twowheelsgood

Why wait two years? The council can be petitioned to hold a referendum on whether our district should change to a different form of governance ie to scrap the closed door crony cabinet system and replace it with something else eg a committee lead system.

Great idea - a massive amount of work (having been involved in a community magazine before, albeit a printed one).

Are you asking us because you don't know or feeling smug that you know and we don't? Either way, a little less hubris and a bit more information wouldn't go amiss.

Given the Council's disgraceful and unforgivable actions in Edgar St today, I'm not sure the council should be put in charge of anything anymore, let alone people's health. Need I mention this weeks dismal report to Cabinet on safeguarding and Jo Davidson's admission that "If we were inspected tomorrow we would not be judged as adequate." This 12 months on from the last damning report. What are councillors doing about it?

What Cllr Kenyon should have clarified is that the Hereford City Council is a Parish Council. It has few powers and little money - an income of £0.75m pa from a precept on the Council Tax. It is largely ceremonial eg the Mayor, looks after the City's history and co-ordinates at a community level. It was a District Council, before we came a Unitary Authority (and it all went pear shaped) when there was also Leominster, Malvern Hills and South Herefordshire District Councils, all then merged. It is consulted by the District Council in the same way that all Parishes are. Many would say that the City would be a much better place if it could revert to being a District ...

One councillor we can be sure won't pitch up here is Cllr Philip Price, Cabinet Member Highways & Transportation. At a meeting last week with two of the Edgar St lime tree campaigners, they were slightly stunned to be told that he didn't "give a sh1t" what local people thought because he's 65 and not standing for re-election. Just coasting then, happy to take the coin. Staggering that he was offered the position, took the position and intends to keep it, despite his deplorable attitude.

Cllr Price is a Non Executive director of Hoople Ltd.

Easter Sunday is Sunday, April 20.

Just 4 posts in and he's nicking bobby's consonants - its not cricket.

Colin I do find this forum slow loading when I arrive - and I'm on fibre broadband - I usually click away to another window and come back a minute or two later. It doesn't worry me unduly, but for someone on a slower connection it's probably quite discouraging. 

Wholeheartedly agree with magicroundabout. However, its nothing to do with planning as such - the highways dept have responsibility for our safety on road and pavement. Oh wait - that was Amey, now Balfour Butter ... but the Council do have half a dozen staff - the ridiculously nomenclatured 'client side'  - who are supposed to call the shots to the 'preferred partner' - suggest you email boss Clive Hall direct with your/our concerns cwhall@herefordshire.gov.uk and update us on any response.

Mr Chappell's first post doesn't exactly put him in a good light - the usual sniping and blaming. Can't believe its taken him 20 years to realise that Labour doesn't support the common man (any more).

They're not for sale - it's supported residential accommodation for adults with learning disabilities, so they probably don't have a lot of say in the matter.

Colin, I hate to disagree with you, but I fear you're wasting your time. Firstly, Maylords has its own car park - the multi-storey wasn't built to serve it. Secondly, the span from the multi-storey to some landing point in Maylords is massive - a bridge would cost tens of millions (look at the Greenway bridge - £3m and rising and no roof!). Thirdly, it would fly over the City Wall - English Heritage would never allow it. Fourthly, Maylords - privately owned - wouldn't have it as it could draw shoppers away from them. Fifthly, who would pay for it? OLM have got their cosy deal and all they want for next to nothing. Maylords is struggling. Council ain't got a bean - gave the last 0.5m of them to OLM. Forget it folks, it ain't never going to happen. Concentrate on making the streets safer and more attractive to walk through. IF they follow through with Blueschool Street traffic calming that will go a long way, but that relies on the road to nowhere that’s probably never going to be fully built ...

Where did this £2.4m saving come from? Is it just a random figure thrown in to make us think this is a good deal? Saving over what? Amey? Why wasn't a non-profit arrangement with the existing staff put together? I'm told by a councillor it was wanted by many staff, it would have been easy to do and would have resulted in real savings back to the council tax payer, rather than profit going to a limited companies share holders. The Jarvis deal was an unmitigated disaster, as was the Amey deal - they cost us millions - doesn't anyone learn in cabinet? 

If they want to do happy clappy, get thee up onto Hay Bluff, preferably when its blowing a gale, and thee'll be closer to the Lord. Otherwise, keep the noise down, or better silent - I'm with bobby47 as usual - ain't no reason for this 3 chord rock'n roll (aka the devil's music) at 11pm in a tin shed when honest folks are trying to sleep.

Good luck to anyone living next to Freedom Church - the world's most anti-social neighbours. Ask anyone living in Coningsby Court kept awake by late night rock music sessions from a badly soundproofed shed.

Surely the OLM development is offset from Maylords? Unless you were thinking off running it diagonally - that would be some sort of bridge. Developers won't be interested - why give shoppers a route away from their shops to someone else's? Remember this is a private development - the council lost all control once they'd sold the land for a bag of peanuts and some loose change (rather than its original valuation of £30m).

I am well aware they do not like the fact that people cannot dictate to you, that has been shown in previous posts and demands that was tried to be imposed on you and I, but unlike you I am paying the price. There is a north and south divide a prime example of that was a couple of weeks ago when there was a community reasurance meeting in Holy Trinity church due to what happened in Ryeland St, I was ask to attend by police because the perpetrators live in my ward, it was made very clear that I should not have been there by one of the councillors. Going back to the subject I am still concerned that you take this website into the political arena. Let the people decide if they want to or not contribute here wherever they come from in Hereford. Time will tell!

So Councillors are invited by the police to a 'community reasurance meeting' following a murder - think about that for a moment - and councillors choose to bicker about ward boundaries? Words fail me. As for politics, I don't understand what you're getting at - its all about politics in one way or another, so well done to Colin for taking this to a wider audience.

Road sweeper every Monday morning! If only ... our road (in St James) hasn't been swept for over 12 months. A complaint to the cabinet member resulted in a statement from Amey that it is swept on a monthly basis. Straight lie. They may be charging for that, but they sure as aren't doing it. In fact, the community association monitored it over a 2 month period and not a single road was swept in that time.

It’s a disgrace that individuals have to spend time and resources continually logging what are routine maintenance items, only for the best part for them to be ignored. Its clear to me that all pretence of routine maintenance was abandoned under Amey. Blocked gullies are just one item - simple to keep clear, but, left blocked, standing water erodes kerbs, freezes, breaks up the road surface and a £100 job becomes a £1000 or £10000 job. I see it all over the county when I'm out cycling. I've logged dozens and dozens of blocked gullies - not a single one cleared. A 100m stretch of the Worcester road is now completely breaking up as a direct result of blocked gullies. Council Officers controlling Amey are simply failing to do their job. Why won't Councillors bring them to account?