My Road Hasn't Been Gritted!

When the weather is cold drivers should always proceed with caution, but in Worcestershire roads are no longer gritted.  Instead they are treated with a brine solution sprayed onto the roads.

With traditional rock salt, they beneficial effects only start once the "grit" has been activated by vehicles running over and crushing the rock salt.  With the brine solution the benefits start immediately on contact with the road. 

So if the road looks wet and shiny it could be "black" ice or it may be the brine solution doing its job.  

For further information about Worcestershire's gritting operation please visit www.worcestershire.gov.uk/gritting. Over the course of the winter you can report any issues, including requests for grit bin refills, quickly and simply online via www.worcestershire.gov.uk/reportit.

Tenbury in shock at the death of Andrew Mortimer. Landlord/Chef of the Pembroke House.

Very sad to hear of the death today of my neighbour Andrew the landlord/patron/chef of the Pembroke House Inn, Tenbury Wells.

Statement from the Pembroke House Inn

It is with great regret from all the staff here at the Pembroke house pub that our dearest boss and best friend Andrew past away today! Needless to say we are all heartbroken and are going to miss him beyond words! Thank you for all your calls/texts and kind words, will get back to you all when I can! We will be in touch about any meal bookings tomorrow morning and be open for drinks as soon as we can - Thank you for all the support xxxxx

Why I left a job I loved

As you may have read in today's (10/11/2016) Tenbury Advertiser the Regal Tenbury now has a new manager. As this is a job I loved doing for the last four years and because of some of the rumours circulating in town, I feel I should explain why I decided to leave.

During this year I increasingly found myself at odds with decisions being made by the Trustees and the direction they wanted the business to move.

We were also in disagreement over my contract renewal as they had declined to increase my paid hours from 30 a week to 35 as I had requested. For those who do not know I usually worked in excess of 48 hours a week and sometimes double that.

For the record: I was paid 18.75 hrs/week in 2013, 26.75 hrs/week in 2014, 30.75 hrs/week in 2015

I finally decided to leave when a Trustee, called me, amongst other things, lazy, incompetent, and responsible for putting the Regal "on it's arse" in a tirade of abuse after he had instructed me to do something that I considered unsafe and not in the best interest of either the Regal or its customers. Once this instruction was confirmed by other Trustees I felt my job had become untenable I had no option but to go.

Had I have been an employee rather than a contractor this would have been a constructive dismissal and I would have left immediately but I agreed that as I wanted the Regal to continue to thrive I would work my three months notice period to enable the trust to put a replacement management team in post, and to complete my 18th What's on brochure, which is due out at the end of this month.

In the last 12 months to the end of September we ran 49 live performances, 53 event cinema broadcasts, and 227 feature film screenings to an audience of over 21,500. In August we increased our audience numbers by 60% and our gross income by more than 70%. In October our gross turn-over exceeded £34,500 up £7,500 from the previous year.

Given these results I felt the comments about my performance where far from justified!

During my long notice period I have been overwhelmed by the good wishes from the volunteers and amazed at the number of people approaching me in the street to thank me and to wish me well. I had the opportunity tonight to thank many of the volunteers for their continued hard work and I would like to express my gratitude to all the customers who also made the job so enjoyable.

I will miss working at the Regal but I wish the Trust all the very best for the future, however I hope they don't lose sight of the good things that we have achieved.

Ian Little

General Manager

Regal Tenbury Trust

October 2012 - October 2016

Follow up article 

A different kind of Christmas Lights for Tenbury

Once again our travelling lives are controlled by TTLs (Temporary Traffic Lights) and for probably the next four weeks.

The lights that arrived yesterday controlling traffic on the A456 and Teme Bridge are to allow works by Western Power.  The work is scheduled to last two weeks.  Once this work is complete (if it runs to schedule) they will immediately be replaced by more lights whilst contractors for Tesco make the changes to the junction to assist a better flow of traffic wishing to turn left onto the A456 towards Ludlow.

All work is scheduled to be completed by 2nd December and then no further road works are anticipated until the new year.

In other news the much promised and continuously delayed over-flow car park destined for Palmers Meadow, which should have been completed before the cattle market was closed is again promised to be finished by Christmas.

Eastham Bridge Collapses

A Grade II listed bridge which has been in place since the 18th Century has collapsed.

Picture: Ryan Parkes

Picture @WorcsTravel

See drone footage of the collapsed bridge.

Police were called out to Eastham Bridge over the River Teme following reports it had caved in at about 15:30pm

The bridge was built in 1793 and was originally a toll road, which the county council took ownership of in 1907 when it was made free to access.

A spokesman for Worcestershire County Council said: "Highways engineers are on site to assess the damage and ensure the area is safe.

"Diversions are currently being arranged. An investigation has started to look into what happened."

Luckily it collapsed shortly before some of the school transport buses were due to use this route.

Tenbury finally gets a modern recyling centre

Back in January 2009 I first highlighted the need to move forward on a new Household Recycling Centre for Tenbury.

Now after years of date sliding, excuses and general lack of progress, the site is finally ready to open next week.

Severn Waste managed to sit on the money paid to them under the WCC contract since 1998.

Under the contract agreed by Severn Waste Management signed in 1998, they are obliged to build and manage a new waste site for Tenbury Wells to replace the old fashioned and unsuitable site currently located on the Town Car Park.

Let's hope they have put the 18 years of interest on the money to good use.

Tenbury finally gets back the much needed additional car parking spaces and the majority of people will be able to recycle more, with less effort.  If you are one of the people who used to walk your waste to the old site in a wheel barrow, then I guess you'll not be happy, but most people will, I'm sure be greatly relieved not to continue climbing the metal stairs!