HCS tribute to ‘a lovely and gentle man’ 

Both a taciturn man and yet not afraid to speak his mind – often in quite trenchant terms - when something (usually a municipal muddle) had upset his equilibrium, David Benjamin was a tower of strength.

The founder of the It’s Our City campaign and close friend Mark Hubbard describes Dave Benjamin as “a lovely and gentle man who will be sadly missed.”

Hereford Butter Market’s popular Benjamin fishmongery has been the trading base for three generations of the same family, Dave’s grandfather having first moved down to Hereford with his family from Stockton-on-Tees, two years after the end of the second world war. Dave had a prodigious knowledge of fishing and fish cuisine and many Butter Market customers said that he could have made a second career as a Rick Stein: “Ask him a question about a fillet of fish and, as often as not, he’d tell you how to cook it!”

Mr Benjamin was equally passionate about the Butter Market itself, campaigning tirelessly for its much-needed refurbishment – an aspiration which may at last happen with the imminent announcement of the result of the national architectural design competition.

From day one of his election in 2007 as a ward councillor for the large St Nicholas Ward, Cllr Benjamin made it his business to be fully conversant with the city’s economic and urban planning issues. And as fellow St Nicholas Ward councillor Julie Woodward will attest, he was an extremely conscientious constituency worker.

Together with Cllrs Hubbard and Woodward, Dave Benjamin sat on council as a member of the independent It’s Our County group. Gerald Dawe, the council’s sole Green Party councillor, recalls the first months after their election, when navigating their way around ‘the system’ wasn’t easy. “We certainly found it an uphill struggle at the start. But Dave was always very enquiring; if I was sitting within earshot, I’d often hear him mumble ‘something’s not right here!’”

Dave Benjamin was a keen sportsman, rugby and tennis being his preferred activities. A dedicated family man he is survived by his wife Nina and his three children Robert, Nicholas and Anna.

Hereford’s newly-elected MP Jesse Norman knew Dave Benjamin well. “He had a deep love for this city: you could say he was Hereford through and through. We and the city are all the poorer for his passing.”

Hereford Civic Society has written to P.Clasby, Senior Planning Officer at Herefordshire Council, expressing concern about the health of 'a venerable old tree' at the entrance to the new Cattle Market.

The Society wrote: 'To minimize the risks to trees on development sites, the British Standards “ Trees in relation to construction” (BS 5837 2005) set recommendations which should apply. This tree should have planning conditions for its protection, but none of these appear to be implemented. Should a private citizen show such disregard both for the tree and the regulations, he would, at least, be severely reprimanded and possibly, prosecuted.

The Society requested that the Council look into the problem before more damage was done, but have received a written reply from Kevin Bishop at the Council stating: 'This tree is to be removed as part of the development of the site hence the limited protection afforded. I hope this explains the reason why limited protection has been afforded.'

Er, not really.

From the Telegraph:

Two experts on transport planning, Peter Headicar and Marcial Echenique, tell CABE News what they think about the role of spatial planning in encouraging more sustainable travel. Read the full report here.

by I K Northchurch

Hard on the heels of the announcement at the end of June that Secretary of State for Communities & Local Government Eric Pickles had issued regional development agency Advantage West Midlands’ ‘death warrant’, comes news that the government intends to tighten up the code governing council-sponsored magazines and newspapers – or ‘propaganda-on-the-rates’ as they have been described by their critics. This puts Herefordshire Council’s bi-monthly Herefordshire Matters firmly in the firing line.

The coalition government move fulfils a commitment first made last November by Caroline Spelman MP, when opposition local government spokeswoman. “Councils need the scrutiny of local newspapers; they should not be using public money to give themselves a pat on the back,” said Mr Pickles in an article in the Guardian at the weekend.

Creative accounting 

Last February, in answer to a written question submitted by a Herefordshire council taxpayer, deputy leader Cllr June French revealed that the gross annual bill for the county-wide distribution of Herefordshire Matters was £75,000. At the time, it was claimed that this taxpayers’ charge was off-set by advertising revenue, though a subsequent analysis of the adverts carried by the magazine reveal that many were, in fact, ‘in-house’ announcements from council-funded or associated bodies such as NHS Trust and the police authority. The council’s own estimate also omitted the cost of staff time in compiling many of the publication’s ‘good news’ stories.

Over-egging the pudding 

The most recent issue of Herefordshire Matters, carries no fewer than 50 council references in 28 pages of editorial. But Herefordshire is certainly not the sole offender in this ingenious ruse to make local taxpayers subsidise the publication of news which paints a glowing picture of council (and councillors’) activities. According to freedom of information campaigner Heather Brooke (author of the best-selling ‘The Silent State’), 94% of all local authorities publish some form of taxpayer-funded newspaper or magazine, the majority having come into existence since 1990.