Residents may have to pay for all new bins

18th May
I noticed that in the 'forward plan' of the tory run walsall council there is an item to agree implementing a charge for all new bins.. this would mean that if your bin wears out and a number of new brown bins have already split.. and the green bins are now around 10 years old.. we will have to pay £18.50 for a new one... what do we get for our Council Tax? There is the argument about paying if your bin is stolen or vandalised which is current policy , but this would cost us all whatever the circumstances!
What do you think?
Will be grateful for reponses as of course will be taking this one up!
regards
Ian Robertson and Bob Thomas
Here are a list of issues that we must tackle! with ways you can help.

- Those selfish anti-social people who run illegally a ‘tat wagon’ business from their home in a residential area. They cannot be prosecuted by the Council unless some one is prepared to give evidence that they are trading and I suspect that it will be difficult to get such a volunteer. Some may be claiming benefits or council tax rebate or not paying tax on their earnings. If you suspect this is the case there are totally anonymous ways of reporting your suspicions ( see end of this article)

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We shall continue to report them in this way but it helps if others can also do so. The reporting to Walsall Housing group is something we continue to do but again they clear up the mess jut prior to a visit . We take regular photos with dates and maybe you can also record dates when loaded vehicles are parked outside their houses to add support to our logs.



The state of our roads and pavements is dreadful putting vehicles and pedestrians at risk of harm. Patching these with a few stones is not enough and I shall be pressing for urgent repairs here.



There is another group of criminals who tip their waste onto empty spaces and expect us council tax payers to pay to clear it up. The only way to get them is for anyone seeing this happening to take their lorry numbers … report these numbers to police and to us. The same goes for any activity that suggests that a property may be the site for drug activity… let us and/or the police immediately. It can then result in a well timed raid to catch them red handed.



On the positive side we can see the new Hospice going up in Goscote along with the respite centre, The new Walsall college is a great success although I note that there is a large increase in street parking along North street at the back of the college.



The car park in Mill street will happen after some delay due to issues at the land registery.

The clearing of undergrowth around Swanneys field will make that site safer and hopefully when the playground is repaired reduce the risk of further vandalism.

Some rebuilding has started in Barracks lane and will soon start around Beddows. The consultation on the design and arrangement of developments in Goscote and Poets will continue to be ready for when the economic recovery gathers momentum. In the meantime we shall be pressing for a proper programme of maintenance for the somewhat abandoned open spaces.

Also for action on the eyesore of the closed Royal Oak which is privately owned , where we have repeatedly asked for action for owners to tidy up site and keep secure.

We are pleased that Leamore Park has an active Friends Group and we look forward to a proper sustainable maintenance programme with supervision of activity. Friends group meetings are the place to raise the many issues of concern.

Speeding vehicles.. There are a number of roads where vehicles seriously exceed the speed limit. Recent legislation allows councils to impose 20mph limits around all school entrances and we shall be pressing for this to be implemented. We have successfully petitioned for the speed camera to remain on Harden road especially as so near to edgar stammers school. Any member of the public who witnesses a vehicle or motor bike seriously exceeding the 30 mph can report this number ot the police or give us the number and we will do so. The police will make enquiries of the owner if a vehicle appears to be speeding even without a speed gun reading.

Off road bikes and other anti social activity. We need times/dates of these.. you can then tell us and we can pass on this information. If a pattern of times is there, the special police bikes can be arranged who are the only ones who can pursue the culprits… if they can be caught the police have the powewr to confiscate the bikes and in time have them crushed. Also the tat wagons can be confiscated and crushed.. what a victory if we could achieve that!!

We seem to have most of the tree pruning issues under control.. it has been a case of continually raising the issue with those who own the land where the trees are. No luck with the trees at the end of Amlmakers close… the owner there is not cooperating and th e only way is for residents to take out an action against him and there is a council charge to start this.

The privately owned house in chuacer which is derilict has a number of charges on the owner who has not done any maintenance ( and if fact lives in rented house elsewhere and seems to be wrecking it!) However we keep trying to resolve.. maybe th only way would be to serve a CPO but this is an expensive and lengthy route for the Council who may well not get back the cost to Council tax .

We continue to investigate how this tory council keeps throwing money away! We exposed the loss on lamppost advert money ( £7M) and the failed reclaim of European money already spent by the Council of £2.3M We would have had no CT increase this year if we have not lost the European reclaim money.

Have you looked at the state of ‘Butlers’ passage recently? This is the passage between the Bus station and Bridge street which was ‘restored’ some 3 years ago at a cost to CT payers of around £600,000. do you think we have had value for money with this spend of our CT money?

You can keep in touch daily with us on the ‘blogspot’ of

Blakenalllabour.blogspot.com you can email us on robertsonic@walsall.gov.co.uk or thomasr@walsall.gov.co.uk

Telephone us on 01922 634642 or 07956 829549 ( Ian Robertson)

Or 01922 611543 ( Bob Thomas) and 07969264635