Friday evening was the 30th Anniversary of the Ross - Conde Twinning Association and 93 people from the French Town visited Ross for the occasion. This was the most who have come to Ross in one visit. 'It was also good to see so many children and new families in the Twinning Association,' said one of the English hosts, Sue Kirby.

Sharon Clayton Chairwoman of the Twinning Association and Derek Bedford Mayor of Ross and President of the Association welcomed Monsuier Allizard, Mayor of Conde and Sylviane Paris the French Twinning President plus all visitors at the Larruperz Centre on Friday evening. A dinner was held for the visitors at the Chase Hotel on Saturday during which a 30th Anniversary cake was cut by Sharon Clayton and Sylvianne Parisand, using a cememonial sword supplied by Geoff Wheeler. The event was attended by 205 people.

'Sylviane has been involved with the twinning association from the beginning,' said Sue. 'Her family have been twinned with Dr Richard Cook since the first visit, and I remember her comming to Ross on a childrens exchange. Her father, Bernard Choyer always wore Union Jack socks and was a real character. He would of been so proud of Sylviane, had he seen her as president of the French part of our organization'.

A trip to Cardiff Bay was organized for Sunday and over 100 people went, making the event a huge success. Others took their visiting families elsewhere. 'I took mine to West Midland Safari Park on Saturday and all 12 of us enjoyed the day' said Sue. 'It was an added bonus was that it did not start raining until 3.30pm - I belive it rained all day in Ross.'

Sue also took her visiting family to Gloucester on Sunday. 'This proved to be the right thing for us because there was so much going on,' she said. There was a pagent of Gloucester through the ages, we saw Medieval Knights and Solildiers, a display of Norman Justice by Ordeal, Tudor Folk, Knights on Horseback, a display of a mock Battle of the Wars of the Roses, World War 2 Searchlights and other things from the war and much more. Our visitors departed on Monday morning in the pouring rain after a wonderful weekend, which will be remembered by everyone for a long time'.

The next exchange will be to celebrate the 30th Anniversary in Conde, next May Day weekend.

A very well attended Town Meeting took place at the Larruperz Centre on Monday evening, where Ross residents were invited to ask questions of and voice their concerns to Ross Town Council. After watching presentations on the twinning of Namutumba with Ross, Ross Rambles Association and the Friends of St. Mary's, the public raised various issues, including the amount of empty shops in the town, traffic and road works problems. The main cause for concern, however, was the new Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet which has recently been opened on the site of the old 'Little Chef' restaurant, adjacent to Ross Labels.

The main reason for concern is that many of the students of the John Kyrle High School have been seen taking their lives into their hands, crossing the dual carriagewayat lunch time to buy a KFC take away.

Councillors raised the point that as far as they were aware, KFC should not be operating as a take away, adding that previous applicants of similar business were refused permission to operate take aways on safety grounds. Councillor Harry Bramer informed the meeting that he would personally look into the matter that evening. Wyenot News received a report on Councillor Bramer's visit today. Here is what he had to say:

Playing Chicken on the A40

At The Ross Town Council Annual meeting on Monday I heard the fears of local residents and Herefordshire Councillor Mrs Anne Gray about the safety of students of John Kyrle High School, who had been seen that day jumping over the crash barriers to get to the newly opened KFC restaurant on the A40 at Overross.

Continued . . .

When last week I saw the ‘Opening Soon’ signs, I was fearful of this happening as KFC is a magnet to many, especially young people. I immediately contacted Herefordshire Council Planning Services and was advised that the Restaurant proprietors had enquired about the possibility of Take Away provision, but were advised that this would require a Change of Use. Having been thus advised they fell back on to the existing use, that of an ‘Eat In’ restaurant. Residents may recall that in recent times, prior to the site being acquired by Labels, that side of the A40 had a ‘Little Chef’ like restaurant and a BP Garage. The then restaurant had, naturally, valid planning permission to run as an ‘Eat In’ restaurant. This permission does allow for occasional ‘Take Away’ sales.

When Herefordshire Council was approached some time ago by ‘Take Away’ restaurants on this site, the fears for the safety of John Kyrle students was first voiced and the applications were dropped. However, now we have a KFC with no valid ‘Take Away’ permission openly selling ‘Take Aways’.

As I said I intended to do, to the public Meeting on Monday, on my way home I purchased a Take Away without there being any attempt at all to stop me. In fact I was asked, ‘to eat in or to go ?’ When I replied, ‘to go’, the till removed the VAT from my bill and it was printed off, clearly ‘TO GO’. The price I paid was the price advertised on the glossy overhead plastic displays. These prices are the ‘Take Away’ prices and anyone wishing to actually eat in has VAT added to their bill. Clearly this is a ‘Take Away’ . Not an ‘Eat in’ restaurant with the occasional ‘Take Away’.

I advised the Manager that I was an elected Councillor of Herefordshire Council and he listened to my fears regarding the safety of John Kyrle students and telephoned his ‘boss’. I once again voiced my fears to his ‘boss’ and although I advised him that on Tuesday morning I would urgently seek an Enforcement Officer to visit the restaurant to curtail the sale of ‘Take Away’ food, the gentleman declined to comment!'

As Wyenot News goes to press, takeaways are still being sold by kFC and students are jumping the safety barriers, risking their lives.

Councillor Bramer went on to say that Nigel Griffiths, the Head of John Kyrle High School is a responsible head teacher. We know that he will do his utmost to stop the flow of students visiting the outlet at lunch time, however, it will be impossible to police every student, every lunch time.

Councillor Bramer also assures us that Herefordshire Council will take enforcement action, but the message must also come loud and clear to the proprietors of KFC from the residents of Ross. If you continue to sell Take Aways – we don’t want you here!

Wyenot News comment: Tina went into KFC today and asked for food to take out, a request which wasn't questioned or denied. Her son had also just dumped a KFC take away bag full of empty KFC food containers in the bin. Upon our visit to KFC, every person entering the shop was buying food to take away. NOBODY was eating in!

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