Belts tightening (almost) everywhere

As the measures designed to deal with The deficit begin to unfold, people; businesses and organisations all over the country are tightening their belts.

Many people will lose their jobs. Many businesses will go to the wall. Speed cameras are being switched off; some swimming baths and libraries are closing; some street and motorway lights are to be switched off. Everyone is, or if they're not, they soon will be, feeling the pinch.

Everyone, that is, except good old Sandwell, the wasteland which is full of waste.

Sandwell continues to float blithely along in its bubble, isolated from, or, more likely, in denial of, what's going on in the rest of the world.

Another example?

OK

This week Sandwell have chopped down a perfectly good line of small tees/large shrubs at the entrance to the Swan Pool car park, and converted it into a woven topped fence.

Such would be quite unnecessary at any time. Indeed, it has created yet another eyesore where nature formerly did a perfectly adequate job and in a most aesthetic way.

But to do it now, when responsible councils are checking every last penny spent, right down to their usage of paper clips, it shows just how out of touch Sandwell is.

Add to this the fact that during the last 3 or 4 years Sandwell have 'created' 7 more of these fences in Sandwell Valley, and all of them have been taken apart to a greater or lesser extent by ne'er-do-wells. One of these fences (the first one) was actually replaced by Sandwell last year by a conventional wooden fence!!

You would think that someone at Sandwell would have learnt some sort of a lesson by now.

I wonder how long it will be before this latest habitat destroying; waste of money of an eyesore is similarly dismantled?

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?

Hooray!! A new Morrisons !!

These aren't very good photos because the sun was in the wrong place. That's my excuse anyway.

But that doesn't take the shine of the wonderful reality that a new Morrisons has opened to-day, 31st January, 2011, very close to the West Bromwich Albion football ground.

To be honest, I don't know whether it's in Birmingham or Sandwell - the boundary is there somewhere close. If I had to guess, I'd say it was Birmingham because the traffic light controlled junction there never was very good, and now the Morisson's entry/exit has been incorporated, it has become a nightmare. And this is based only on a late morning observation. Tonight's rush hour, and the first football match will show just how awful this junction is going to be.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, one of Sandwell's redeeming features is its traffic lights. They are so responsive to traffic, and, more importantly, to the absence of traffic, and they operate as though someone has actually thought about traffic flows before they installed them.

Anyway, all that aside, to those of us whose nearest Morrison's were Wednesbury or somewhere down the Coventry Road, this is a wonderful day and one which should be spent purchasing some of Morrison's excellent meat. They have other good things too, of course, but their meat is absolutely first class.

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.

******************************************************************

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.

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?