Tenbury Bridge Work 5 Down, 5 to Go

Well, we are half way through the Tenbury Teme Bridge refurbishment.  There is less visible progress this week but the strong smell of solvents coming from the tenting probably means that things are happening out of view.

Many of the damaged blocks under the arches have now been replaced, and I can confirm that there are definitely large salmon in the Teme. (Either that or I sniffed too much solvent)  A large fish broke water under the arch just after I took the photo.  It had gone before I could take another!

Harriett Baldwin MP &  County Cllr Ken Pollock were visiting shopkeepers today to discuss the project.

First Windfall Draw Prize Awarded

The winner of the first Tenbury Windfall Draw, local resident Victor Woodford, is presented with his cheque and iPod touch in Tenbury Library by the Town Mayor Liz Weston.

Tenbury's Grand Windfall runs until the end of June, so there are still five more chances to win £1000, or an iPod touch - or both if your card is the first out and has at least five green apple stickers!

Completed Loyalty Cards for future draws can be handed in at Tenbury Library or the Pump Rooms. Entries for the next draw close on February 29th.

Almost every business in Tenbury Wells is taking part in the "Grand Windfall" Loyalty Scheme, which makes it easy for shoppers to collect the 15 stickers they need to complete a Loyalty Card and enter the draw. A red apple sticker is awarded with any purchase and if over £5 is spent, the shopper also receives a green apple, filling their loyalty card faster and helping them towards the five (or more) green apple stickers they need to win the iPod touch. Loyalty cards are available from participating shops and at the Library.

Great News - The Tenbury Regal will be run by Management Trust

Tenbury Town Council voted unanimously in favour of allowing the newly refurbished Regal to be run by a Management Trust.

The full agreement is yet to be drafted but the plan is for the first agreement lease to run for 40 years.

Cllr Rigby said "It is absolutely imperative that a Management Trust is formed" and that the Town Council should "move forward rapidly with the full formation of the Trust"

His comments were echoed by Cllr Drummond and Cllr Bowkett.

Cllr Price added that "the Council should support the proposal as Councils are not good at running commercial enterprises".

Cllr Hudson explained that the Management Trust would be a Charity and hoped to attract Donations and Bequests, but needed to demonstrate that they had a long term agreement with the Council so that people felt secure in the knowledge that their money would be put to good use.

First Windfall Draw Completed

The first TWO4B Windfall draw attracted 3,300 enteries (only 15 of which had been entered with no name).

The winning entry was drawn today by Tenbury Mayor Liz Weston and Chairman of the Tenbury Chamber of Trade, Sarah Thompson.

The lucky winner is Victor Woodford from Tenbury Wells, who will be presented with his cheque and iPod Touch this Saturday.

Any ideas anyone?

THS to spend £1.75M on new classrooms

After a number of previous unsuccessful bids, Tenbury High School has been awarded £1.25M from the Worcestershire County Council Capital Building Programme 2012/13.  A further £0.5M will come from the schools own reserves.

The money will allow the replacement of several temporary wooden classrooms with an 8 classroom teaching facility with additional seminar rooms, offices and toilets.

The project is currently at the planning stage and is due to start Easter 2012 for completion Spring 2013.

Further details.

Tenbury Bridge Work 4 Down, 6 to Go

More progress this week, with much of the downstream pavement being encased in concrete.

The reason for the scaffolding is now clear.  It is to support the "tenting" to allow the (I guess) sandblasting (or similar) of the railings to take them back to bare metal so that modern high specification coatings can be applied.

Hopefully the light coating of snow will not slow the proceedings.

It seems that the North car park has been full to capacity on many occasions last week & a number of people have questioned whether the diversionary routes are really being treated as promised in cold weather.

The Town was very busy Saturday morning, perhaps because of the threat of snow, but I found that I had to queue in quite a few shops (and not the usual ones) which must be a positive sign for some.

The first "Tenbury Windfall" draw takes place on Monday.

Is Morrisons Environmental Policy harming Tenbury?

Morrisons lorries and fuel tankers are a common site in Tenbury even though the nearest store is 10 miles away.

Morrison vehicles regularly "short cut" through Tenbury to save the 2.3 miles extra driving up the A49 to the A456.  Of course there is no legal reason why they shouldn't use the A4112, although it is signposted as unsuitable for heavy goods vehicles.

Morrisons do have an Environmental Policy and one of their measurements is how many cases they move per kilometre, so they plan to use the shortest routes.

In logistics, we measure route planning efficiency in terms of how many cases per kilometre we are able to move. Over the last two years we have increased the number of cases per km by 12.7%.

A Morrisons driver did come amiss this week when he misread all the diversion & road closed signs and ended up in the Old Cattle Market temporary car park.  He also went on to prove that turning left out of the site is virtually impossible for a vehicle of that size.