im playing three card brag after and I need to know before I sit at the table is this true?

bobby47 - you've known me long enough to realise I don't kick around a number like 250 lightly. Its true, every word, and confirmed some while ago by a 2009 FOI request - 

Q4        On what basis was 250 year lease decided to be the most appropriate term?

A          I understand that no specific cost/benefit analysis has been commissioned or taken place with regard to this sale. 

So they stumbled into it without any analysis as to whether it would benefit the County or not ...

As for Jarvis, I'm not sure but he may be off the butchers hook, this time, as I think it was Roger Phillips in the driving seat at that time (recently departed from the Cabinet and its offshoots).

At last, some common sense spoken. A bridge is never going to happen. It was never in the original scheme and for sure it won't be added as an afterthought. As I've said before, the cost would be huge - £m's - the benefits to the developers marginal at best and it would have to fly over the City Wall, which English Heritage would never allow. The Council lost all control of this site once they handed it over with that ridiculous 250 year lease. Developers only build things that will make them money - the majority of people will arrive and depart in cars -  that’s why there is masses of on-site parking. They have no interest in Widemarsh Street or High Town. The connectivity as originally designed was ideal, but is now being compromised by retaining the dual carriageway, due to the Council's inability to progress the link road.

Did they deliver the much delayed letting report? If not, why not?

A 'number of times topic viewed' counter for each topic would be very useful, if this could be added. I know its on the forums page, but I rarely look at that, just jump straight to new content.

2 fantastic business ideas here;

 

 

and

 

 

 

This is a VERY viable opportunity here. You could have a a coffee/food cart mid way down Belmont road and then have a worker stationed further up the road (away from Hereford) taking orders. The person takes the order and the payment, radios the order down to the cart who has it waiting for when the vehicle gets there. Think a retro-fitted, slow-flow "drive thru".

 

If I had a food stall, I would be looking into that asap.

It would need planning permission - given the Council's record of blocking other developments in favour of their own - OLM - I doubt it would be forthcoming. All those fast food joints allocated to the OLM will need every penny to survive.

Bus shelters - I thought these were handled at Deputy Leader level ... 

Nominations close tomorrow. I believe the date has yet to be set (but not later than 19 February). www.herefordcitycouncil.gov.uk

@twowheels:  a planning application for14 internally-illuminated signs, you say?

 

Is it too late to send in a letter of objection to the somnambulant Mr Ashcroft - or is he in the Caribbean for the winter?

The Highways Agency have objected because the illumination level at 600CD/m2 will be in excess of the maximum allowed and will dazzle drivers. Our City Council, bless 'em, have no objection - did they even look at the drawings?

Not to late to object - comments close tomorrow -  if you can face the horror that is the Council website, start here

https://www.herefordshire.gov.uk/planningapplicationsearch/details/?id=133004

Ah dippyhippy, patience my friend - they'll be hammered onto the salty walls once the planners have done as they're told and rubber stamped the application.

For those not up to speed, Herefordshire Council Planning has a long standing policy, for good reason, of not allowing internally illuminated shop signs and the City looks all the better for it. Debenhams OLM have submitted a planning application for no less than 14 internally illuminated shop signs - most are about 4.2m long, a couple are 6.3m. A couple more are 9m long x 1.3m and there's a real whopper at 14m x 2m - light pollution anyone?

As for the dented panels - and mismatched colour as well - there are some good pics of it over on www.facebook.com/esgpics

I have some genuine questions that I'm hoping some of the councillors can answer;

 

1. The big squares of grey slats on the wall facing Tesco roundabout - are they temporary until windows are put in or is that how they will stay?

 

2. The slanted roofing at the same end of the building, given that this is, roughly, where the sun rises, will these slopes be covered in solar panels?

 

3. The newmarket pub, it's kind of an old shabby building stuck in the middle of the new buildings, will it be staying or will it be removed?

 

Thanks

You'll be lucky getting a response from a Cllr - I doubt if any of them had a clue what they were putting their hands up to - no right minded individual could think the monstrous elevation facing the Tesco roundabout was worth voting for. And its going to get worse - Debenhams are proposing massive illuminated signs - up to 14m x 2m in size, as the crowning glory.

The Newmarket pub is a listed building - its shabby and run down because the Council owned it (I assume they've now quietly given it away to Stanhope) and that's how all Council buildings look. 

Ordinarily, the setting of a listed building should not be compromised, and its an excuse/reason trotted out almost daily by planners to stop development throughout the County. Yet, here, well , you decide … (photo credit to www.facebook.com/esgpics)

Excellent, the toady tories on the back foot and the return of the bizarre love triangle that is b47, Liz and a slab of dough … things are looking up!