Some good news for Sandwell residents, well for most of us.

Recently there have been two what I see as good news reports in our local press. A lady was fined 165 quid for dropping a cigarette end in West Brom. It would have been fixed 75 quid but she claimed she couldn’t pay and it went to court. The second was a guy given a fixed 75quid penalty for walking his dog in a cemetery. Not only were these people named and shamed but their pictures appeared in the local evening paper. I don’t want to go into their excuses but to give a big well done to the Express & Star for publishing the stories and to our neighbourhood wardens for getting the result and the publicity. I’ve nothing against dogs or dog owners parse only when they are irresponsible with their pets. Litter though is one of those things that can really get my heckles up because I just cannot understand the mind set of the litterers. I tacked a bloke in Hamstead village one day about dropping a paper bag, only to be severely reprimanded later by my wife who reminded me he was about six inches taller than me, a lot younger and a couple of stone heavier. I never considered the risk I only saw the offence. He picked up the bag, then dropped it again followed by a barrage of four letter expletives with me following him telling him he should be ashamed of himself. Sadly I ended up putting the offending bag in the bin.