Removing illegal advertising boards

Have been meaning to put this up for a while so apologies for the delay. Last month we finally got the advertising hoarding down on the Anchor Bridge. It did take a petition to Full Council to make it happen so it shows that petitions can make a difference. In this case it turns out they put the advertsing boards up without planning permission and as you can see they’ve been made to take them down.

If you see something similar and think something like this needs planning permission then do contact council enforcement officers who may be able to help.

The budget is set…

Tonight we held the full council meeting that sets the budget. As with any budget it is always difficult to know what is coming in and therefore exactly what is going out – but I think overall it is a good balance in an uncertain time.

I’ll give an example – planning. With the economic downturn and credit problems I understand the planning department are getting in less than expected by almost a million quid. It’s difficult to predict exactly how much this will be in a years time.

So I think it’s fair to say that it’s time to not take risks with tax payers money. One amendment from the Lib Dems tonight was to spend a million pounds from the council reserves. Ok, so what happens if things get worse and the reserves aren’t there to meet them? Then taxpayers have to foot the bill even more next year.

We have to live within our means as individuals, a country and collectively as a council. So the budget has been set to try and do this in the medium term. Yes we’ve all lost one open day per library in the Borough for this financial year but this should mean that in the longer term we still have a library in Walsall Wood. Equally we’ve all got a brand new and improved recycling service among other things. There is also a reduction in waste – for example the council spent £19000 ok advertising in phone books. Not any more…

Council tax increase will be 3.87% so again a balance between matching inflation and trying not to sting all of us for too much extra cash.

We’ll have to see how it goes and let’s hope the economic cycle moves on as quickly as possible.

More improvements at Oak Park

Regular readers will know that we have been working on improving the Oak Park site over the past couple of years – ranging from the refurbished youth club to the car park improvements, litter and crime focus.

Now I am pleased to say that we are having a multi user games area installed around the back of the leisure centre. As you can see it is under construction and the graffiti has also been cleaned off the Walls. More improvements that I hope are welcome.

Why so slow?

I handed in the 120 signature petition to get the 991 up and running again in Shire Oak. People desperately need regular public transport here. So far the response has been too slow from the authorities. I made this point at the Centro meeting this evening. Staffordshire have already sorted out their side of the border so why haven’t Centro? I await their answer…

Public Transport meeting tomorrow

Are you concerned about public transport in Shire Oak? There is a meeting tomorrow night at Walsall Council House at 6pm. It is hosted by Centro and the bus operators in Walsall will be attendance. Although I have Development Control Committee I am going to pop out to the Centro meeting to present the 991 petition and call on the bus companies to reinstate public transport to Shire Oak and Sandhills. If you are able to come then see you there!