Blakenall 2012

 ;This time of year we must look forward to 2012 and what we aim for in Blakenall

-       ;action against illegal metal dealers who operate running a business from their residential address license required for display as with taxis. :

-   full consultation on the plans to be proposed to build a completely new community in the Poets and Goscote empty area. Despite the economic difficulties created nationally and internationally a lot of hard work has been going on to move forward on the stalled plans for this area. Progress has been made and the proposals will be published early in the new Year and I am pleased to have already had meetings with residents to seek their views. 

 ;firm action against anti social behaviour in partnership with a hands on support by the police, a better partnership commitment by Walsall Housing Group and other landlords .. those who privately let their properties and are often totally absent landlords and do not take up proper references

 a commitment to dramatically improve the standard of maintenance of open spaces… removing shrubs to remove any hiding place for either litter or criminals: full exploration of opportunities for communities to join together in social enterprise:

 ;fairer distribution in this ward for road and pavement  repair : action against those irresponsible dog owners who do not immediately clear up after their dog fouling and that includes parks and open spaces:

 ; use of more community orders against those who break laws about dropping litter to get them to have to do some clearing up as part of their punishment;

 ; a no tolerance regime against those who deal in drugs : ban on cheap alcohol below cost promotions:

 ;20 mph zones around all schools : reinstatement of road safety training for our children.

 ;every take away to have to maintain and provide a litter bin for their premises:

 ;proper fair regulation of stray horses:

 ; get away from the fine culture and into more community service type orders,

 ; more support for community ownership and maintenance of buildings and use. More use of school buildings as community based activity and training: reskilling; could encouraging parents to come back to ‘school’ be a motivating factor for their children also and support them?

 ;Research what funding is there to support such social enterprise and how we can support it… areas of social care, child care and elderly… apprentices… 

 ;Examples of where we might commission from a social enterprise… some forms of elderly care : also support for Family Intervention plans to try and break the cycle where dysfunctional families have dysfunctional children who grow up to lead equally dysfunctional families of their own

 ;Cookery classes for families etc to be able to live well but cheaper as budgets are put under a lot of pressure.

 Energy saving measures for council and schools plus help for all to save energy .

 ;Encourage neighbourhood watch and community groups with this grant offered and encourage them to take some ownership of their community.

 ;Friends of park support… Leamore Park needs to become a star park for access to sports and leisure... we can  get access to grants… more for open spaces?

 ;Parking rationalisation.. can we impose other penalties rather than fines?

 ;Better organised youth support. Too many youths idly hanging about street corners 

 ;Obesity in children; war on drug trafficking and below cost sales of alcohol

 ;Street theatre.. we need to attract people to Walsall centre

-     Development of community and social enterprise moving the community forward under their ownership.. there is grant money out there to tap into.. just needs the leadership.

 ;Public exercise points as in Reedswood

-  we need to expand the potential of sites such as Hollemeadow and Ryecroft resource centres to provide improving skills opportunities and address the unemployment issues especially amongst our young people.

 ;Fair deal for all.

 ;Best start possible for our children

At least the above will make a good start and cost very little..  

see you around in 2012

regards

Ian Robertson

Latest news for October

We battle on here as Blakenall Councillors... been having some good residents meetings ... around North Walsall , around Newholme way, and we plan to hold many more to directly address issues that face you bringing together a team of the police, housing group, the council, representative from anti social behaviour unit... please get in touch with us if you have an issue you would like us to tackle.
Had some continuing success in the campaign to combat those wretched tat wagon owners who run their business from home... no objection if they use proper premises... but they are getting around £350 a time on each run... do they pay tax and national insurance? please sign the e petition which when gets to 100K will be the subject of a debate in Parliament.
Persuaded the Council at least to run a pilot to bring the tethered horse situation under some control. A notice to remove them from Council land has cleared Swannies field. These horses are popping up in more places... Mill street again etc and toher parts of Goscote...
We are on the case of getting the money released to use for the benefit of the people of the Goscote area ( £56K left after Gosctoe Centre closed) We shall hold public meetings and consult to find what areas would directly help this area.
Good news for the residents of Oak Crescent who will get those terrible pot holes repaired within the next 2 weeks with a total resurface next April.
One item that really anoyed me was the knowledge that the help line run by the tax and benefit office is an 0845 premium one and the average cost per call is around £15 .. which is disgraceful as those using the number find that they are paying a vast sum to enquire about their often difficult financial circumstances and being ripped off ..
more news soon... do get in touch with us with any issues etc
Look forward to hearing from you
regards
Ian Ann and Bob
Your local Councillors

have a tweet!

http://twitter.com/%7Bscreen_name%7D

Let us get rid of illegal scrap dealers!

Cashless Scrap Metal Trade - Amendment to Scrap Metal Merchants Act 1964


Responsible department: Home Office

Due to a significant rise in value, metal has become a much sought after commodity. This increased demand has resulted in a sharp rise in metal theft nationally. Metal fencing, gates, manhole covers and other metallic items are stolen on a regular basis. Property is raided for lead, copper and cabling. War memorials and statues have been taken. Overhead power lines are stolen at serious risk to personal safety with huge costs for replacement and major inconvenience to the public. Historically the scrap metal trade has been a cash in hand industry. This creates difficulties as there is no audit trail, making identification of individuals who may be trading stolen metal or who may be committing tax or benefits fraud, a difficult proposition. An amendment to the Scrap Metal Merchants Act 1964 to prohibit cash transactions would make payment by cheque or directly into a bank account mandatory and would be a significant component in reducing metal theft.

Please follow this link sign and forward to as many people as possible

Thanks

Ian Robertson

Walsall.

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/406

How they waste your money

Yes approx £535,000 has been paid in extra payments to leaving staff to agree to clauses in the leaving contract not to talk about the circumstances or the reasons and issues surrounding their leaving.
This is only part of the story as the cost of various barristers ,lawyers and the  like plus dedicated officer time to try and respond to these employment tribunals runs into millions of pounds of your money.
 As followers of the press will know, there have been a number of tribunals which have been either settled at the doors of the court or lost.
 The highest profile one was Peter Francis who brought action against the former chief executive of walsall Council Annie Shepperd under the Disability Discrimination Act. ( Peter was treated dreadfully by AS and he got about £650k in compensation but refused £70K offered to try and stop him talking afterwards) Peter then ran a web site where he put his case which he did well . This is a man who brought over £35Million of regeneration money into Walsall, warned the council about deficiencies in their monitoring system... which came to light last year resulting in loss of reclaimable money from Europe of over a £Million)

A former police inspector employed by the council and brought a case of 'malfessence'... abuse of power by a public official .. which is an arrestable offence but dropped this and was given compensation plus a clause not to talk ;
an executive director left on pretext to pursue her studies... she had made a serious error in her handling of a contract and should have been sacked but took away a very healthy amount to avoid spilling the beans!
Another had a nervous breakdown but was given a gagging bribe again to avoid embarrassing disclosures: another who was in charge of monitoring progress of the Council , was concerned at how the figures were being manipulated, got sacked but at tribunal got a healthy sum to keep her mouth shut
The list does go on and on 
 Of course would not dream of making any direct accusations !!! A lot of above has appeared in the express and star .. from material in the public domain or requested under Freedom of Information Act requests... maybe it helped a bit by knowing where to look!



  I believe whatever party is running the show, the audit side of this council must be scrutinised in greater depth by the Audit Committee and with much more vigour!!

 I welcome any comments!
Ian

The cost to your council tax of gagging orders payments

The disclosure that over £500,000 has been spent by this Council in paying past employees to keep their mouths shut about issues around their leaving is an absolute disgrace... To gag what would have been embarrassing items showing incompetence sometimes of the Council and sometimes of the past employee seems just a way of avoiding the public knowing or asking questions.
One employee refused a payment of £70,000 so that they could talk about their treatment and try to clear their name after the tribunal....
so much for open Government!!!

Education ; what sort of future for our children?

News that Serco is goinbg to be given the push.. and not before time... we were failing in education provsion 10 years ago and still are ... still in the bottom league.. at least we are actually on the map of that league while befroe we risked falling off the map.
I suspect education would have improved whether Serco was there or not.. we could not have fallne any further at the time Serco took over.
A number of questions must be urgently asked
- what penalty clauses are now payable to Serco ? we shall be paying them anyway about £58M over the next two years...
- how incompetent to sign up to another 12 years of Serco when every local authority was getting out of more education control by Serco.. we are the only local authority that Serco runs education for... they seem to have kept their contracts for running prisoners around and have their fingers into so many pies.. they did have a stake in part of the Ofsted inspection service.
- how can we run the education service and keep on board the staff while a now public discussion is taking place on how to end this contract?
- hardly a clear message of security for the many teachers who may well be looking elsewhere for their more secure employment already cross at the prospect of their pensions being seriously tampered with... one reason why many entered this profession knowing they could look forward to a secure and well supported pension.
- I cannot see how this transition can take place in full public view and safeguard teachers and above all ensure that our pupils get the excellent education they deserve and not the dregs of a system in turmoil.
the questions on the future need asking now urgently... Comments gratefully received!!!
regards
Cllr Ian Robertson
Labour Blakenall

and now we need to know how much the Tories under Mike Bird is having to pay to break the Serco contract.... 28th December 2011?

A problem shared can lead to a problem solved

We would like to remind you about the local residents ‘meeting to be held on Wednesday 27th July 6.30pm at St Thomas church Hall .


we very much support the efforts of Sgt Jim Nixon and wish to expand the lobbying pressure from you to other partners such as the Council, Walsall Housing Group and the Primary Care Trust ( Health)

We shall be there to support Jim and answer any questions or take up any issues you may have. If you cannot make the meeting you are most welcome to call any of the   numbers
01922 634642        097956 829549   Cllr Ian Robertson

Do come and have your say!!

To the residents of Chantry and Hollemeadow Avenue,

Chapel, Foster & Dawson Streets, Guild & St Clements Avenues



Dear Resident,

You will remember we used to hold public meetings regarding Leamore Park. I am sure you know problems are arising again in the Park and crime and anti social behaviour has recently been reported to us. Therefore we have arranged a meeting for you the residents, on Wednesday 10th August at 6.30pm. at the Blakenall United Reformed Church ( in the hall) at the corner of Blakenall lane and Chantry Avenue



Guests present to answer your questions will be the Walsall Area Partnership manager, the new incoming Police Sergeant, the person running the Anti Social behaviour unit and an Officer from Walsall Housing Group.



This will be an excellent opportunity for you to put questions on any local issue or pose problems to senior officers either in public or in private.



For further information do not hesitate to contact us on the above numbers. Please do you best to attend, coming together will achieve a lot more than a lone voice!



Kind regards



Ann , Ian and Bob.
p.s we shall also be expanding the invites to the excellent residents' group meetings run by Sgt Nixon... next one is on wednesday 27th July 6.30pm at St Thomas church on Dartmouth Avenue.




You can also get in touch with us if you have access to the internet on :-

Blakenalllabour.blogspot.com iloveblakenall.blogspot.com

Or by email robertsonic@hotmail.co.uk thomasr@walsall.gov.uk

youngp@walsall.gov.uk robertsonic1@facebook.com

you can also ‘tweet us’.

Win some lose some!

News from Council meeting ...the scrap metal question 12th July 2011


News that this Council ( on Monday 11th July) has had to spend about £65K per year for the last two years to replace stolen drain covers … money literally down the drain as far as Walsall Council Tax payers is concerned is further evidence that we need to show those who deal illegally in scrap metal that we mean business in stopping their criminal activities in stealing metal in this Borough. Removing metal from railways, electrical substations and the like are also putting the safety of the public at risk and costing us all millions of pounds over the whole of the United Kingdom to replace this criminal theft and damage.


No problem with those who collect scrap , do not run their business from their residential home address , have a licence and in all ways run a legitimate business… the financial rewards can be considerable…each wagon in a half day round can collect about £300 worth of scrap metal… this should be taken to a registered scrap merchant who pays the dealer via a bank account… no cash. The dealer must comply with the normal rules of running a business… keeps accounts, pays their taxes and keeps their laden wagons off site not on their home drives and certainly does not break up the scrap at home. Those who obey the rules have my full support.



News on rejection of NOM on illegal horse grazing. 12 July 2011

I am very disappointed that Council rejected of my notice of motion regarding taking actions to resolve the issue of 80 horses grazing illegally on Council land on last Monday.

Comments were made that there is no need for such a motion as there are measures in place to resolve the issue… evidence shows that these issues of illegal grazing have been with us for years with only token action taken by this Council. Proposing a time limited round table discussion with all parties seems to me a sensible way of bringing the issue to a positive permanent solution. If some of the parties will not cooperate then the time arrives when the full weight of powers are implemented . That confrontation can be avoided if as in any negotiation all parties accept that a sensible solution must be found. This is in the best interests of the horses, this Council, the owners and above all the residents of Walsall.

Regards


Cllr Ian Robertson... still I keep trying!!

Are they seeing the light?

  The welfare reform bill voted through Parliament the other week run by this coalition of tories and liberal democrats   will penalise a number of our residents who are recovering from cancer treatment and will lose many of their support benefits . Is this the kind of society this lot want where we kick those who are fighting to get back to normality after their traumatic chemotherapy only to have vital support removed them?

Sandwell's Liberal Democratic Mayor was so disgusted she tore up her Party membership and joined the labour party... thank goodness for people with principles.
I suppose it goes with the flow when you have another Tory suggesting that those who are disabled should be offering themselves for a job at a discount, somehow suggesting they are damaged goods... how insulting!
There are some cracks appearing in this coalition made apparently in hell where you abandon a good chunk of your election promises and bring forward another manifesto that no-one voted for..
thank goodness hopefully   a bit of compassion will appear before we send all the weakest to the wall..


 A Liberal Democrat peer with responsibility for the party's welfare policy has said there must be exceptions to the proposed £26,000 benefits cap to provide "fairness" and "justice".

Lord German suggested child benefit could be excluded from the limit.

He said: "There must be an exception in order to provide fairness and justice for this relatively small group of people."
And so (should) say  all of us.

Cllr Ian Robertson
Blakenall Ward Walsall

I have a list of society offenders who would not be missed!

 The words of a Gilbert and Sullivan song which when written they had no doubt  as many local issues as we have today if not more. 

Who would we get 'rid ' of?

1) those anti social people who tip rubbish onto open spaces. these anti social people should be caught and given orders to spend their time clearing up the neighbourhood.
2) those who prune trees or offer to remove your rubbish cheaply and tip this in your street near by.


3) those who operate scrap vehicles from their home address, break up the scrap, burn off the cable to reveal the copper at their home address.


4) even worse those who steal metal from roofs, electrical sub stations, railways and underground telephone ducts to sell for cash.


5) those non caring dog owners who allow their pet to foul the pavements and do not clear up after them

6) those who are such dreadful parents that they allow their young children to run riot in the street while they lounge in front of their plasma TV apparently obvious of the mayhem their kids are generating outside

7) a special fast track for all those involved in drug dealing

8) those who burglar our homes.

9) those nasty husbands ( mostly) who ill treat their partners

10) those who have no notion of the nuisance they generate to the community by operating off road bikes or drive at high speed in residential areas or even worse consume alcohol and get to the wheel of a lethal weapon.

11) those who keep horses near private houses, with no thought at the smell, potential danger and nuisance to those who wish to play on that space.

I do not think that list involves many people.. the rest of all the decent people can get on with coping with the real battles of life and hopefully enjoying a decent amount of their spare time!

I wonder if you have some more to add to the list?

regards
Ian

Cllr Ian Robertson

Policies? Are these the ones to make Blakenall and Walsall better?

The things you have raised with us that are important and I agree need addressing are:-

- 1) Action on scrap wagons. We need  a law change to make dealing in scrap much more carefully regulated with dealing only possible through a bank account ( will stop those illegal ones ) and allocate a suitable industrial area which is secure and all wagons to be parked there with on site facilities for them to sort the metal..in return they be given access to public bodies wishing to dispose of valuable scrap.
Stray horses the number are now over 100. We need to lease some suitable land to those who wish to keep horses where the horses are safe, the public are not put at risk by horse wandering onto roads etc and away from houses.
Verges. This Council has not taken appropriate action on the abuse of those placing their vehicles on the verge.. either causing obstruction to the footpath for buggies, wheelchairs and other users and a serious hazard for the poorly sighted. We need some clear policy on this along with dropped curbs. I shall bring to the debate proposals via a notice of motion to June Council. ( needs the legal bods to check the right words!)

- 2) Opposition to NHS changes. we need to address the serious health inequalities where life expectancy in parts of the Borough including Blakenall, we live on average 9 years less than those who live in places such as Streetly.. unfair and a scandal.

- 3) Fears over cuts to police numbers. We hear the police in Walsall will cut police numbers.. fewer police on beat and more scope for the criminals.. we are already seeing a rise in burglary.

- 4) Absent landlords with bad tenants. Here there are many owners who live for example in London who just do nor care who is living in their properties. these really bad tenants are creating havoc in the community and need to either mend their ways or be evicted fast. The Council must map out ownership of these properties and read them the riot act.

5) WHG letting to bad tenants or their relations. WHG must let only to tenants who have a good record and impose immediate sanctions on those who break their tenancy agreements.

 - 6)  Street cleaning standards. these are poor in some areas and we need a more rigorous inspection regime post sweeping.
-7) we need zones around schools that make the roads safer with 20mph mandatory, no parking ( with in necessary barriers) and on a different topic no new take aways within  an agreed zone .

- 8) Dog fouling problem. This must be addressed as a serious health hazard with signage, education and penalties with more prosecutions.

- 9) Lack of effective youth support. Only £6000 to cover all activities over Borough this summer and I am certain we get poor value for money for the spend that happens.

- 10) Pot holes and standard of road repairs. The damage to cars and injuries to pedestrians is a serious health and safety issue and is costing this council in claims.

- 11) Bad contracts .. tarmac( roads) Amey ( lightng )  and serco ( Education). They are not grilled denough on their performance and their contracts appear to have more loopholes than a sieve.

- 12) Poor standards in education and rush to academies. We are heading for 2 tier education in Walsall with those who need more support to achieve thrown onto scrap heap

- 13) Fly tipping. We need local street watches set up to report such items and those caught and those dropping litter made to do at least a stint in cleaning up Walsall ( does depend on court cooperation)

- 14) Maintenance of open spaces, parks , and parcels of land, their ownership. Standard of care. These open spaces must be a place where all go with families to enjoy.. some are deteriorating with roaming yobs around not from this area with vandalism.

- 15) Empty property .. lack of maintenance by absent owners.. who owns? These are a blot on the landscape and quicker action to trace owners, force them to secure the properties and tidy them up ( we do have many powers as a council)

- 16) leisure facilities, leisure centres , libraries. These need protecting expanded and made more attractive to potential users.

- 17) domestic violence centre support. we have excellent units in Walsall supporting families and trying to prevent long term damage to victims and the family , but this Council just keeps cutting the very modest grant to these precious volunteers.

- 18) war on drugs dealers, They are still there and laughing all the way to the bank ( or use money to buy property for cash) Residents must have a really easy way to report patterns of activity... catch them, lock them up and take all their assets away. Ring fence some of that money to try and repair the damage to the victims. Same with pimps.

- 19) out of control families. Those completely dysfunctional families have children who also grow up often to have similar problems. There are central Government grants to put in extra support.. needs to be done as a joint project with other partners.

- 20) restorative justice. Here selected petty criminals are made to face their victims.. Has a proven track record of greatly cutting re offence rates

- 21) community enterprise. More resources made available to support more local enterprises.

 - 22) Speed reduction measures ( not humps) with good community consultation.

- 23) Need for streetwatch, neighbourhood watch community action.

- 24) Development of the voluntary sector and support

- 25) More open government and opportunities for public to question the council. Transparent decision making

- 26) War on waste, losses such as ERDF and inefficiencies

- 27) Partnerships with neighbouring Councils to save money

- 28) Obesity reduction in children reduction.. otherwise the parents will out live their children

- 29) Drug and alcohol support . Small investments here can save otherwise waste lives.

- 30) Town centres improvements.. empty shops, action to make them family friendly. etc. Our town centres are dying

- 32) Use of pay back, neets. Need for tree pruning and open space maintenance.

- 33) High profile on need to the urgency to at last start the regeneration of major parts of Walsall e.g Goscote corridor.

- 34) Green measures to make Walsall cleaner and contribute to green agenda

- 35) Expand street theatre and markets in all town centres.

- 36) Public exercise points as in Europe towns.

I will be grateful for any comments or feedback.. I do not feel that the above are unrealistic ideas and do welcome feedback!!

Thanks for reading
regards
Cllr Ian Robertson
Your local Labour Councillor

Welcome Back to Cllr Ann Young.

Congratulations to Ann for her hard work on standing again in Blakenall. We all thank those who supported her in the elections. We intend that the true winners will be you the voters as we appreciate that such issues as the scrap wagons operating from private houses, , the placing of horses on  unsuitable  public land ., the state of many open spaces and cleared areas that are ready for rebuilding, dog fouling on open spaces and pavements, fly tipping , placing of bad tenants either as private landlords who do not care or by WHG not enforcing tenancy agreements or researching their propective new tenants.
yours
Cllr Ian Robertson Cllr Bob Thomas Cllr Ann Young
your labour team.
please comment if you have another issue to raise.
Can be reached on robertsonic@hotmail.co.uk
01922 634642 or 07956 829 549

who will rid us of this tory blight?

Local elections now loom with an opportunity for us ordinary folk to cast a vote for whom and which party they feel will run Walsall and their ward in the best interests of local people.
The liberal democrats are now totally discredited selling themselves for a number of pieces of silver, totally ignoring their electorate in order to feel they have power which is actually no power at all.. just putting themselves up as a potential blame punch bag to get the Tories off the hook for introducing excessively strong cutting policies which have already cut our growth as compared to other European countries.
Here in walsall we have a Tory run council ( sorry I meant a Council totally run by Cllr Bird) with a ruling ethos that 'the market will decide' hard luck on those who are not bomb proof in economic recessions.. They shalt be fed to the wolves.
Your libraries are not safe... no way can the Tories propose cutting £700,000 off the budget without closing libraries.. just wait until after the elections for a conversion!
Locally in the NHS we will have a total ripping up of the system at enormous cost to give 2 groups of doctors almost complete control of how local spending . in their interests to keep costs down and no policy of ensuring the best and most appropriate treatment is provided. So our NHS is in reality on the way to beong privatised , running the risk of being run by profit first health later group.
Cuts to the police force of 20% cannot fail to reduce numbers of front line bobbies giving the criminals an uninterrupted field to commit crimes.
Education maintenance allowance abolished whcih will mean 16 to 18 year olds will be discouraged in continuing in education.. if they aspire to go to university they will be hit by massive debt with cost of up to £9000 a year in tuition fees alone.
Cuts to winter heating allowance of £50 to pensioners and £100 for over 85's
cuts to child benefit and a drop of start limit for the 40% tax rate which will mean another 750000 people will pay higher tax rate.
still going ahead with some of the sale of our forests
pension age going up to 66; cuts in workling tax credit amounts
cuts too far and too fast....

Your potholes now often the size of wagon wheels, will stay like mini mine shafts despite a small amount of extra funds thrown at them
We continue to spend over £220000 to employ a chief executive ( including pension contributions) along with another 6 at over £140,000 for directors.. while many local residents are facing unemployment.
Taking £7 million out of social services cannot fail to hit the most vulnerable in our society and if we aspire to be sensitive to the values of a civilised society, this Tory council fails miserably.
The voluntary sector is a vital part of our society and is run by some golden people but overall  is disorganised, inefficient and makes poor use of the resources available. sections of the voluntary sector need to unite, work in partnership and pool resources.
this Tory council is hell bent on off loading as much of the responsibilities of a council onto the private sector.. leaving the well off  still well off but those who are of more limited incomes left to try and fend for themselves.
Someone has had a bright idea to have a referendum on viting methos at a cost of £250k.. some crumb to keep the Liberals happy?
Those of us in the Labour party care passionately for a fair society , a end of serious health inequalities in this Borough and cutting the serious waste of money running into millions that have been made by mistakes and errors.. £1.5 Million wasted by poor record keeping in European grants, £7 million wasted due to poor contract clauses in providing replacement lighting columns, £3 millions on aborted contracts with external contractors, £2 million in unnecessary legal claims in employment tribunals and many millions in legal costs due to mistakes in handling other claims against this council.
time for a change for those who have your interests at heart.. please show your support on 5th May.
We even have the opportunity of defeating the Great Dictator in Pheasey!!.. after desecrating theGreat Barr Hall and finding the house sales did not go as well as expected.. we have WHG handling the letting of those left to social housing... I bet those residents who bought their homes their are not such happy bunnies now?
We have tories leaving the sicnking ship ... Cllr OHare in Aldridge Central and the current Cllr for St Matthews for the second time in her career jumping ship this time to Paddock worried that the voters might not support her... shows a total lack of respect for you the voters and I hope those in both St matthews and Paddock wards will show teir disgust by not voting for the tories!

Cllr Ian Robertson
published by electronic means by Ian Robertson Bellamy House Wilkes Str Willenhall on behalf of Labour candidates in walsall .

the tories come from planet Zog

The Tories live on planet Zog

Residents of planet earth may have noted the visit from planet Zog of George Osborne sent to save us and this part of planet earth called the United Kingdom by delivering his budget.

Those of us who have their feet planted on solid ground will note that Britain is falling behind other countries in Europe with growth down and unemployment up by 200,000. This unemployment rise will push up social security benefits, already up £12.6 Billion in this Parliament.

A tiny number (less than 1%) will be helped onto the first time buyer ladder, a few (1%) of the young unemployed will be helped to get an apprenticeship

While the effects of the VAT rise to 20% will take away far more than the crumbs handed out such as the 1p cut in fuel tax



For those millionaires who come from planet Zog, the plight of ordinary average folk is a million miles away…. Please get back to your planet, never to return again and take your liberal co –conspirators with you.

cllr Ian Robertson

a realistic solution?

Many horses graze on open spaces in my ward over; for example at Swannies field and Mill street.
They are owned by those from the travellers community who have a life time history keeping horses. These are kept purely because they like horses.
 I am trying to negotiate a piece of Council open space where they could be placed with a modest rental cost, kept safe and allowed there with a number of conditions.. after all it costs the council to maintain an open space...as long as the horses are well looked after and are properly secured, the council gets some rental...everyone could be happy. doing the confrontational bit is only necessary if those who own the horses are not prepared to communicate.. A current spot is in mill street where the horses are in the way of an approved car park....i can confirm that they are prepared to follow this mentioned suggestion....and the big stick approach trumpeted in the media by Cllr Harris is doomed to failure.. and i am very surprised that these proposals are made by someone who has strong links to the travelling community via his fairground rides business.
Let us have some kind of a reasonable , understanding and safe approach.. which would also save a lot of legal costs and bring in regular income for a cash strapped Council


regards

cll ian robertson

blakenall ward

cllr ian robertson, walsall

Democracy 1 Bullies 2

Democracy 1 Bullies 2




I was ashamed to be part of the planning process on Thursday night where the committee granted permission for a change of use of a corner shop to become a fish and chip outlet.

Officers, the police and 150 residents opposed the application, the petition raised by the applicant was shown to list signatures without any address , a petition without any heading as to what the petition was about and the rest from homes which had signed for and against. I visited a number of those who had signed both ways and they admitted they had done so because of the intimidation by the applicant They are all against this application both for safety reasons at the busy junction and the smell and nuisance form having such a take away next door with a flue overhanging the pavement... what an eyesore … he also had attacked the owner of the Chinese take away who was collecting a petition ( on police record) attacked the lady in the post office and threatened the crossing lady. That is the bully bit.

He got the permission because of a letter from the club next door allowing the applicant to have access to their car park adjacent to the proposed fish and chip shop for customers to use. This is in spite of the fact no details of times, whether this car park can be left open in spite of the club only being open occasionally for functions in the evenings. There are already drug dealers operating on the pavement of Essex str and I fully expect them to move into the opened car park where they will then be hidden from view.

Democracy and fairness has been lost to the actions of an arrogant bully who as a major owner of properties throughout Walsall , he believes he can try and manipulate the names and views of local residents on petitions and conditions of planning approval to suit his aims.

Democracy 1 Bullies 2 What an appalling result. Residents call foul.
This may not be the final score... we shall play into extra time and maybe score a couple of penalties

Are we being ripped off, vandalised and abandoned by Walsall Council ?

Are we being ripped off, vandalised and abandoned by Walsall Council ?


I read that Walsall council have ‘saved’ over £1million each year on the contract for recycling by renegotiating the contract. We learn that there are negotiations to reduce the cost of the SERCO contract that Walsall by £2.5Million ( £7.5 over 3 years)  to look after education in Walsall. Walsall signed an extension of this contract for another 12 years . This in spite of the fact that education standards in Walsall are at a dismal failure being 151st out of 171in the Country this new contract pays them £345M over these next 12 years..We have improved a bit but basically we continue to fail most of our young people.. if we did not have the results from Queen Marys’ schools we would be even lower. I suspect that now Walsall education is the only education contract run by SERCO ( all other councils have given them the sack) all failing schools will be forced into becoming Academies to allow SERCO to make a good profit for their shareholders and not lose out by imposition of any penalty clauses… our children are of course not the priority… the shareholders are!! Such a rip off! How long have we been overpaying for these services?

Then we have the Tarmac contract with clauses here which cost us dear when we wish to install for example dropped curbs at pavement level to allow wheelchair access where the cost has jumped from £350 under the Council to over £1000 under Tarmac. What value for council tax payers of Walsall.

We had the AMEY contract that cost us Council tax payers £7.5 Million due to a set of clauses so badly checked by Walsall Council allowing another private company to walk all over us and take us again to the cleaners.

We have at the moment the tabled acts of vandalism …

Closing 6 libraries and I suspect more next year.

Closing school swimming pools

Serious risk to all of the Walsall Music service

Cut to the Debt counselling service at a time when they are needed more than ever.

More cuts of support to the Domestic violence support service   ( report due out in early February)

What support will be there post end of March for LINK… the local watchdog checking on our local health service?

What chance to properly repair our roads , especially with a private company Tarmac setting the price?

What effect on the most vulnerable in our society who depend on Walsall Social services for respite for their carers.?

Will SERCO sell off all the failing schools to private companies and form more academies to leave only those under Walsall Council those which are ‘profitable’ to SERCO?
More items to come as the budget cut debate unfolds.


What sort of Borough and Council will we be left with? Not the sort to be proud of or to attract new communities vital to our futures

Will the Music Stop for our children?

Grazing the Internet which can be a quite addictive pastime, ending up looking at areas completely different from the original search! I came across the so called Henley review which is a look at funding for music support services to Councils over the country. The reason I found it as there are a number of Boroughs who were looking anxiously at what would be in this report as it was promised before Christmas and delayed now so long that many music services will run out of funds at the end of March. This would include Walsall's most outstanding music service based at Forest Arts achieving such excellent results in areas of serious deprivation such as the ward I represent in Blakenall. This service which consistently receives outstanding marks from their OFSTED reports. Supplying every school in Walsall this is a dreadful kick in the teeth for the dedicated and extraordinary team based at the Forest Arts Centre and to all those young people who have responded to their teaching.

I can hear the alarm bells ringing which is starting to drown the sound of all those pupils from every school in walsall who make music and benefit so much from that experience.
Prepare to mount the biggest and noisiest ever demonstration in protest seen in Walsall if those in the current Tory/ Liberal alliance down in London decide to pull the funding..


published by electronic means by Ian Robertson 87 Belvidere Rd walsall WS1 3au tel 01922 634642.

Where now our precious NHS? The new Ryanair model?

21st January
Our NHS has been around for over 60 years and has been the subject of many radical changes by successive Governments.  Health care is costly however especially in an ageing population and to maintain a high standard. We have been falling behind in some outcomes in for example  areas of cancer treatments.
The latest proposals by the Tory/Lib coalition who now wish to tear up the present structure in a change more radical than anything done before to our NHS. More broken promises and some of the small print not visible in the pre election manifestos...  for example no mention there that PCTs would go.
Putting 80% of the NHS budget into the hands of doctors has rung a number of alarm bells... there are some GPs who relish the idea and are capable of running what would be a multi million pound business to commission health care for their patients as a group.. Many others are not so good at it, will waste our money, not being good at running a very large health team and just wish to get on with what they do best ... caring for their patients. There are at least two GP groups at the moment gearing up to try and run the service in Walsall and no doubt there will be a patchwork quilt of groups coming forward to run our NHS post 2013   .. However who will be picking up the bill if any of these holders of our health budget get it badly wrong and go bust? The belief of the Tories has always been 'let the market decide' How happy will you be to find that your operation will be done by a hospital bidding to get the business of doing your operation with the money needed by the hospital to keep in business?    All our hospitals   will become independent foundation trusts. where will be the democratic accountability of all these health organisations which will be spending most of our health care money? How will the standard of care and support be maintained or will this new model become the Ryanair equivalent in health care?
Why tear up the PCTs , why cannot these organisations be the vehicle for delivery of health provision by the GP's? It will cost over £1 billion to wind up the PCTs with redundancies.. all money that is not spent on health care. I fear that our NHS is in danger... I pray that this patient is not suffering from a terminal illness.!

Oldham result gives message ' Come back Labour all is forgiven'

The voters in Oldham have shown on Thursday that the pathway of the Tory Liberal coalition is not for them.


Promises by the Liberal Party broken in joining an alliance with a past sworn enemy is unravelling.


A rise of VAT to 20%, threatened cuts to children's centres and Sure Start, cuts to future job's fund, cuts to police numbers, cuts to education maintenance allowance and tripling of student tuition fees will hit especially those young people living in disadvantaged communities and is treating the electorate with contempt as we are not getting what we voted for.


Some politicians appear to be prepared to sell their souls to get elected and that will be reflected in what could be a General election in the near future.

Oldham result gives message ' Come back Labour all is forgiven'

The voters in Oldham have shown on Thursday that the pathway of the Tory Liberal coalition is not for them.




Promises by the Liberal Party broken in joining an alliance with a past sworn enemy is unravelling.



A rise of VAT to 20%, threatened cuts to children's centres and Sure Start, cuts to future job's fund, cuts to police numbers, cuts to education maintenance allowance and tripling of student tuition fees will hit especially those young people living in disadvantaged communities and is treating the electorate with contempt as we are not getting what we voted for.



Some politicians appear to be prepared to sell their souls to get elected and that will be reflected in what could be a General election in the near future.

Lose some but live to fight again!

For those who missed the 'exciting' 3 hours of entertainment at full council on Monday evening... if you have problems with sleeping do come and practice in the public gallery at such times.


The Notice of motion calling for a fair pay to match our neighbouring Towns in paying for social workers ( we are 30% less than Staffs County Council ) was defeated by the Tory Councillors. While I agree that there are other factors such as conditions, promotion prospects, opportunities for training, schools for their children etc are always important it is the pay that will influence the final decision. we have only recruited one senior social worker in the past 3 years which should tell us something. the offer of the golden hellos of £1500 and the promise of a bonus of £1000 if you stay for three years still puts recruits way down on the pay scales. It costs us a fortune extra to employ up to 40 agency staff to fill in and despite I am sure agency workers trying to cover, this is not as good as having permanent staff. Still we tried but lost.

Another one we lost was protesting at the loss of Educational Maintenance Allowance from last December which has removed support from about 4500 families in Walsall. I suspect that the numbers in wards like Blakenall are far higher than the average of 200 or so per ward. This is a kick in the teeth ot those young people from disadvantaged homes when we should be targeting them especially to encourage them into further education. Only one in a 100 goes for further education in comparison to 17 in 100 from other areas. The young people from wards like Blakenall can achieve as well as those from other wards... they do not have the parental support, self esteem and subsequently the ambition is lost. The removal pf EMA is a backwards step in addressing those inequalities.
News that 6 libraries will close as a result of budget cuts but this Sword of Damocles now hangs over the whole of Walsall and the library service  The philistines in the cabinet do not realise that the battle to raise the dreadful level of educational achievement in Walsall is not helped by closing these lifelines to better education. I seem to recall in history those who destroyed libraries coming to a sticky end. Maybe this will happen to this lot.

Like many things that are happening under this hasty cuts regime we will live to regret and find it costs us dear.
One good point is that we all agreed that post offices are a vital part of any community. The move to privatised our Royal Mail service should worry us that very few post offices will be able to survive with that important source of income removed.

Post Offices to become as rare as a hen's tooth

More than 1,000 post offices have shut or been put up for sale this year, with some not showing up in official closure lists, according to new research.


The Communication Workers Union said there was a "growing trend" of closures in 2010 which it warned would get worse if the Government pressed ahead with controversial plans to privatise the Royal Mail.

A study by the union showed that 162 post offices were listed as "long-term temporary closures" this year and over 900 were put up for sale,

Many are likely to stay closed indefinitely and those that do reopen are liable to provide a diminished service, such as an outreach van with no access to financial services, said the union.

The CWU said almost 10% of the entire network was currently up for sale, warning they could also be lost to the "temporary closure loophole".

Many subpostmasters are retiring or leaving the business because of the low levels of revenue generated in sub-offices, and in many cases it is difficult to find alternative premises or service providers, according to the CWU.

General secretary Billy Hayes said: "Post offices have been closing at an alarming rate this year, but didn't register because they are misleadingly classed as temporary closures. We're seriously concerned about empty government rhetoric on avoiding post office closures. These promises are contradicted by government taking business away from the Post Office and by the planned privatisation of Royal Mail.

"Post Offices rely on work generated by mails business and most would be unsustainable if this was removed. Many of the proposals in the Postal Services Bill, including privatisation of Royal Mail and splitting the postal group apart, seriously threaten mails business arrangements for the Post Office.

"With uncertainty hanging over Royal Mail and the post office network, it's no surprise that buyers are hard to find. The government must change its approach or face the decimation of our cherished post office network. Who's going to buy a business which stands to lose a substantial part of its income?"

Ministers have pledged there will be no repeat of the closure programme under the previous Labour Government, arguing that the plan to privatise the Royal Mail will safeguard the branch network.

There is a notice of motion down to debate at next full council in Walsall on the subject of post office closures. Many of us campaigned against closures of local post offices only to be ignored des[ite a lot of concerns by local residents. I cannot see the current colation of Tories and Liberals stopping the momntum of closures.. they are already on the way to privatising the Royal Mail which subsidises the Post Offices... can you really see a market economy run private company helping to subsidise a local post office?
This notice of motion was put down by the Walsall Liberals... a Party that has dug a big hole for themselves to now fall into... and the more they dig the bigger this hole will become and sure enough the Tories will welcome having a junior partner to pass all the blame onto!

what the cuts may mean for you.. to be updated!!

What effects of cuts to the residents of Walsall?


- national cuts… VAT up to 20% which will affect everyone but proportionally more those on low and middle level incomes. There will be an increase in unemployment and further pressure on unemployment benefit costs.

- Cuts of EMA ( education maintenance allowance) this is an amount up to £30 a week paid to families where there is a 16 year old and family of low income to encourage the 16 year old to stay on at school for further education. There has also been an up to 30% rise in tuition fees which risks future generation of young people who go to university only with a wealthier family background.

- There will be a 3% cut in real terms to the NHS ( after inflation, increase in demands etc taken into account) Primary care trusts will go and 80% of spend will go into hands of local doctors who will buy your NHS care. Some GPs may do this well but experience from the last move to GP fund holding showed a lot of GPs were very bad at handling such a vast budget.

- There will be a cut in the police budget which will mean less police. Exact numbers are being discussed by the Chief constable but I cannot see such a level of cuts being implemented without a marked cut in beat officers.

- Cuts to the grant settlement to Walsall Council amount to 9% or £14M for 2011 budget on top of £10M of recent cuts this year. This will mean the loss of at least 450 Council staff plus the knock on affect on support services funded by the Council and supply services to the Council.. Those who get disability living allowance which has a mobility part to it will be expected to pay this towards transport costs. The levying of a cost of transport that was in a previous year’s budget will also be implemented for all. Care packages and respite care support will be cut to the statutory minimum. There will be much greater dependence on ‘telecare’.. detectors that send signal down telephone line to suggest that for example someone suffering from dementia has left the house and not returned for a while.

- Support for leisure centres and libraries is under threat. Some closures and further reduction in opening hours I am sure will be proposed. Swimming pools attached to schools, I am sure will suffer closures from the current level of 44 to around 6.

- The road safety budget ( education etc to young people about road safety ) has already been cut.

- Walsall are now the only Council using SERCO to deliver their education services… all other councils have not renewed their contract… does that tell us something about value for money? Walsall have signed up to another 12 years of SERCO who provide a wide range of services nationally such as transporting prisoners . I do not believe we are scrutinising their spend properly.

- We already contract out a number of services such as the road maintenance to Tarmac. I believe we pay far too much for their services in comparison to other Councils For example we are taking out a new recycling contract that will save over £1Million in a full year… does that not suggest we have been ripped off before?

- I believe that we have to reduce expenditure, but that there has been and continues to be large amounts of wasted or poor value expenditure, serious overlaps and duplication of services and costs, too little cross boundary cooperation, too little encouragement and support for local businesses to access contracts in the Walsall economy, a real threat to ‘spend a little to save a lot’ schemes which will build up much higher costs in the medium to long term. The cuts will fall more proportionally on the lower and middle earners than on the rich who also have the ability to organise their affairs to avoid payment. Maybe all has been decided before we try and protest... but at least we shall try and make those points!

what is in store for 2011?

The cuts brought about as a result of the actions of greedy bankers will cause hardship in many areas of our communities. Maybe those who are better off will not notice these cuts much, but there are many less well off who will find these cuts really hurt. The problem is that this Tory Government and so this Tory Council are cutting harder and faster than is needed. The cuts will hit areas that will have a higher cost long term


- trebling tuition fee limit which will make access to many universities restricted to young people with rich parents. This could have been prevented by Liberal MPs who broke their election promise. There is also the loss of the education maintenance allowance paid to 16 year olds help support them staying on at school .

- cuts in child benefit

- Those potholes in our roads I suspect will get bigger and cause more damage to both vehicles and pedestrians.

- Libraries will have both their opening hours cut and some will be axed altogether. Libraries used well can be vital to the progress of our children.

- Cuts to the music service based at the Forest will reduce access to music lessons and support over the whole of the schools in Walsall Borough.

- Support for the most vulnerable in our society, those with disability, the elderly, the mentally handicapped both young and old will see their support cut to the absolute legal minimum, loading carers to breaking point. Those who depend on the services of Social services will be very worried about their future level of support.

- Those who receive support from social service will be especially worried with reorganisation of the meals on wheels service and other support services.

- Cuts to the police force will mean a reduction in Officers available to deal with crime and criminal activity. I am sure the criminals will be waiting to take advantage.

- VAT will rise to 20% in 2011 which will mean most items will rise in cost … not much of a dent in the finances of the well off but will make a real impact for most of us.

- The future of our leisure centres , their opening hours and charges are also under the spotlight. This Tory Council would like to off load these to the private sector. Certainly I will expect that most of the swimming pools attached to schools will be closed ( there are around 46 pools which may well be cut to 5 or 6).

- We have to make the decision if we wish to maintain a quality of life that is fair for all our citizens young , old, disabled, handicapped or seriously disadvantaged. I fear that the current Tory direction will carry us towards a ‘ let the market decide’ economy where those with the savings, receivers of banker bonuses will survive and live excellent quality lives. Those who have much more limited resources will tell a very different story. Living in a caring society is the only sort that I want to live in. What do you think?