Some 27 years ago, a group concerned with protecting the flora and fauna of Sheepwash was set up by a group of volunteers. Over that course of time people have come and gone, particularly in Sandwell Council, but one thing has remained constant in that this organisation has always prioritised The Sandwell Valley ahead of the poorer Tipton cousin in terms of management and upkeep. You can see this visually and it is irrefutable given the number of staff that work in West Bromwich compared to the token visits that now take place in Great Bridge.
For many years certain councillors in the Great bridge ward, with the exception of Fred Perry did absolutely nothing to promote or campaign for this to improve, and so the rot continued with the only employee on site eventually being axed due to long term ill health. No replacement was ever put in place, and you cannot keep blaming “the cuts” as a political excuse, because it is rubbish. It is rubbish because SMBC has instead pumped tax payers money into using the Valley as an events umbrella for all types of political, music and sporting spectacles whilst charging for parking. It has failed to ever manage angling, anti social behaviour and failed to enact bye laws necessary to protect the nature reserve sites.
Indeed it is clear to see where they have invested their money in Green flag formal parks, with many smaller sites never getting anything at all. Sheepwash has made do for many years with patchwork maintenance, mainly putting plasters over the criminal damage caused by local scum who set out to destroy anything that cannot be tied down. They are a minority, and yet are never dealt with with the full force of the law available.
In terms of what a “friends of” group is, we were one of the first in the borough and have always been critical of Sandwell council and never shilled on their behalf, in fact council officers will tell you that. We are not paid any money from Sandwell Council, do not control their budgets, and nor do we decide what they spend their money on. We would like to make this clear as certain individuals have made up lies that we do on social media, and we are not going to stand for that. Any individual purporting such will be excluded from our facebook page and permanently blocked, as is our right. We may feed wildlife on the site, but we are not going to feed the trolls.
POOR GOVERNANCE
We would also like to make it clear that we are constantly on the back of Sandwell Council about the poor maintenance of the site, emailing local councillors and officers and reporting issues via the quite useless “my Sandwell” portal. This takes volunteer time, and some of us have jobs to do as well, as carers, as well as other volunteer work outside of the specific area. If you criticise us without any knowledge or comprehension of what goes on and is not constantly self promoted via social media, well basically, the second word is “off”.
In the last week pictures of five individuals lighting fires have been sent to the council and the police by us, and it is up to them what action they take. It would be helpful of course if the council did not leave piles of freshly cut grass behind and turned it into bales as they used to. It is unclear as to why the council appear to not have a bale machine anymore or why they have not purchased one as a useful piece of frontline infrastructure.
mindless scum
One issue constantly being raised is the blocked John’s Lane tunnel- head of highways Robin Weare not having the courtesy to ever reply despite us being asked to contact him by a planning policy officer at the council, and nor it seems does he respond to councillors that we have made aware of this situation many times. That is, they have also failed to take this matter up to resolution and we would ask why?
In terms of Sandwell Council, they have over the last two years attempted to make groups sign up to an agreement that it itself has failed to uphold, treating volunteers with total contempt, childish diktats and failed communication from officers it claims are “busy”, This joke is underlined by the fact that there are just two countryside rangers employed by the council to manage all of the nature reserves and who are usually not on duty at the same time. Contrast this with the number of office based managers in parks and you see a total failure of Governance in what the priorities should be in a department. It is both an longstanding directorship failure, and a longstanding political and councillor failure to change this blinkered money wasting model.
Take for example a well publicised via The Sandwell skidder blog purchase of a 50+ year old banger coffee wagon allegedly approved by the former director controlling parks for Lightwood’s Park which cost a reputed £39,000. We are sure that this could have been used to buy instead a machine that bales the cut grass. It isn’t rocket science is it? Coffee and cakes in the South of the borough are obviously more important to them.
We have attended the parks friends of parks forum meetings , where you rarely get any questions answered, minutes months later or not at all and claims that things would be sent out the next week, which seldom are. The level of criticism of SMBC we can tell you amongst other friends of groups is well known to the council and is almost universal in terms of what has been taking place over the last two years. Clearly, this model has run its course and is no longer viable, if it ever was. The vast majority of friends groups have members well into retirement age and no younger active volunteers to undertake physical work. It has however over the last four years become apparent that many SMBC and Serco staff are averse to physical work that would endanger their inflated sense of self preservation and “elf and safety”.
Take for example arguments between parks and Shirko to clear items dumped on Sheepwash at entrance points and within the site, particularly needles dumped by junky “rough sleeper” scum.
One exception to the public sector malaise has been Diane Gilbert, who we would like to thank for sorting the fly tipping mess out at many entrances on Sheepwash that were left there by said departments of the council and the private contractor.
Of course , as well as reporting matters, we have also planted wild flowers, paid for by ourselves and not by Sandwell council. It’s time this site was treated more like a nature reserve with those values, and not a second rate country park.
