Shire Oak quarry mothballed

I received a letter yesterday from Tarmac who run the quarry at Shire Oak. They write:

“in light of the difficult trading conditions in the construction industry, we have had no alternative to suspend extraction operations and the site is therefore effectively mothballed with immediate effect. We will continue to sell exisiting stocks out of the site in the near future”

Clearly this will be reviewed when conditions change but this demonstrates how the economic climate is really taking hold. Holderbuilders are laying off staff and construction is mothballing quarries.

More relevantly this will probably mean the extension to the life of this site in the future.

The planning application for “pre-treatment” operations is still going through Staffordshire County Council.

Corporate Scrutiny review

This evening we had a meeting of the Corporate Scrutiny committee. (I am no longer on regeneration scrutiny.) This committee is more meaty and looks at all the finances and the corporate side of the Council. You can read the papers for the meeting here: http://www2.walsall.gov.uk/CMISWebPublic/CommitteeDetails.aspx?committeeID=219

We focused tonight on the ICT provision at the Council and received a pretty comprehensive presentation. I was in my element as I worked for Information Services at the University of Birmingham for three years and so know a thing or two about ICT. The service is progressing well after being pretty much condemned a few years ago. It seems remarkable that a few years ago computers were purchased because they were new and shiny and not because they were relevant to the people who needed them! They have also been reviewing the security of IT data among many other transformations and changes. It has some way to go before it reaches the standard I was used to at the University but it is heading in the right direction at least which is good news for the taxpayer.

We also had a review of Council spending – which is in the papers linked above – and also feedback on the Audit Commisson’s review of the Council which was pretty good. There is plenty on the agenda over the next year and we’ll start looking at the budget at the next meeting. Will be interesting to hear your views on that nearer the time.

There’s hope for common sense yet!

Two stories from the last couple of weeks that keep hope burning in Walsall.

Firstly you may have heard the story that Walsall Council had hired a knife throwing act as part of its Streets Alive programme for children. I was in Ireland over the weekend for a family wedding so I missed the press coverage of this in the local press. However I returned to find an email from an Aldridge resident who wanted me to support them by lobbying the Council to get this act removed. I was happy to oblige and contacted the Portfolio Holder and Chief Executive to ask them to change the decision. That afternoon I heard back from them that they would indeed pull the act. A great result for all involved. Knifes really shouldn’t be used as a form of street entertainment for children when we are clamping down on knife crime. Well done to Paul Sheehan and Cllr Louise Harrison for getting the act removed. A victory for common sense and for the residents who rightly campaigned against it.

Secondly St John’s Medical Centre in Walsall Wood received a letter from South Staffordshire Water company telling them that they would be cutting off their water supply last Thursday while they undertake repairs. After talking to the surgery I spoke to the Chief Executive’s Office at South Staffordshire Water and within a few hours they had agreed to change the time and do the work ovenight to keep the surgery open. Another good result for common sense and fair play to South Staffs for putting common sense ahead of targets, red tape and fines.

Sometimes it can be difficult to do the right thing but the two examples above give us hope that common sense is not yet dead in England.

Waste collection update

An update from Walsall Council:

Waste collection services in Walsall were disrupted by national strike action called by Unison, in respect of the annual pay award.

The next available collection dates will be Wednesday 23rd and Thursday 24th July 2008 for the green bin refuse collection and 30th and 31st July 2008 for garden waste and recycling collections. In the event of bins or boxes not being emptied on the next scheduled collection day, for example due to vehicle breakdown, bins or boxes should be left out and we will collect it the following day. Green bin collection crews will collect on the 23rd and 24th July 2008. Normal collection arrangements will apply, no side waste will be collected and bin lids must be closed.

Green box and green waste collection crews will collect on 30th and 31st July 2008 – paper and cans can be placed in separate plastic bags and put them out for collection with the green box which will be collected, glass bottles and jars should be placed n the box. Green bins will be collected as normal.

As previously agreed, the Council will not pay overtime to crews to remove waste they should have collected when on strike.

Additional refuse and recyclable materials can be disposed of at the council’s recycling centres in Fryers Road, Leamore, WS2 7LZ or Merchants Way, Aldridge, WS9 8SR which will be open to the public as usual. There are also mini recycling centres across the borough – the nearest location can be found at www.walsall.gov.uk

Refreshing the blog

I stopped blogging for a bit as I wasn’t sure if many people do actually read these things. However i’ve been amazed by the number of friends, family here and in Ireland and constituents who have noticed that i’d stopped! So I will try to post here a bit more frequently. If some of you have experienced problems with the email feed i’m sorry about that and I don’t quite know what has caused it. Hopefully this will refresh the system a bit.

Back to business shortly…