Category: Built environment

‘Southern Link Road’ Planning….

Built environment, Transport Leave a comment

Many members of HGN will have submitted objections in 2015 and 2016 to Herefordshire Council’s planning application (and subsequent amendments) on the SLR – and many of you are taking the time to do it again now.

The latest application from Herefordshire Council is for numerous additional developments – accesses, culverts, diversions, haul roads etc. This new application takes more agricultural land out of use, firstly for the permanent access track, and secondly for an enlarged flood attenuation pond. The latter extends the ‘corridor’ of the SLR beyond what had previously been consented. This also suggests that initial assessments of flood risk may have been incorrect.

 

For more information please go to Herefordshire Council planning website.  Enter 182314 in the search box, and have a look for yourselves.

Deadline for comments and objections is 2nd August.

Seeing Red in Hereford

Built environment, Transport Leave a comment

The residents of Kings Acre Road and people from all over Hereford turned out early on Wednesday morning this week to voice their protest against the proposed Hereford Bypass route.

They were supported by experts in town and transport planning who joined members of Wye Ruin It to articulate why they think the Bypass is a huge mistake and will impact negatively on Hereford’s levels of pollution, lives and livelihoods – and increase city congestion.

For those seeking more information:
Agenda papers for Full Council https://tinyurl.com/y8ff5ett
Scrutiny Committee https://tinyurl.com/y738eehk
Cabinet https://tinyurl.com/y7ppjmuj
The Scrutiny Committee met this week on 18 July and Committee members were able to ask questions of Council Officers and their consultants from WSP and Balfour Beatty. The Chair, Cllr Sebastian Bowen, concluded that the Red Route “does least damage” and Cabinet will meet to “approve” the Red Route on 27 July.
More information here from Wye Ruin It.

HCLT: building momentum…

Built environment, Community Leave a comment

Hereford Community Land Trust (HCLT) have a launch event on Wednesday 13th June.

CLT’s are a form of community-led housing, set up and run by ordinary people to develop and manage homes as well as other assets like community enterprises, food growing or workspaces.

CLTs act as long-term stewards of housing, ensuring that it remains genuinely affordable, based on what people actually earn in their area, not just for now but for every future occupier.

There are now around 290 Community Land Trusts in England and Wales, and the sector has grown six-fold in the last six years. The largest Community Land Trusts have over 1000 members each. 

Come and help us take Hereford CLT to the next stage of development and join us in the Medieval Great Hall at the Bishops Palace:

Passivhaus Open Day

Built environment Leave a comment

An opportunity for all of you out there with an interest in Passivhaus to see how it is done…

The Fish Factory is a recently completed Bauhaus inspired 3 bedroom house in central Hereford. Design demands presented many obstacles to building it as a Passivhaus, but these were eventually all successfully overcome and the Fish House is expecting Passivhaus certification soon.

For visiting times on Friday 8th June, and booking details please click here.

Latest News from WyeRuinIt

Built environment, Local Groups Leave a comment
Archeologists and historians have been hard at work identifying the many historic resources that will be lost if the bypass is built: https://www.wyeruinit.org/news/

Hereford Community Land Trust Update

Built environment, Community, Land Use Leave a comment

HCLT BOARD NEEDS NEW MEMBERS / ‘BUILDING MOMENTUM’ PROJECT GETS UNDERWAY

HCLT is about to take a big step forward! Interviews have now taken place for applicants for the post of HCLT ‘Building Momentum’ Project Manager. Within a few weeks we anticipate the project will be up and running and it promises to be an exciting year with much potential for exciting developments.

This means that we need to strengthen HCLT Board at this stage, with one or more new Board Members, to help direct our expansion.

Would you be willing to put yourself forward to help HCLT as a member of the Board? Or suggest someone else?

If you are interested, and have some experience and/or skills which you feel could be useful, please don’t delay – as soon as you can and ideally before our next Board meeting on 12th April just drop a line to us at herefordclt@gmail.com with ‘HCLT Board’ in the subject line.

OR, if you know someone who you think might be a good candidate even if they are not presently involved with HCLT, please either ask them to contact us, or send us their name and email.

Thank you.

Hereford Bypass?

Built environment, HGN news Leave a comment

For those of you following the Hereford Bypass campaign, here is the latest update from WyeRuinIt:

Hereford urgently needs better buses, better support for cycling and walking, 20mph speed limits, and safe routes to school. The council intend to delay these much-needed improvements until the Hereford Bypass is built in 2025.

Traffic congestion and air pollution in Hereford is a problem NOW. It will get worse as more houses are built. A £200m bypass, which you acknowledge will ‘not on its own reduce congestion,’ is not the answer. We need lower cost, proven solutions now, not in 7 years time.

Please scrap plans to develop the Hereford Bypass before any sustainable measures have been tried.

A campaign is now available on 38degrees:

 

There are protests this week at Drover Wood, and coloured signs are going up to show where the road will go….

And on Wednesday 28th February at Left Bank Village, the bypass will be the topic of the Big Green Conversation hosted by Herefordshire Green Party, 7.30 – 9pm.

Ecological Footprinting

Built environment, Climate change, Community, Energy, Events Leave a comment
a photo of hiking boots

On Wednesday March 21st we are handing the HGN Gathering over to Pete Linnell who will run a session on ecological foot printing:

“Personal, Planetary, Political”

Whoever you vote for, whatever creed you live by, what really matters is the consequences of the choices you make.

The evening will outline a broad range of sustainability goals and critique a selection of indicator tools intended to test for achieving them. This examination will help us understand what effect our lives are having here and now and on everyone in the future, and include a nod to bleeding-edge policymaking and practice from other jurisdictions.

There will be a practical session on ecological foot printing (this is big picture stuff – NOT just carbon) – more on this before the 21st!

And Pete will also share some thoughts about existing policies in Wales and potential for adopting them in England.

 

Put the date in your diaries! Wednesday 21st March, 7.30pm – in our new home for our HGN Gatherings, the unexpectedly lovely Garden Room at Left Bank Village, Hereford, HR4 9DG.

Building roads…

Built environment, Local Groups, Transport Leave a comment

Herefordshire Council will have a public consultation on the Western “bypass” routes and other Hereford Transport Package measures between 6 February and 20 March 2018.

The public exhibition will be available to view on 6,7,8 February, between 11am and 8pm, in the pod next to The Coffee Corner at Old Market. And/or go to an evening session on Tuesday 13 February from 6pm to 9pm at Whitecross High School. The exhibition will move to Hereford Library on Friday 16 February where it will remain until Tuesday 20 March. The exhibition can be viewed during normal library opening hours and staff will be available to answer questions on Saturday 24 February and Saturday 10 March between 11am and 2pm. The exhibition and film showing the route corridors will be available to view at Herefordshire.gov.uk/HTP from Tuesday 6 February.

Click here for a document with information and thoughts from Herefordshire Transport Alliance and Wye Ruin It? about why they think a new bypass for Hereford won’t solve current traffic problems. Find them on Facebook for more news: Herefordshire Transport Alliance & Wye Ruin It

Please do respond to the consultation, and also send the Council any other comments or suggestions you may have.

 

Air Source at Caplor

Built environment, Energy Leave a comment

Congrats to Herefordshire Renewable Energy installer Caplor Energy who have recently been given the prestigious accreditation of Business Solutions Provider by Mitsubishi Electric.

Caplor Energy’s Managing Director (and HGN Steering Group Chairperson…) Gareth Williams, commented “Air Source Heat Pumps provide a low carbon, low cost alternative to traditional forms of heating so we are proud that Mitsubishi Electric have selected us to become a trusted partner, allowing us to provide our customers with a unique service”.

 

To find out more visit Caplor Energy’s website: www.caplor.co.uk

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