twowheelsgood

Typically badly written and misleading press release from the Council. From the Zap-Map website;

Rapid DC chargers provide power at 50 kW (125A), use either the CHAdeMO or CCS charging standards, and are indicated by purple icons on Zap-Map. These are the most common type of rapid EV charge points currently, having been the standard for the best part of a decade. Both connectors typically charge an EV to 80% in 20 minutes to an hour depending on battery capacity and starting state of charge.

The Council’s current chargers eg at the multi-storey car park are 7kW, which will typically take 4-6 hours to charge, again depending on the battery capacity.

30 minutes is largely useless for the 7kW chargers and drivers will inevitably have to buy a ticket anyway - an hour would have been more sensible. If you can afford an EV, you can afford to buy a ticket!

Looks like Herefordshire Council is down for £0.8m cut, which is less than the £1m overspend on Blueschool House - if that hadn't been allowed to happen (and WHERE did the money go to?) HC would be +£0.2m up on the deal. 

Yet again Hereford City Council mistaken for Herefordshire Council, but good publicity for the proposal nonetheless, Can't come soon enough in my view, but everything is beginning to take rather too long. Just pick a simple one to start with and do it now!

I think they must have turned it off and on again - it's all ticketyboo again, bonuses all round.

Once again, the whole Council website is down -

503 Service Unavailable

No server is available to handle this request.

Unbelievable that this can happen - it simply shouldn't and there are standard ways to ensure it doesn't. I read somewhere the other day that Hoople are a standing joke in the IT world and this is a good example. But no one in charge will do anything, as ever, and everyone gets paid handsomely regardless.

Given that there has been a moratorium on planning decisions for any development in the Lugg catchment area since last October, due to saturation phosphate levels, and I understand that the Wye catchment will be added shortly, that effectively means the whole County give or take a few small areas will be a no-build zone for an unspecified period. As it would seem likely that those 6500 houses cannot be built for the foreseeable future, if ever, due to the unacceptable environmental impact on the River Wye, it begs the question as to how the Council would fund the bypass and if it is even needed in its proposed form. The only sensible solution is to cancel it and concentrate on traffic management in the City. We've seen just this evening what happens when the lights are out.

Flying though planning?!! Never happens, unless you happen to be a councillor or a close relative or friend of one and, even then, although normal policies that us mere mortals are subjected to are set aside, speed of determination is never high on the agenda. 

Had my Jesse leaflet through the door now - surprised to see him claiming credit for "£23m investment under way at the old boys school on Blackfriars St by NMITE ..." Jeez, as if they haven't spent enough on the site already! It is, of course, (I hope) a mistake, but it's not good enough. Overleaf, he claims his campaign has won £23m of government funding for NMITE - a different story altogether. By coincidence he also claims credit for a £23m programme at the County. So how accurate are these and other claims?!

I've had a Labour leaflet, which went straight in the recycling unread, and a Green leaflet. No canvassers.

I'm not sure about the derogatory language, but at least he's responded. It's a crying shame that we seem to be stuck, for now, with BBLP's 'reactive' policy ie do nothing until someone complains for which we pay £20m a year (at least). It's just a waste of eveyone's time on something which should happen automatically in the background. The City in particular continues it's slow but visible decline as a result. I did note one of the new incoming Council's policies was to review the BBLP contract - I know these things take time, and they've got an awful lot to put right, but surely getting the old street cleaning team back together on a direct labour basis has to be a priority?

So the guy that suggested the competition in the first place is the winner, out of 700 entries? A little odd methinks, especially as he's done the same thing for numerous other counties. This a mediocre design, a dumbed down copy of the unofficial flag, which is far better.

To précis the tweet - Hereford councillors have blasted one of Britain’s largest housebuilding firms for not acknowledging climate change with their plans for 300 south of the city.Taylor Wimpey UK, who build and sell more than 10,000 homes each year, have set their sights on land north and south of Grafton lane.But Hereford city councillors said the High Wycombe-based company told them that they would not include environmentally friendly measures such as electric charging points, solar panels and more energy efficient heating in the scheme.

I don't understand why City Councillors don't understand that volume builders answer to their shareholders and not Parish Councillors. Of course they're not going to provide anything that isn't required by law, that hits their profits. They have no environmental conscience or they wouldn't be building on prime agricultural land.

The press release is incorrect - there is no provision for motorcycle or cycle parking. There are however palm trees. It is all very cramped but certainly better than what is there now.

9 hours ago, Ubique said:

This Change of Use is nothing new ...........I can recall in the early 90s the Government of the day was encouraging this change of use in Midland town centres from shops etc to flats etc. again to bring more life into the town centres

Perhaps  Twowheelgood can confirm ? 

I think it was 1989 when the government funded a scheme (LOTS - Living Over The Shop) to convert empty spaces above shops in town centres into homes and which ran for about 20 years. At that time, it was estimated that at least 250,000 homes could be created. It never really took off in Herefordshire - landlords didn't want tenants above their shops, the Council didn't want it, just because, (same old) and arguably there was little demand at that time. Times are changing, in 2012 the NPPF turned planning on its head, with a presumption in favour of sustainable development and the Federation of Master Builders realising there was money to be made by converting the High Street.

The latest proposal in Hereford is the new planning application to convert Peacocks in Eign Gate to university accommodation with teaching space on the ground floor.

Quote

Here is another change of use application, this one is for multi-occupancy home.

Planning Application P190882/F

On 27/03/2019 at 14:53, twowheelsgood said:

More akin to factory farm than a home - how much lower are we going to sink?

Approved, despite considered objections from the City Council, Civic Society and the Ward Councillor, amongst others.

I heard whisper a little while ago that this junction was to be redesigned, hopefully not by the hopeless bunch who messed it up first time round.

Dear me, these range from mediocre to appalling. I've voted for the least worst but it doesn't fill me with any burning pride for the County. The 'unofficial' flag is better than any of these - what was wrong with that?

I cycled past this today - it's very, very big. No thought for cyclists by closing the shared space along the side of the road (the red sign says 'cycleway closed'). I have to say the Link Road is one of the most dangerous pieces of road I have cycled - signing is non-existent, turning right is a death wish, really, every councillor and officer involved in the delivery of this should be made to cycle it end to end in both directions to see just what an appalling and dangerous mess it is.

On 20/08/2019 at 11:12, megilleland said:

Just cycled down the resurfaced Yazor Brook route, Lovely surface. Shame that some idiots thought it would be a good idea to throw the contractor's wire panels and cones into the brook.

That's been widened and resurfaced to a very good standard courtesy of Section 106 monies from the redevelopment of the old school site for housing, with a link bridge though to that housing over the brook. It shows up a lot of other cycle paths in the City for the run down and/or badly designed things that they are. The Great Western Way is a fantastic facility, years ahead of its time when it was opened, must have carried millions of journeys, yet it's in desperate need of upgrading, proper resurfacing, lighting and cctv. The cost is absolute peanuts compared to new roads. The riverside path was very badly surfaced by the Council and is unpleasant to ride. The new greenway is covered in graffiti from end to end - a bad oversite not to have put cctv in when it was built. Such a shame to see a flagship facility so abused and no effort at all to clean it up (it took over a month of complaining to get some highly offensive wording dealt with - BBLP didn't even bother to clean it, just painted over it).

That job description implies that you earn a degree 'on the job', not that you need one to be employed. We need more Police, lots more, with and without degrees, to help stem the downward spiral the country is in. From setting fire to bikes to illegal cigs to drugs to random stabbings, these criminals know they're unlikely to be caught and, even if they are the, sentencing is a joke. Priti Patel as the new Home Secretary is supposed to be a hard liner, but I've not seen any evidence yet. 

So that's £450k for an external fire escape then? The drawings were submitted for planning permission, so the scope of works is apparent. Somebody is making some serious money at our expense.

It's Ian Morris, not Mills. Yes, he has resigned to move to a new challenge.

4 hours ago, Hereford Voice said:

The controversial bright yellow and pink shop front colours along Widemarsh Street in Hereford have been approved

This should say have NOT been approved. The colour scheme has been toned down and approved as below (no yellow and predominantly black pilasters now). No listed building consent has been granted for the projecting sign. Unfortunately, this is yet another case of simply ignoring common law until such time as enough people complain that the Council then have to do something about it. Generally, I’m seeing development going up all over the place that doesn’t have permission - all symptomatic of the sense of entitlement that pervades society perhaps. 

I understand that planning enforcement was due to take place about the hideous Marmaris Kebab shopfront in Union Street in April of this year but nothing seems to be moving.

16 hours ago, Alex said:

I cannot believe they have paused this bypass WTF! They will end up losing all funding in the end, this is not happening now, I think this indecision speaks absolute volumes. 

There wasn't any funding (and there is no money we are constantly told) - the government didn't see the case for a bypass and had refused any funding. That was part of the issue. No potholes are filled  because all that money is going to consultants. The Council were relying on the Marches LEP and contributions from developers but it was obvious that wasn't going to raise anywhere near enough. So they would have borrowed it, interest rates rise and then what? The County goes bust or, more likely, is taken over by South Shropshire. Definitely the right decision in my opinion. The crucial thing now is how they follow through with alternatives to properly manage traffic flows.

So much for privatisation of public bodies - business will drop it like a hot stone as soon as they're not making enough money and damn the consequences. New house warranties (in lieu of NHBC or Building Control) are suffering a similar fate. Yet there has been talk for some while of privatising planning services - what a feast that will be for developers and their private planner chums. Local Authorities have many, many faults, but at least they are always there (well, for now anyway). My experience of local Building Control has always been very positive, they run a tight and efficient ship (ironically, probably because of private competition). The Planning Department not so much ...