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 - 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?

Trees !! What trees?

On 25th November a report, commissioned by the Forestry Commission, and entitled 'Combating Climate Change - A Role for UK Forests', was officially unveiled.

It confirms what most people have understood for years, namely that trees are not only good to look at, but also good for the environment. More particularly, trees and the provision of more trees, are seen to be one of the ways of combating climate change.

Quite apart from the fact that the report was written by, and attributed to, a number of expert people and bodies, it also has the endorsement of Rt Hon Hilary Benn, MP, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

He is reported as saying 'The Government welcomes Professor Read's report and as a nation we need to plant a very large number of trees over the next 40 years to tackle climate change by bringing down our carbon emissions.'

Imagine his disappointment then if he ever goes to a place called Sandwell Valley where they are chopping trees down as fast as they can.

Sandwell MDC is located just off the north western side of Birmingham. Until recently it was most famed for its resident football club, West Bromwich Albion. But the Council, reported last year as being one of the worst 4 councils in England, is now probably equally well known for its disasterous £52+ million art gallery 'The Public'. I won't elaborate on that here - it's well documented elsewhere!

But Sandwell does, of course, have redeeming features, not the least of which are its wonderfully responsive traffic lights (which could teach Birmingham a thing or two). Another feature, which is perhaps not quite as well known as it deserves to be, is a place called Sandwell Valley.

Sandwell Valley is an area of 2,000 acres or so of what used to be unspoilt woodland; lakes, and fields, with an RSPB reserve; priory ruins and a couple of farms thrown in. You can walk for miles and, OK, the M5-M6 link road goes right through it, but evenso, it's been a wonderful chunk of peaceful countryside, so close to the Midlands' big towns, for years and years.

That's all changing.

In the last 18 months Sandwell District Council have caused a huge number of trees to be felled, ranging from 100 year old poplar and mature willow to saplings.

And the destruction continues. Some 50 trees are currently marked with red paint and a further 40 or so with white paint. These will soon, presumably, join the other similarly marked trees that have been felled in the last 2 weeks.

Why, you may ask, is this destruction going on?

Various reasons are given.

1)Woods conceal gays; doggers; druggies; murderers, etc and so for 'public safety' reasons some need to be removed.

2)12 sparkling new 'water safety points' round a lake (Swan Pool) need 24 hour surveillance to prevent the local lads from playing with them. So a CCTV camera has been erected on a boat house near the lake and all trees between it and the safety points have been removed, for 'security reasons', to give a clear line of sight.

3)The poplars had become 'unsafe' so every one of them (50) were given the chop.

4)'Nothing has been done to the woodlands for years' so they are being 'thinned out' to let more light in.

5) 'They want a Green Flag'

But, however valid the reasons given may be (and, of course, some or all may not be valid at all) the result, in terms of trees, is that there are fewer. Not only fewer, but fewer of some old and magnificent trees which would take more than a generation to replace.

So what's this about a Green Flag that 'they' want - and, indeed, have now got.

Well, a scheme was launched in 1996 to recognise and reward the best green spaces in the country. 'It is also seen as a way of encouraging others to achieve high environmental standards.' per keepbritaintidy.org/greenflag.

Sandwell Valley has this year been awarded the Green Flag.

But why, you may ask, with such widespread destruction of the woodlands, and who is it that has made the award.

The answer to that is interesting.

The Green Flag Award scheme is managed by two organisations:-

(1) the Green Flag Advisory Board about which I have been able to establish nothing. The page, on the official web site, which is entitled 'The Green Flag Advisory Board' is blank!!
(2) the Civic Trust, on behalf of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. Ho ho!!

So, Hilary, you better send your boys round to ODPM and find out why they are dishing out awards to places which are chopping down the very things which you think 'we need to plant a very large number of ....'.

Finally, and most depressingly, Sandwell have to-day posted a notice entitled 'Looking after your Countryside'. This contains a sentence starting 'Recently you may have heard the sound of chainsaws ....', followed by 'A chainsaw is a fast and efficient way of managing large areas of woodland.'

Saints preserve us!!

Hilary, there is not a moment to be lost.