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twowheelsgood

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Posts posted by twowheelsgood

  1. John, welcome to the forum and many thanks for this post and the work you and others are doing. I do hope that good things come from it - an initiative by individuals (as a group) carries a deal more credibility in the community than anything the Council might try and foist on us. Key points are that it can be trialled quickly and at next to no cost - as you say, nothing lost if it doesn't work. 

  2. They either didn't clean the brick good to start with or didn't mix the mortor strong enough. It will be OK for years to come, but if they mixed it with too much sand those years will be shorter and it will simply start falling apart soone

     

    Well you really do talk bollocks  :Happy_32: 

     

     

    Yes this is total bollocks, but it is lifted from the interweb, which is 98% bollocks as we all know, with the rest just made up. To be fair to Biomech, he was quoting it, so not him actually doing the talk. Love the image of labourers carefully scrubbing bricks before they're laid however!

  3. Purely out of interest, the salt on the brickwork - is this a normal part of construction that it to be expected to some degree and then just fades off or is washed off as part of a new build? Or is it actually a serious concern of sorts? Any builders in?

     

    Edit:

     

    I know it's only been about 60 seconds, but I get impatient. Did some research. The consensus that this is common, easily fixed and not a problem apart from visually.

    According to various professionals it is often caused when using cheap bricks and not washing them properly.

     

    "If you mean the white furry stuff, it's crystallised salt. Tends to be most prolific on cheap bricks - take a look around any new housing estate and you will see salt covered bricks all over the place. It's nothing to worry about - just a bit unsightly. Might be able to brush it off using a stiff brush."

     

    "They either didn't clean the brick good to start with or didn't mix the mortor strong enough. It will be OK for years to come, but if they mixed it with too much sand those years will be shorter and it will simply start falling apart sooner. "

     

    "The water dissolves the salts which are then carried out and deposited onto the surface by the natural evaporation that occurs when air comes into contact with the surface of the wall or floor."

     

     

    All of those quotes are wrong to a varying extent. Bricks are porous, some more than others. Bricks are delivered shrink wrapped and should be kept dry on site, during and after laying. If they get rained on, for instance, the water evaporates out and takes with it salts which crystallise on the surface. They are harmless, but look dreadful, and can be brushed off. Careful workmanship can avoid the problem almost completely. Depending on how wet the bricks were, it can go on for many months. Fear not however, because Debenhams have applied for permission to plaster the building with 14 internally illuminated signs, the largest of which is 14m x 2m, (30' x 7' for the old 'uns) - that is MASSIVE - and most are 4 to 9m long x 1.5m. This will ensure that the OLM will be visible from space at all times.

     

    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. Can we guess which way planning will be told to jump?

  4. Not only Whittern Way, but Pilley Road and Clifton Road is a horrendous rat run now, not to mention all the houses on Ledbury Rd and Folly Lane who are subject to the noise and fumes of 100's of standing cars waiting for the lights to change. I've complained about these lights elsewhere on this site - put there on a whim of one councillor with no consultation, they've blighted 100's of lives ever since. Time to get rid, they do no good for anyone and create issues further into town with long waves of traffic holding up traffic from feeder roads.

  5. I find it staggering, although I'm not surprised, that we've entered into a 10 year £200m contract with a private company, yet councillors do not know even the basic facts of how it will be implemented or what they are expected to do or deliver. The £20m was supposed to have been there on Day 1, yet they've already managed to push it back 8 months. Highways work I've seen so far has been dismal quality, a continuation of the Amey standard, which is not surprising as its largely the same people. Why should we give them a little longer to get organised? They've had 3 months without even telephone lines.  It’s a very poor start - is this was what was agreed in the contract? If not, get tough with these people - its our money!

  6. Three years! Dream on - who writes these ridiculous contracts? Most pothole repairs I see don't last 3 weeks (a recent one in Mill St lasted about 2 weeks, its now back bigger than ever), so they're never going to get on top of it unless they a) start doing it properly and b) start implementing proper planned maintenance instead of waiting until someone complains.

  7. "monitoring the situation" is Council-speak for we can't be bothered to get to grips with the mess we've created, we're off to the next project and hope that everyone gets tired of chasing us to do something. I've heard it a hundred times from Council Officers. They're still "monitoring the situation" they created with the non-sensical traffic lights at the bottom of Foley Lane/Ledbury Road junction, which have blighted all the residents lives for years. Imposed on them on the whim of one councillor, without any consultation, a subsequent meeting with residents, councillors, council officers and MP Keetch, saw the council agreeing to "monitor the situation". They haven't as much as given it a backwards glance since.

  8. According to background info posted today on the Councils very, very slow website, as part of the current 'consultation', looking at borrowing for capital projects, they have borrowed/spent £9.1m on the link road between 2008/9 and 2013/14 inclusive. In addition they state 'Merton Meadow replacement car park – increasing our income - £1m', whatever that means.

    Other even more alarming costs are

    Herefordshire Connects – supporting re-organisation £6.6m - what on earth??

    Accommodation Strategy – rationalising our office and other accommodation and reducing our on-going costs - £17.9m.

     

    Only a public body could spend £17.9m on reducing on-going costs ...

     

    I had a grumble about the terrible web site  on theCouncil facebook site - they responded by saying 'We have listened to feedback about the design of the website and made some changes this week. In particular it should work better on phones and tablets. We have further changes planned and we would welcome any suggestions of requests. Planning search remains an issue and we are working to improve it by degrees. The council website is not managed by Hoople though Hoople staff do work on the website alongside Council staff.'

     

    Frankly, I don't give a monkey's who manages it, but I do expect the damn thing to work, and work well, which it has not done for at least 18 months now. The redesign is appalling - if I thought for a moment they'd take any notice, I'd make helpful suggestions, but tried that before and was ignored.
  9. Chris....I have had discussions with someone from highways regarding the SCOOT system.It is broke and has not worked for more than 10 yrs.

    It was controlled from Worcester - I believe Herefordshire Council wouldn't pay for software upgrades some years ago and the whole thing has died, so broke is probably correct. Don't forget the A49 is Highways Agency, not this Council, so perhaps they have their own system just for Asda/Edgar St. I saw three men in high viz peering into the control cabinet in the middle of the Asda roundabout last week ...

  10. Jack Straw, the buffoon who has cost us all dear and irrevocably changed this country for the worse. The buffoon who shook hands with the Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe and then said he did not know who he was meeting in a "dark corner" (poor choice of words there, Jack) during a reception, despite video of a brightly lit room. Bloody politicians! Both he and his fellow muppet Blunkett should just shut up once and for all.

  11. Their list needs updating, John Jarvis is no longer Leader of the Council, ( he is chairman of adult social care scrutiny committee. ) Anthony Johnson is leader has he taken John Jarvis place?

    I emailed them about the accuracy of their website on 23 September, and had the following reply;

     
    "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!"
     
    Begs the question as to how accurate the rest of their site is.
  12. Expect extensive local flooding from surface water unable to drain away because of BLOCKED GULLIES - a simple thing to maintain, sadly ignored by Amey, and to the long term detriment of our largest asset. Amey trousered the money, didn't do the work and left us with a myriad of problems.

  13. 'The wife' as in I will have to ask the wife, to most people implies that he thinks he owns her! Many times canvassing over the years ,I have had a wife tell me that she will have to ask her husband how they are going to vote! Surely this would suggest that hubby expects her to do as he tells her. After all she is 'the wife!' Let's not quibble over the use of language.

     

    Well, language is important and worth quibbling over when you are making strong and specific statements.

     

    I think you'll find that people often use the phrase 'I'll have to ask the/my wife/husband' to doorsteppers as a polite way of getting rid of them - something which you'll have come across often no doubt.

     

    I don't deny domestic violence exists and applaud any initiatives to address it. I do think classifying anyone who says 'the wife' as a slave owner is, as Biomech says, political correctness gone mad and devalues the real issues.

  14. 'The Wife' implies ownership, slavery, contempt. You can hear it said almost any where in the county, but who questions this phrase?'

     

    I too am puzzled by this - I have a wife - does this make me a contemptuous slave owner in your view, or does it only apply if I say 'the wife' (which I don't, but I know people that do, it’s a colloquial phrase). No one questions it because, really, it does't need questioning does it? 

  15. Well, I'm in 'Bartonsham St James' as JK puts it and can honestly say I've never heard of him and he's never shown his face round our way, never engaged with the Community Association or anything else going on around here.

    Promoting leisure and tourism whilst his political colleagues cripple it by closing toilets.

    I've never heard of either the City Garden Festival or the Green City Project.

    Hereford in Bloom I have heard of, and I don't of course doubt his involvement in all the things he lists ...

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