What have Morrison's and Sandwell MDC got in common?

Absolutely nothing!

No. That's not true.

Morrison and Sandwell have the same number of letters.

So for 'absolutely nothing' please read 'very little.'

But there are many very real differences.

For example - Income.

Morrison's gets its income from providing goods and services, of a type and quality, for which people are prepared to pay. Morrison's is sufficiently successful in this activity that after deducting all of its expenses, and taxes paid to central government, from the income, it has money left over to enable continued investment in new stores, and refurbishment of existing stores, thereby assuring its future.

Sandwell gets almost all of its income from local tax payers; central government; and organisations like the Arts Council and the National Lottery. It doesn't have to be successful in any commercial way. It doesn't have to provide anything that people are prepared to pay for.

That is just one example (albeit a very obvious one) of the difference between Morrison's and Sandwell.

And here's another one - particularly relevant to to-day.

Construction.

Morrison's have informed me (because I asked!) that the Enabling Works (whatever those are) for its new Holyhead Road store, ran from April, 2010 to July, 2010, and the main contract for construction ran from July, 2010 until January, 2011.

As reported in an earlier post, the store was opened, on schedule, to-day.

10 months to build, from a flat piece of ground, a complete supermarket; fit out; stock and open.

Meanwhile, a couple of miles away, Sandwell is working on a construction of its own. No, this is not a supermarket, but a set of concrete steps.

The first photo above was taken on 19th April, 2010, and the second, yesterday, 30th January, 2011.

The first photo was taken just after Sandwell, as part of its 'restoration' of Dartmouth Park, had started destroying a stone stairway, and it was taken at around the same time as Morrison's had started its 'Enabling Works'.

The second photo is also part of Sandwell's restoration work. It is a set of concrete steps, built to replace the stone stairway, the bottom of which is about 2 metres away from where the original stairway was.

So in the same time that Morrison's have built; fitted out; stocked and opened a supermarket, Sandwell has demolished a stone stairway and (not quite) built a replacement set of concrete steps!!!!!!

Anyone want any more differences, or are these 2 enough?

RIP Dartmouth Park - IX

Well, as forecast earlier this week, all of the willows, on one side of the Dartmouth Park main lake, have been rased to the ground.

This means that there is nothing on that side of the lake now so it looks fairly similar to one of its adjacent sides where all of the oaks were cut down last year - leaving nothing.

The other adjacent side was, historically, a sunken bowling green. Whilst no bowls have, I think, been played there for many a long year, the groundsmen had maintained the green to what appeared to be a very high standard. It provided a cool, safe place for youngsters to play in the summer

But this must have posed something of a problem to the expert park restorers at Sandwell.

Here was something, obviously oldish, if not original, and kept in good, if not excellent, order. How could such a desirable amenity possibly be allowed to stay unless it was properly; lovingly and expertly restored? And how could it be restored because as it wasn't a tree, it couldn't be chopped down.

Well, tax payers of Sandwell, and everywhere else, and National Lottery players everywhere, just go down on your knees and give thanks for the cumulative experience and wisdom of the Sandwell intelligentia and their manifold consultants.

'Of course you can't chop a sunken bowling green down,' they reasoned, 'but you can fill it in. Eureka!!!!'

So that's what they've done - almost.

It looks a bit like a landfill site (which, I suppose, is exactly what it now is) with much rubbish and debris in evidence. But credit where credit's due. By this simple, but effective means, Sandwell and the National Lottery have wrecked the third side of the main Dartmouth Park lake.

This means that there is only 1 side of the lake as yet untouched by the restorers, and believe me, there are some really tasty willows along it. They should keep Sandwell's arboreal reduction consultants busy for at least a couple of weeks.

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PS There's some exciting news tomorrow .............

RIP Dartmouth Park - VIII

Anyone remember these three massive trees?

They were the three on the bank between the main pool in Dartmouth Park and the tennis courts.

Did you note the tense?

Yes, that's right. 'Were'

To-day at about 1.00pm the furthest had been cut to the ground. The centre one had all of its branches removed and a team of experts working on removing the main trunk.

No doubt by this time tomorrow the third will also have become history.

To those of us who marvel at trees that have stood for generations and generations, it seems wicked that, on a whim, a handful of faceless people, buried deep somewhere in Sandwell, can remove all trace of them.

It also seems absurd in the extreme that such destruction is taking place in an area designated as parkland. And, of course, if this continues, it will cease to be parkland, and simply become, land.

Well, maybe, in due course, I will be able to bring you photos of featureless land at Sandwell.

Wasteland in a land of waste.

RIP Dartmouth Park VII

In my post dated 24th February, I said,'When Sandwell says it is 'restoring' Dartmouth Park, I wonder if they mean they are returning it to its original flat, virgin state! '
Little did I realise that that is exactly what they are doing!!
Several hundred yards of the walling and the grand stairway into the park have been destroyed! And work is ongoing.
I don't know how old the walls and stairway are, but they look pretty original to me.
It seems little short of criminal to me to rip out history as is being done here by Sandwell.
And, you may ask, who is paying for this?
The answer seems to be the National Lottery.
Suddenly this all starts to make sense as Sandwell are past masters at spending other people's money -- see The Public, failed, £52+ million non-art gallery paid largely by the Arts Council -- which means you and me!

RIP Dartmouth Park - VI

If you look the opposite way to that shown in RIP Dartmouth Park - IV you can see the results of this week's 'restoration', ie 20 spaces where trees once stood, almost the full length of the fence.

All very tastefully done.

They made a neat job of the turf as well.

RIP Dartmouth Park - V

A few more trees bite the dust, or rather the mud.

A bonus for Sandwell, which seems hell bent on destroying the very things which it should be looking after, is that because of the wet weather, someone has been able to churn up parts of the turf as well.

What can be be in the minds of those who conceive and/or sanction this kind of civic vandalism?

Reasons which Sandwell have put forward for the widespread tree cutting in neighbouring Sandwell Valley include security; for public safety; so that saplings can grow and so that wild flowers can grow.

But none of these can apply to Dartmouth park where the trees are (were) healthy; widely spaced and in regularly maintained turf.

So what can Sandwell's different reason be for chopping down its healthy trees on both sides, and in the middle of, Dartmouth Park?

RIP Dartmouth Park - IV

This time last week there were 16 trees down this stretch of fencing.

Now there is 1.

The tree trunks shown in the photos on the 18th February post have now been cut down to the ground.

RIP Dartmouth Park - III

This is the biggie.

But I had exagerated. (I'm not always right)

It wasn't 5 or 6 feet in diameter, only just over 4.

And it wasn't hundreds of years old, just a few hundred!!

So that's all right then.

RIP Dartmouth Park - II

You've got to hand it to these Sandwell guys.

They don't do things by half.

There's one tree, currently horizontal and being dismembered, that must have a diameter of 5 or 6 feet. It must have been hundreds of years old. I'll get a photo of it before it is spirited away if I can.

When Sandwell says it is 'restoring' Dartmouth Park, I wonder if they mean they are returning it to its original flat, virgin state!

RIP Dartmouth Park

Dartmouth Park is located in Sandwell MBC. The park is contiguous with Sandwell Valley and, according to a notice erected on the road side of the park, is about to be 'restored'.

Readers may recall that Sandwell, proud possessors of the Green Flag, has, nevertheless, a predeliction for chopping down trees.

True to form, Sandwell celebrated the start of the 'restoration' of Dartmouth Park by chopping down a few more trees.

But Sandwell didn't take any chances. This had to be good - 'quality' being Sandwell's watchword. So, a specialist arborealist firm was called in to take care of this particular piece of restoration.

And one can see why Sandwell, with its reputation to safeguard, has gone to the expense of ensuring that the job was done with the utmost care. (Did I mention some time before that Sandwell was reported by the Sunday Times as being one of the worst 4 councils last year, or the year before, or some time?)

No doubt Sandwell spent some considerable time and effort in selecting the right firm for the job.

I wonder how many years it takes to produce a skilled arborealist who can pollard trees with such sensitivity as is now displayed at Dartmouth Park?