Around the ward

At the start of the month I met our local PCSOs to catch up on what’s going on around the ward and speeding in particular. I also met the Herefordshire Council’s traffic manager and the police traffic advisor to look at the problem of speeding on Old School Lane. We are making progress but ever so slowly.

I also had a good sit down with Abigail Appleton from HCA (the art college). The HCA higher education campus is in the old teacher training college on College Road. It was fascinating to hear about the history of the college and the plans for its future success.

I was also very pleased to have a tour round the allotments off Penn Grove Road. It’s an amazing local resource and seeing the range of produce and plants that people are growing almost made me want to get an allotment myself. Almost, but not quite. If you’re interested in getting an allotment please get in touch with Herefordshire Allotment and Leisure Gardeners.

I also spoke to local residents about a wide range of issues from schooling to road safety. If you would like my help with anything, please get in touch.

At the council(s)

Herefordshire Council

I am a member of two Scrutiny Committees at Herefordshire Council. Scrutiny committees do not make decisions for the council, instead we make recommendations to the cabinet. We can also question cabinet members which the Connected Communities Scrutiny Committee did this month. We held a “pre-decision scrutiny meeting” of the proposal to the cabinet to move Hereford library to the Shire Hall.

You can read the reports that were sent to that meeting on the council’s website. You can watch a recording of the session on YouTube.

My quick summary of the situation is as follows: the previous administration decided to move the library out of the Broad Street building so that that building can be converted to a dedicated museum and art gallery. The library was intended to go into vacant units in the undercover bit of Maylord Orchards. The current administration think that it would be better to put the library into the Shire Hall.

I haven’t got anything in principle against the library moving to Shire Hall but I’m concerned that the plans are not well thought through. The council has already spent a lot of money on plans for the Maylord Orchard library and a lot of this will be written off now. It’s not actually clear how much it will cost to bring the Shirehall up to scratch and then to fit it out to hold a library.

The committee recommended that the cabinet keep the option of Maylord Orchards open while it develops a full business case for the Shire Hall option and the cabinet accepted that recommendation.

The Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee also held a meeting this month, We were reviewing the councils plan to improve Children’s Services and we also spoke to the Independent Scrutineer of the Children’s Safeguarding Board. You can read the papers for this meeting on the council’s web site. You can also view a recording of the meeting on YouTube.

Hereford City Council

It was a quieter month for the city council. I did attend a meeting of the youth council. This is an excellent project supported by Close House. If you know anyone who might be interested in becoming a Youth Councillor there is plenty of information on the City Council website.