Autumn is now upon us and for many of us our holiday is just a distant dream. The weather was variable
and I do hope all of you involved in the organisation of local community events were not affected by the
weather. I know how hard many local people in the community work to organise such events and they
should all be congratulated.
The condition of Letton Lane is still of major concern to myself and local residents and I have included it in
my list of priority roads for resurfacing or surface dressing in 2020/21. All lists submitted by councillors will
be considered by Balfour Beatty and prioritised. I will not know until the Annual Plan is published whether
Letton Lane has been included but I will continue to press for improvements to be made. I have been
advised that to resurface the whole lane would cost in the region of £113,000 and to resurface the worst
areas £40,000.
As you may be aware Border Group Parish Council has invested in a Speed Indicator Device which at
present is being used in Brampton Bryan and Walford. As soon as a suitable site can be found it will be
used also in Lingen in the hope that this will slow traffic down. Unfortunately, such equipment cannot be
kept in one place permanently and it will therefore rotate between the 3 villages.
I would like to remind residents that if they are wishing to object or support a planning application it would
be useful for me if you could email or post a copy of your comments to myself so that I can get a true view
of the feelings of local residents. In the main planning applications are usually non-controversial but
occasionally this is not the case and depending on the number of objections I have the power to request,
although not necessarily achieve a redirection, which means that the application can be considered by the
planning committee at Herefordshire Council rather than be delegated to the case officer.
I would also remind residents that if you live in a particularly rural area, it is likely that Balfour Beatty only
inspect your road quarterly or even just once per year and therefore you should report the pothole on the
Herefordshire Council website.
I recently attended a briefing on Community Resilience and there was discussion around what plans
parishes had in place in the event of an emergency. It concentrated on what local communities could do in
such circumstances whilst either waiting for emergency services to arrive or in the worst-case scenario if
emergency services were unable to easily reach the area. This obviously covers, flooding, major road
accidents, significant fires etc. Parish councils have now received information from the Council on how to
collect information from residents who may have certain expertise which could be called upon in an
emergency and to identify a community building that could be used as a shelter. This information would be
shared with all the emergency services and the local authority.
Herefordshire Council is now administered by a coalition of Herefordshire Independents, Its Our County
and The Green Party. The Leader of the Council is Cllr David Hitchener who has never been a councillor
before and he is supported by 11 other Herefordshire Independents, 7 Greens and 8 IOC The rest of the
Council is made up of 13 Conservatives, 7 Lib Dems and 5 True Independent and 1 Independent
Independent.
I have been fortunate to once again be elected as the Chair of the Children & Young Peoples Scrutiny
Committee.
An independent organisation has rated local authorities across the country on their performance in
providing support for High Needs children and of the top 10 authorities Herefordshire came 2nd behind York
City. Our nearest neighbour in the top 10 was Gloucestershire who came 7th. We have also for the second
year running performed well above average in our YR6 SATs tests. We have come a long way over the
past few years and it is very pleasing in particular that we are demonstrating excellent work being
undertaken with our most vulnerable children.
If you need to contact me about a particular issue or just to have a chat please do not hesitate to do so
either by emailing me carole.gandy@herefordshire.gov.uk, or telephone either 01568 780583 or
07792882133. I am always happy to come out and visit you at your home if you feel that would be helpful.