For Sandwell Council from my favourite magazine

A little while ago I did a series of posts on how I thought Sandwell Council could save money instead of their current practise of attacking the most vulnerable with increases in charges for services. One of the suggestions was a switch to solar panel street lighting. The following from Gizmag today seems that this is now more than a dream.

“The argument for switching to solar-powered street lighting seems very clear cut: they run on sunlight, emit no CO2 emissions, provide an off-the grid source of lighting during in an emergency situation and use efficient LED-based light which tends not to attract insects. Sharp Corporation has announced plans to roll-out two new models of solar-powered LED street lights in the Japanese market and these have the added bonus of in-built Seismic Motion Sensors which detect earthquakes of five or greater on the Japanese seismic scale and respond by switching to full illumination for two nights”.

So listen up Sandwell they are here now. No thanks are necessary for pointing out these suggestions. I know the big reduction in council tax is on it’s way. There you go again Bob off in the realms of fantasy land. Go and have a lie down.

You can use the street lights outside my house to test one if you wish. Always happy to help.

Sandwell Park Farm

I have commented several times recently about the meanness of Sandwell Council in introducing charges for admission to this site for pensioners during week days. Last night there was an excellent report in the express & Star about the massive reduction in numbers since the introduction of charges. They have apparently fallen from 21277 to 7190 in April of this year. This is all being blamed on the fact that Easter fell in March this year. Sandwell Council Leisure Chief Cllr. Linda Horton is quoted as saying “the charges had not put people off coming to the farm” I know Linda and I like her and respect her judgement. Normally she has a very pragmatic down to earth approach to these things but on this occasion I wonder what twerp of a council officer is advising her on this one. Linda I can tell you that pensioners are virtually boycotting this site because of the charges. Honest luv it’s a fact. I know of lots of older people including bob the Black Country Brummie and his missies who will start visiting again once the charges are removed. I miss my breakie and coffee in the café. So come on you lot start living in the real world. You can see I’ve been following dear Gordon and his entourage this week can’t you using terms like the “real world”. I wonder just where that is. Answers in the comments box please but Linda have another look at this silly policy of charging pensioners during the week please.
There are better facilities at the other end of the valley at RSPB. Car parking is for the moment free, good toilet facilities, again free, you can get a cup of coffee and excellent walks.

Ground Care

Since Sandwell’s tree surgeon decimated my view I have been been branching out so to speak looking at some other aspects of what Sandwell do on my estate. My councillor tells me the head of trees is satisfied our trees were crown lifted correctly and pruning had true cuts. We have six grassed areas on the estate. At the moment all the grass needs cutting but I guess that is because of the recent bad weather. Starting from the top the first grassed area is always the subject of litter being not far from an off licence. The kids buy booze get to this site and throw away the containers. We need a litter bin on this corner. The grass though is in reasonable condition and if cut regularly would look good. Moving down the hill the next site is in a very bad way. Partly due to the residents who have used it as a building site and partly due to the gas work which was never put right. Grass here is in a poor condition and dangerous to walk across. The trees have been pruned. Moving further down the hill you come to our patch, nice lawns and well looked after. The next patch used to contain three mature trees which were cut down about three years ago and never replaced. The grass is in not to bad a condition and could look good if properly maintained. The final two grassed areas are opposite each other at the junction with Hamstead Rd. Both of these sites are a disgrace and should be the subject of a visit from the enforcement officer. One as been used as a building site by the owner of the property adjoining it. The grass is none existent and rubbish has been left on the grass whilst building work as been carried out over the last 12 months. Long overdue for some council action with this home owner. On the opposite side of the road is a chip shop with a grassed area which contains a path to other local shops. This site is always blighted by litter and as far as I can see the operator of the business does not take ownership of any of the litter scattered around the site. There are sufficient litter bins strategically sited so there is no excuse for the garbage we see every week end. Action is needed now! I wont hold my breath.

Sons of Rest in Sandwell

I went along to a scrutiny panel for health and older people. A decision by Sandwell council to close three of these premises and ask the remaining ones to become self funding had been “called in” by the Liberal Democrats. The result of the meeting was that a recommendation was made that the cabinet member be asked to delay the decision for further consultation. The best of a bad job I thought but it gives a little time to regroup. The meeting was very well reported by Express & Star. I don’t believe the Sons of Rest position is sustainable, bearing in mind the costs and numbers involved and the privileged conditions they get compared to other groups. They only appeal to a small number and this is reducing year on year. There is a bigger picture though that does need to be addressed. A couple of years ago Sandwell had a Select Committee for older people and I gave a lot of evidence to that committee. There are two publications related to that worth mentioning Living Well in Later Life and All Our Tomorrows which was the final report approved by full council. The ethos of both these documents is that the council is committed to trying to improve the lives of its older people. Recent decisions by the council suggest that they are ignoring the recommendations of the report. I refer to 1) massive increases in charges for meals on wheels, 2) introduction of week day charges for older people to Sandwell Park Farm, 3) introduction of week day charges for car parking at the farm and now 4) the closure of SOR premises. A systematic reduction in facilities for older people and not in line with their stated aims.
I don’t believe that the council officers who have “negotiated” with SOR have done it well; my experience was that they talked at them rather than tried to involve them. The SOR groups themselves though do not sell themselves well and they have to face the fact that what they offer is only applicable to a shrinking few. There is a debate/consultation that needs to be carried out as to what the real needs of our older people are. The premises SOR use are only used once per week in most cases so there is ample opportunity for looking at other uses for the buildings and for talking with other voluntary groups of older people and I hope they will take this opportunity to do that in a constructive and open way. I in the meantime will be lobbying my councillors to support the political aspects of the decision and challenge any more that reduce facilities for older people. One worrying aspect from this meeting was the fact the chair would not allow me as an interested member of the public to speak although she was prepared to let another member of the public present speak, until I complained. I should like to know what protocol was at work here. I was very impressed with the contribution of both my councillors who were present at the meeting. One of the proposed closures is on their patch and neither had been informed of the decision before it was public knowledge in the press. This is another example of where the cabinet members are failing the local member in getting the message across. I think at the very least Cll. Hosell should be asking for an apology and if this does become a good news story he should have it first.

I’m back

Well I’ve never really been away and I can’t explain why I have not posted for such a long time. It’s not that I haven’t had anything to say, I’ve not got writers block or got fed up with the blog. In fact I still have plenty to say. My friend Gerry made a good point in that a lot of anger was showing in some of my posts. I don’t think its anger but more frustration with myself these days in that I can’t do as much as I used to and I have to settle for a more sedate life style and I have to rely on other people more than I used to. Hence things move at a slower pace. A good example of this was our new boiler. Fitting of it went well until one of the fitters bust a tap in our bathroom and we realised the shower would not work from the new system, We now have a new shower but British Gas after sales service in replacing our bath taps is very poor. Admittedly we have a temporary arrangement so we can have a bath but the misses is not impressed because the taps don’t match the rest of the plumbing. Surprising how long it has taken to get all this lot sorted and the house back to something like how we like it. It was almost fate in that a few days after fitting we had to switch on the heating because it was so cold.
I’ll get back to commenting on Gordons lack of empathy with the electorate in a day or two and how I think us pensioners should treat him.
Pensioners against Brown continues. You heard it on this blog first.

Pensioners against Brown. Its back.

I'm staying focused and getting on with the job.

I had hoped that during the summer a genuine challenge would be made on his leadership and that bigger fish than I would be campaigning to get rid of him. But alas this looks like it has fizzled out to nothing so it has to be pensioners again to take up the baton.
Yesterdays announcements about mortgages left me feeling let down. Talk about the classic “to little to late” the upside I suppose was the Tories announcing they plan to raise Inheritance tax threshold to over million quid will thrill all us pensioners with sheer delight.
I can’t wait to see what dear Gord is going to do on helping struggling families with energy bills. This is not so much an economic re-launch more a piddling splash in a puddle.
Hapless Alistair and Gord have been on the tele recently telling us its not our fault. I’m sick of hearing the credit crunch, high oil and commodity prices all out side our control. Well rubbish. Gordon in his Prudence days promised the country we would not return to boom and bust and here we are going bust. He and he alone was responsible for economic policy for the last ten years. He knew what was going on over the pond and he ignored it. There are many things he could have done to prevent this and if he had prepared for a rainy day we would not be facing the crises we are today.
So my question is ;- is Prudence Brown the man who bankrupt Britain?

Sandwell’s Tree Surgeons. Supplemental

Following my little rant and emails to my local councillors I have to say I’m impressed.
What I would expect from the Tories, if it’s not purple and pink and generate some cheap publicity then they’re not interested. So no response from them. The Liberals contacted me direct. Councillor Mrs. Underhill is going to contact the council officer concerned and try to get a site visit. I had a visit from our Labour Councillor Dave Hosell who is also going to look into it but feels like Bob Piper the trees will recover.
This is a first for me, I’m being spoiled. Better not say to much more or you’ll all want councillors like ours. I think I better go and have a lie down all this praise for our elected representatives it’s a bit of a shock to the system.