Herefordshire Council reports that GCSE results across the county's schools show dramatic improvements in performance, particularly in English and Mathematics. The figures still need to be validated, but early indications show nearly a two per cent improvement on last year's results.

In 2006 the percentage of those achieving five grade A*-C GCSEs was 61.8 per cent, which has increased to 63.1 per cent this year. Those achieving five grade A*-C GCSEs including English and Maths has increased from 48.2 per cent to 52.5 per cent this year, an increase of almost 5 per cent.

In particular, Wyebridge Sports College has seen incredible results showing a 19 per cent improvement on last year's figures. All the pupils who took a GCSE achieved a qualification, 45 pupils managed to achieve 10 GCSEs or more, five achieved 14 GCSEs or more, and 99 pupils achieved five or more GCSEs at A*-C.

Councillor Roger Phillips, leader of the Herefordshire Council, said, 'This is excellent news. Not only have our children done well but also the results show that our schools are getting better and better every year. This is particularly important as we want our young people to have the best start in life and be able to make positive career choices. Congratulations to all the pupils, staff and parents for illustrating once again that Herefordshire has some of the best schools in the country.'

Organisers of the annual Flavours of Herefordshire awards are claiming that the competition for top honours has been tougher and judging decisions much harder than in any of the scheme's previous six years. However, the search is now over and on Friday, 26th October at Hereford Racecourse, restaurants, inns, tearooms and food producers throughout the county will be rewarded for their efforts as all of the prize winners are named from the short-list of candidates that was published on Wednesday, 22nd August 2007.

The event will be the start of the celebration of food and drink in the county, the annual Flavours of Herefordshire Food Festival which will take place at Hereford Racecourse during the weekend of 27th and 28th October.

The Flavours of Herefordshire scheme, which recognises the best use and promotion of local produce, continues to be one of the most popular competitions of its kind in the Heart of England and has been recognised for raising the standards of quality and service throughout the county since its inception seven years ago.

'The awards ceremony is now one of the highlights of the county's calendar, said Herefordshire Council's Cultural Services Manager, Jane Lewis. 'What we are finding is that year on year, the entrants are setting higher and higher standards, therefore making the job of the judges that little bit harder. As a result of all that, of course, the awards themselves have genuine meaning and value.

We are very grateful to the sponsors of the scheme, who have supported us for a number of years. These include: Vin Sullivan foods, Bulmers, Tyrrell's, Quality at Heart, Wye Valley Life, Heart of England Fine Foods, British Pig Executive, Herefordshire & Worcester Chamber of Commerce and The Hereford Times.'

The competition is split into ten separate categories and shortlists have been drawn up to discover Herefordshire's 2007 'Restaurant of the Year', 'Tea Room of the Year', 'Pub of the Year', 'Gastro Pub of the Year', 'Flavours of Herefordshire Breakfast of the Year', 'Shop / Retailer of the Year', 'Producer of the Year' (large), 'Producer of the Year', (small) and 'Self-Catering accommodation of the Year'.

In an innovative move, two 'Young Chef' categories have also been introduced during the last two years: 'Young Chefs Training' and 'Young Chefs in Industry'. Each of the ten entrants has been asked to come up with a recipe for two dishes; one main course using Herefordshire pork and two other seasonal ingredients and a dessert using a minimum of one local ingredient.

Over the years, the scheme has also helped to highlight Herefordshire's reputation for its food and locally sourced menus, both domestically and overseas. One of the end products of the awards scheme is the publication of a Flavours of Herefordshire booklet each October, which lists all of the prize winners and includes other information for visitors wanting to follow a food trail around the county.

For further details, visit www.visitherefordshire.co.uk.

Herefordshire Council is marking a special milestone this week in its successful 'Sink Your Waste' scheme, which encourages residents to invest in a food waste disposer.

The county, together with Worcestershire County Council, has now given out more than 1,000 cash back payments to residents in both of the counties. Both councils are leading the way in helping residents to deal with the enormous amount of food waste that ends up in Worcestershire's landfill sites by offering them up to £80 towards the cost of buying and installing a food waste disposer.

Jeremy Howell-Thomas, project development officer for Worcestershire County Council, said, 'I am delighted so many people have already chosen to take up this great offer. Food waste disposers are such a convenient way of dealing with messy food waste in the kitchen. 1,000 cash back payments means that there are 1,000 food waste disposers out there chomping away, diverting tonnes of food waste away from landfill.'

Herefordshire Council is keen for residents to get into the habit of composting as much of their food waste as possible. However, for things that can't be easily composted like cooked food, residents are encouraged to invest in a food waste disposer. Food waste equivalent to the weight of more than 150 fully loaded jumbo jet aeroplanes is collected from homes in Herefordshire and Worcestershire each year. If this waste, which includes used tea bags and stale sandwiches, gets sent to landfill, it rots and gives off methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

To find out about the Sink Your Waste cash back scheme, call 01905 766883 or download a claim form from www.sinkyourwaste.com.

Residents can make a claim for cash back by buying a waste disposer, getting it fitted and then sending in a claim form together with relevant receipts.

The average home creates around 180 kg of food waste a year, the equivalent weight of a cooker, a three piece suite and a dishwasher. More food waste is thrown away than packaging.

A highlight of the cultural calendar, h.Art, Herefordshire Art Week, gives visitors exclusive access to artists' studios, workshops and exhibitions. There will be opportunities to meet the makers and view a wide range of art and craft, from early pieces through to new work in progress, as well as preliminary studies, sketches and models.

h.Art 2007 features 115 venues showing the work of 250 Herefordshire artists. Many h.Art venues open two days earlier than usual, on Thursday, 6th September, to coincide with the Festival of Flowers at Hereford Cathedral. Bright pink roadside signs again guide visitors to this year's studios and exhibitions around the county, from the back lanes of Hereford to the hilltops of the Welsh border and the banks of the River Wye.

Full details, including pictures, maps and directions, can be found in the colourful, 44 page h.Art Guide, available free from libraries, tourist information centres and other outlets across the region. Further information can be found on the website at www.h-art.org.uk.

There are dozens of opportunities for those wanting to explore their own talents, with workshops in a wide range of techniques on offer, including stone carving, printmaking, felt jewellery, silver jewellery, sculpture and basket making.

For families, Diversity are holding 'Super Saturday' drop in children's art workshops at Eaton Bishop Village Hall, and students from Herefordshire College of Art are once again running Art in the Woods, a free jamboree of creativity at Queenswood Country Park on Saturday, 15th and Sunday, 16th September.

The 'must see' 2007 h.Art Open Exhibition at Hereford Museum & Art Gallery, Broad Street, Hereford, features beautiful new work by 22 established and emerging fine artists, selected from artists' submissions in June. This year's show promises to be one of the most varied yet, with works in paint, print, pen, collage, textiles, glass, wire, metal, ceramic, wood and photography. The selected artists are: Rodney Beecher Roberts, Steve Brooks, Ambrose Burne, Shellie Byatt, John Jake Clark, Doug Eaton, Polly Halliday, Joanna Hardman, Clare Hearne, Stella Hidden, Jason Hodges, Lois Hopwood, Alison MacGregor-Grimley, Julian Meredith, Kathleen Packwood, Penny Rees, Victoria Reynolds, Anne Shoring, Nancy Sutcliffe, Darren Williams, Pierre Williams and Inge Wright.

The Hereford Museum & Art Gallery exhibition will run from Thursday, 6th September until Sunday, 23rd September, during the following hours: Tuesday to Saturday 10am until 5pm and Sunday 10am until 4pm. Admission is free and there is access for visitors with disabilities.

Pick up a copy of the free h.Art Guide at a library or tourist information centre. Alternatively, call 01568 797842 or go to the website: www.h-art.org.uk.

Bus passengers throughout the county are set to benefit from changes to services and, in some cases, lower bus fares, which will be introduced when Herefordshire Council publishes new timetables on Sunday, 2nd September. Two brand new services will be introduced and others will see extra journeys or extended routes following retendering of subsidy contracts by the council.

Councillor Brian Wilcox, Herefordshire Council's cabinet member for Highways and Transportation said, 'These changes follow a review of bus service provision throughout the county. We have listened to what passengers have been telling us and where possible, we have given them the improvements they have been asking for. In a small number of cases the fares being charged were found to be excessive and action has been taken to reduce them so as to make the services more attractive to existing and, hopefully, new users. I hope the county's residents will take full advantage of the new bus services which will help to reduce congestion on the county's roads.

In Ledbury, a new town service, numbered 600, will link the New Mills and Lower Road areas with the town centre and railway station four times each weekday. The service between Ledbury and British Camp, number 675, is being revised to operate between Ledbury and Great Malvern with additional journeys. The service will be operated by Malvernian Tours.

Passengers from a large area of South Herefordshire, including Goodrich, Whitchurch, Llangrove and Llangarron will have a new service, 411 to Hereford every Wednesday. This bus will serve Little Birch and then run directly to Hereford, bypassing Kilpeck, which will be served by the Abbeydore service instead.

In Ross-on-Wye the 'Ross Runaround' town service, operated by H&H Coaches will have some journeys extended to the Court Road area, although the Ross Labels site will no longer be served.

Abbeydore and Ewyas Harold will gain a new through bus to and from Hereford on Wednesdays, supplementing the connecting service to Pontrilas that will continue at other times of the week. The mid morning journey from Michaelchurch Escley to Pontrilas will, however, be discontinued.

St. Owen's Cross will regain a daily service to Hereford when the 09.35 Ross to Hereford and 13.30 Hereford to Ross buses on Stagecoach service 38 will be diverted via the village.

The early morning commuter journey on service 412 from Broad Oak to Hereford will be retimed to run 13 minutes later, following requests from passengers. Service 423, between Bromyard and Worcester via Alfrick will have a new operator, DRM and will run to a new timetable.

On service 469 between Bromyard, Bishop's Frome and Hereford, there will be extra journeys on Mondays to Fridays timetable. Service 463 between Brilley and Kington will be revised to run between Arrow View and Kington only due to lack of use.

In North Herefordshire, there will be changes to three major services.

On the 492, which links Hereford, Leominster and Ludlow, all journeys north of Ludlow and some late afternoon trips to and from Hereford will be run by Whittle Coach & Bus. Passengers travelling across Leominster will have to change buses, but connections will be provided and through fares will be available.

There will be some extra journeys operating between Ludlow and Leominster, although the late evening journey on Friday and Saturday nights from Ludlow to Hereford is withdrawn.

Between Leominster and Hereford, Whittle and Lugg Valley will accept each others tickets following an agreement brokered by the council. Passengers travelling between Ludlow and Leominster will find that their fares have been reduced following a review by Herefordshire Council.

On service 493 between Leominster and Presteigne one morning journey to Leominster is withdrawn and the remaining journeys have new times. Most journeys will run via Pembridge, leaving the Mortimer's Cross area to be served by service 489. On Saturdays the late afternoon bus from Leominster to Shobdon will be extended to Presteigne after requests by passengers.

Travellers between Kington, Shobdon, Pembridge, Eardisland and Leominster on services 495 and 496 will find that their fares have been reduced following a review by Herefordshire Council. Bus times have also altered and on Tuesdays, one journey in each direction is being renumbered 497 and diverted via Shobdon, Staunton-on-Arrow and Titley to take shoppers to and from the market at Kington. This replaces a separate service operated by Sargeants Bros. and reinstates a link between Shobdon and Kington on market days.

Full details of all these changes and a number of minor alterations to other services are contained in new editions of the Area Bus and Train Timetables produced by Herefordshire Council and available from libraries, tourist information centres and many post offices and village shops throughout the county, costing fifty pence.

Herefordshire Council is urging South Wye residents on the old Stirling Lines Estate to stay away from the public open space at Staddlestone Circle.

The council was called on Thursday, 23rd August by one of the residents who reported concerns about materials that had been left on the public open space at the centre of a new Wimpey housing development. The council cordoned off the area immediately and environmental health officers collected samples for analysis.

The council has just established that there is white asbestos present in debris on the land surface. The site is currently being cleared and residents are being warned to stay away until the full extent of the contamination is known. At present it is not known where the asbestos has come from. The council will be working with site developers, Wimpey, to investigate the cause.

In the meantime, environmental health officials and contamination land officers are working to ascertain the level of risk to those who may have already been exposed to the substance. It is anticipated the risk is very low.

Herefordshire Council is to provide a temporary footbridge for pedestrians needing to get from Colwall Green to Colwall Stone, following the closure of a railway bridge on Wednesday, 15th August.

The footbridge cannot be designed, supplied and installed by the 5th September for the start of the school term, but every effort will be taken to have it installed soon after. Meanwhile, the school transport service will be providing a bus service from Colwall to the school and back until the bridge can be put into place. This may mean that school children will have to start school later and finish slightly later but this is still being looked into.

Clive Hall, Herefordshire Council's Highways Network Manager said, ' "Safety must be our first priority for schoolchildren and we are encouraging all parents to make ensure that their children use either the alternative footbridge or the free buses. There is a public right of way very close to the bridge that is being used by residents but as it is so close to a live railway line people need to take extra care. Somebody will be employed to man this right of way during the day from 5th, to advise people of the train times and to take care.

Motorists are also urged to take extra care when using the diversion routes, as there will be more traffic on these roads, including farm vehicles.'

The bridge on the B4218 has been closed since an assessment by the council's Highways and Transportation Department revealed doubts about its safety.

Access to Colwall can still be gained via the B4218 Wyche Cutting or via the signed diversion route, which uses the A449, the C1167 at Ledbury and the C1165, Mill Lane, Colwall.

Herefordshire residents will get their first opportunity to see the state of the art Museum Resource and Learning Centre in Hereford's Friar Street at an open day on Thursday, 6th September. The £1.83 million building, converted from the old telephone exchange with the help of a Heritage Lottery Fund grant, will be open to the public as part of the national Heritage Open Days which aim to allow free access to interesting and historic buildings.

The 'Building Our Museum' event which will run between 11am and 3pm will include tours of the new spaces in the Museum Resource and Learning Centre, including the behind the scenes areas of the new facility which have specialist climate controlled spaces to keep all of the county's museum collections together for the first time. The building also has an atrium area of public displays, extra space for volunteers and researchers, offices for staff and even a walk-in freezer to allow staff to keep potentially disastrous insect infestations at bay.

The service will be running eight special events a year, the next two of which are on Tuesday, 23rd October, when a family learning event linked to the Big Draw will be held and Thursday, 20th December, when an event called 'A Box of Delights' will take place.

Staff will be busy moving offices and collections into the centre during the autumn, so the official opening for the Museum Resource and Learning Centre is planned for a later date. The permanent exhibition will be open from 10am until 4pm Monday to Friday and will be in place by early 2008.

Other Heritage Open Day events planned in Herefordshire include:

Thursday, 6th September: guided tours of the Georgian Eastnor Castle, Ledbury, built in 1812 in the style of a Welsh border fortress. Guided tours will take place at 11am, 12.30pm, 2pm and 3.30pm and must be pre-booked by telephoning 01531 633160.

Thursday, 6th until Sunday, 9th September: St Edward's Church, Kempley, Ledbury,. a 1904 'Cathedral of the Arts and Crafts Movement,' open from 10am until 4pm. St Mary's Church, Kempley, Ledbury, a 12th century church with medieval wall paintings of national importance, open 11am until 4.30pm.

Thursday, 6th, Friday, 7th and Sunday, 9th September: The 16th century painted room, Town Council Offices, Church Street, Ledbury, a building featuring Elizabethan wall paintings discovered in 1989, open between 11am and 1pm, then 2pm to 4pm on the Thursday and Friday, and 2pm until 5pm on the Sunday. Market House, High Street, Ledbury, dating from the 17th century, is open at the same times.

Friday, September 7: Plas Gwyn, Hampton Park Road, Hereford, the home where Edward Elgar composed some of his most famous works, 10am until 5pm.

Friday 7th and Saturday, 8th September: upper floor of Ledbury Heritage Centre open, showcasing the work of the Victoria County History project in Ledbury, 10am until 4.30pm.

Saturday, 8th September: open day at the Herefordshire Light Infantry Museum with experts on hand to identify people's military items, 10.30am until 3pm.

Saturday, 8th September: family fun day at Coningsby Museum, Hereford, noon until 6pm.

Sunday, 9th September: Tregate Castle, Welsh Newton, a fortified farmhouse, 2pm until 5.30pm.

Sunday, 9th September: a chance to see inside one of Hereford's oldest buildings, Castle Cliffe, Castle Green, Hereford.

For further information about Heritage Open Days log onto the website http://www.heritageopendays.org.uk or look out for the Herefordshire leaflet and local posters.

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