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
