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.

Dartmouth Park Restoration - II

Well the hopes that I expressed in my post dated 28th September, 2010, are completely dashed.

The nascent construction then referred to appears to be neither a waterfall nor a kiddies slide, but, almost, a set of concrete steps. I say 'almost' because they seem to stop about 90% of the way up the bank.

It's not clear to me whether the constructors have to add a few more steps on, or whether they will scoop a dip out of the path at the top so that it comes down to meet the top of the steps.

Only time will tell, and it is only 6 weeks since the last photo so there's got to be a good 3 or 4 of months left in this yet. Oh! I forgot the Winter. Let's call it next August then.

So when it's finished, Sandwell, and the National Lottery, will have destroyed a perfectly good and appealing stone stairway and replaced it, 3 yards away, with a set of concrete steps which, given the time it's taking to construct them, must be going to cost the earth.

I would love to know the logic, if there is any, behind this.

One other thing.

I think that the architect who brought his flair, and lifetime's creative experience and artistry, to the design of these concrete steps, may have forgotten something.

I could be wrong - I am not always right - but watch this space .........

I'll let you know next August - unless they have an overrun.

Is this a metaphor for Sandwell MDC?

Here is a securely padlocked gate.

The first and second photos were taken this week - the third, 3 months ago on 14th July, 2010 when the gate was a newly installed entrance to a field at Sandwell Valley.

Can anyone spot the logic problem here?

That's right. There's no fence between the righthand side of the gate and the corner of the field.

That's how it's been since the gate was installed.

So, we have something which is quite secure in itself; an unnecessary expense, and quite useless.

Need I say more?

Dartmouth Park Restoration

Earlier this year (2010) I published the first photograph above as the stairway seemed to be in imminent danger.

It wasn't clear to me whether this rather grand stairway (can I call it that?) was about to be 'restored' or just knocked down. Who knows what the original looked like that Sandwell are so keen to spend its £6.5 million on 'restoring.'

Well, it's abundantly clear now, 6 months on, which of those two it was.

I am glad that I have that photograph because I think there is something very dignified about the construction - somehow graceful and peaceful. Straight up and down -- no frills -- but the right width for its height and a proportionate size overall to its context.

Altogether a very pleasing stairway, and one which I should think has stood the test of quite a long time.

It certainly took some demolishing.

That photograph was taken in April, 2010, and it has taken 6 months on and off, for Sandwell to destroy it. I say 'on and off' because, days, sometimes weeks, passed by without anybody seemingly doing anything in the furtherence of its demolition.

It was made of strong stuff, by close descendants of the Romans I shouldn't wonder, but it eventually capitulated to a mechanical breaker which seemed to be the only way, short of an atom bomb, that its foundations were going to be removed.

So farewell to this splendid piece of architecture - such a pity that the 'restoration' doesn't call for a stairway there.

But wait!!!

What is that that I see barely 3 yards from the foot of this once great edifice?

Surely it can't be.

No. Not even Sandwell could do what I trying not to think. OK OK I know it's not Sandwell's money they're spending (good old lottery) but evenso, didn't they hear that the UK has been in the financial doldrums for a couple of years now? Didn't they hear that we all are having to tighten our belts? Don't they know that all government departments and local authorities are supposed to be cutting out wasteful activities and unnecessary expenditure?

Can it really be that Sandwell has destroyed a perfectly usable and entirely aesthetic stairway, at no doubt considerable expense, only to build another one THREE YARDS away from it???????????

I really hope that I am wrong.

I hope it turns out to be a waterfall or kiddies slide or something.

If it doesn't, and if Sandwell really have indulged themselves in a wicked and ridiculous orgy of expense by destroying one stairway and building another right next to it, then when Mr Cameron rewrites the parliamentary electoral boundaries, maybe he can wipe Sandwell MDC off the face of the map as well.

By the way, when I wrote earlier this year about the massive trees that Sandwell had felled as part of the Dartmouth Park 'restoration,' I was unable even to speculate on the reasoning behind such civic vandalism. However, during my summer recess I happened to engage in conversation with a 'well placed source' at Sandwell, and he said he was amazed when he saw the size of some of the trees that had been axed. He said that he asked the person in charge why such huge trees were being cut down and he was informed, much to his amusement (but not mine) that they were being cut down because 'they were in the wrong place.' !!

I ask you - how could trees, which had (note the tense) probably been there several times longer than the park itself, possibly be in the wrong place?

Could it not have been, as an alternative to cutting down trees which are hundreds of years old, that the Sandwell experts move their pencil line on the plan, of whatever it is, by half an inch?

No. Of course not.

Bear in mind that they have £6.5 million to spend on something, and there's precious little to show for it so far considering that they have been at it since early 2010.

They've knocked a wall down and rebuilt it a few feet away from where it was; they've repointed most of the rest; destroyed a fine stairway and nearly built something next to it, and chopped down a number of mature and very mature trees.

That's probably taken care of £0.5 million.

I wonder what Sandwell is going to spend the other £6 million on?

And when?

...........shades of The Public all over again............

Maybe this is Sandwell's contribution to the 2012 Olympic Games, although they'll have to get a move on if they are going to complete less than 2 years.

Sandwell Valley - Health and Safety ?? What ??

Well, after my long summer recess, I'm back again, and what an auspicious start to the new season.

Sandwell, having needlessly chopped down mature hedgerows lining the approach to one of the motorway bridges at Sandwell Valley earlier in the 2010, and having needessly replaced them with some very amateurish 'layered' fencing, have to-day, needlessly strimmed the grass/wild flower verges at the base of said fencing.

The result, as you can see, is grass; nettles and other plants scattered across both sides of the approach.

It rained in Sandwell for part of to-day so the scattered plants, on the gently sloping bridge approach, quite apart from being a mess, are nicely wet and slipperey. I think the H & E parlance is 'hazardous'!

If any of my readers happens to break an ankle there and requires more photographic evidence in their pursuit of Sandwell Council, I shall be happy to oblige.

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!

More Joined up Thinking at Sandwell

Here is the other side of the bridge in 'before' and 'after' mode.

Sad isn't it,that an, in theory, responsible, organisation like a Local Authority can destroy a naturally evolved place without being accountable to anyone. Of course Sandwell would say that they are acountable to their electorate. Bravo! But, and it's a big but, I bet that most of their electorate have no idea what Sandwell are doing at Sandwell Valley, and for those that do, it's too late!

For every tree chopped down and every hedge removed, it's way too late.......