Demolition of
Dartmouth House in Blakenall goes ahead despite battle by residents supported
by their local Labour cllrs to save this registered community asset.
6th June One of the last acts of this current Tory
Council has been to authorise the demolition of Dartmouth House, Ryecroft Place
Blakenall, now taking place.
Walsall Council
recently agreed to list and register this building as a community asset under
the terms of the legislation provided by the Localism Bill. The local community
supported by Dartmouth Neighbourhood Forum were excited at the prospect of
assembling a sustainable business case to take over running this building for
the benefit of the large number of local elderly residents. Under the
legislation, the community should have been allowed up to 6 months to finalise
such a plan but this has been denied by the
Tory run Council . This decision to demolish has also been fully
supported by local independent Councillor Peter Smith in contrast to a total
opposition to such a demolition by local Labour Councillors Ian Robertson and
Ann Young and the Labour Group in Walsall.
If Dartmouth House had been saved, the community had planned
to run a day centre with meals, evening entertainment, health facilities,
welfare advice and eventually a tenant Management Association for the benefit
of the 350 local elderly residents.
Dartmouth House was forced to close by Walsall Council and
the welfare rights service moved to the Civic Centre , the NHS given notice to
quit ( and gone to Short heath at enormous cost to the NHS) and now the local
community has been totally ignored and snubbed by carrying out a demolition
order, despite a vigorous campaign by local residents and the 2 local labour
cllrs. This even involved direct appeals to the secretary of State Eric Pickles
whose Localism Bill was designed to
support such bids to save important community assets.
The local community have a case under ‘Wednesbury
reasonableness ‘ case Law to take Walsall Council to court and claim
substantial damages and the Officers who authorised this demolition could be
held personally liable.
This is a bad decision and not listening to residents is unforgiveable. Waiting for but a few weeks for any start to a demolition ,until the new administration is on place and who runs Walsall Council would have been fairer to all.
more information from
Cllr Ian Robertson 01922 634642 or 07956 829549
