Labour should be running Walsall Council

23rd May
News that it will be a tory/liberal run council is bad news for many Walsall residents who are fighting to keep their heads above water with rises in food prices, travel costs and just about every other cost and facing serious cuts in support services and allowances.. whether this be disability living allowances or other direct support for lower income families.
Whatever your politics, at least labour in control of Walsall would try and look carefully at those who are affected by the current economic woes and try to keep up their quality of life.. those on higher incomes will hardly notice and can organise their affairs to avoid any hardships...
Shame on the independents such as the two Botts and the person who took my seat Peter Smith who did not vote and allowed them in... their motto is 'let the market decide' in other words let those who are vulnerable get trampled under foot while the better off rush to the trough!!
All three have let the residents in their wards down and all the people of Walsall Borough.

We face serious health inequalities in Blakenall and have had to make do with second best as we were not on control on this council for the past 12 years.. here was an opportunity to Bring back some fairness in the allocation of resources and make a lasting sustainable change in the lives of residents in some of the disadvantaged wards in Walsall such as Blakenall where on average residents lose 9 years of life and suffer more illness in comparison to better off nieghbouring wards.
We need to clear our streets of tat wagons operating from residential properties... a by law to compel all such vehicles to have to display a licence plate as with taxis and have to be interviewed ( as do potential taxi drivers).. an action I did a lot of work to move forward.
we need to tackle unemployment and give more access to properly run apprenticeship schemes such as the ones I supported at Holleameadow centre and at the Ryecroft centre. Here is the key to raising the earnings potential and so the quality of life of residents and their families.
a fairer distribution of resources for whether it be road repairs, street and pavement cleaning or maintenance of our parks could have been instigated to the benefit of Blakenall residents.
pressure on walsall Housing group and developers to get on with the regeneration rebuilding in Blakenall will now possibly not happen.. the risk that areas around the derelict open spaces will go downhill and those open spaces which should be maintained will fall into further deterioration. we could have bargained for a lot better.
The changes now being implemented on our NHS will now be monitored by a tory/liberal pact.. who introduced these potentially disastrous changes with national policy.. Labour could in control of Walsall council set up a really robust scrutiny process and tried to prevent the dangerous privatisation of many of the parts of our NHS.
A robustly reorganised voluntary sector was very high on my list for action.. I fear this again will be a lost opportunity and those who will suffer will be those who depend on that service to be of high quality and free at the point of delivery.
We came close to taking walsall forward on a united caring pathway together in these difficult times and I do think the electors in walsall have overall made the wrong choice in casting their votes.
Regards
Ian

Lost by 13 votes

4th May
I lost the seat by a very narow margin of 13 votes after a recount.
Sad after 14 years working very hard to make Blakenall Ward better. I thank all those who voted for me and wish all residents the best for their future but regret that this will unfortunately not with me driving things forward. I am proud of what we have acheived together . More comments later when we find out who runs walsall Council

Regards and thanks
Ian Robertson