'Ello, 'Ello, 'Ello. What's all this 'ere then? - II

Just a follow up on the last post.

(Actually, 'the last post' seems singularly apposite for Sandwell Valley as Sandwell MDC is systematically destroying it)


As expected, another woven topped fence is being created after first chopping down all of the mature hedgerows.

This is another instance of Sandwell destroying something of natural beauty in exchange for a pointless man-made mess, at a time when non-essential spending of any sort should be being avoided.

One useful byproduct though is that there is now another clear line of sight of the M5 - M6 motorway link. Visitors to the Sandwell Country Park (as Sandwell MBC like to call it) can, therefore, appreciate this additional vista which Sandwell has opened up. It ranks equally, for sheer beauty, alongside the view from the opposite side of the motorway, which Sandwell has created by chopping all of the hedgerows, alongside the motorway, down to about 4 feet.

And, but a stone's throw away, there is a fine and unobstructed view of an electicity sub-station (see my post 30. 01.10). This was, until last year, shrouded by trees and mature hedges, but was lovingly brought into the open, when Sandwell chopped down practically all of them.

'Ello, 'Ello, 'Ello. What's all this 'ere then?

What indeed?

The answer is, of course, I don't know.

I mean, on the face of it there is a perfectly good fence, not on a roadway or pathway, but, sort of, round a corner, being taken apart.









Here are a couple more photos 2 days later.



If I was to hazard a guess as to what was going on, I would say that Sandwell are creating yet another piece of 'woven topped' fencing. If this is the case, it is, by my count, the eighth such in the last 3 years. All of the former fences have been, to a greater or lesser extent, taken apart by passers by, including the one completed only last week which, I note, already has a piece neatly cut out of it.

The idea is that Sandwell first of all takes down perfectly good fencing; then chops the top 6 or 8 feet off mature hedgerows and trees that are growing behind said fence; and finally gets some sub-contractor to hammer in a row of wooden stakes and plait some willowy type material along the top of the stakes, having first 'layered' what's left of the original hedgerows.

The result is, in the immediate short term, an obviously man-made intrusion into natural surroundings, and in the longer term, a mess of partly demolished fencing, and no hedgerows at all.

I will keep an eye on progress, if that is the word, and report later on the outcome of the current works.

Anyone for tennis ?

Way back in April, 2010, I took a photo of the wall between Sandwell Valley and Dartmouth park. It's the top one here. Behind it are a couple of hard core tennis courts.


For some reason, which I haven't yet determined, Sandwell took it into their heads to demolish this wall and rebuild it 2 or 3 yards away from where it was. Someone said they thought it was because it was unsafe, but I don't think that can be the case, firstly because it seemed to be a dickens of a job knocking it down, and secondly because a long stretch of identical walling has been merely repointed.

Anyway, I digress.


The second photo shows the position of the new, more or less identical wall. But the knock-on effect of moving the wall was to chop 2 or 3 yards off one side of the tennis courts. Sandwell were, of course, quick to spot that budding Black Country McEnroes could,thereby, be disadvantaged. So what are the Sandwellians doing about it? They are adding a couple of yards onto the opposite side of the courts. (photos 3 and 4)

(If you take a bit off one side of a quadrilateral, and add some on the opposite side, is that what's called lateral thinking?)

A master stroke indeed.

But at no small cost, because the couple of yards that are being added onto the tennis courts are coming off the adjacent Crazy Golf course.

This course was completely relaid out less than a year ago, and part of the reconfiguration involved its length being reduced. Now its width has shrunk as well!

But I don't want to prejudge the Sandwell intelligentia here. It could well be that they have thought this through quite thoroughly, and that they have a plan to widen the opposite side of the Crazy Golf course by moving the adjacent internal road over a couple of yards.

This could easily be accomplished, particularly if the adjacent field was also moved over a couple of yards.

In fact, if the Lottery could stump up another £4 million, the whole of Sandwell Valley could be moved over a couple of yards, thereby assuring the jobs of the Sandwellians in perpetuity.

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.

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