The term “Garden City” appears on first impression to be a harmless oxymoron with connotations of leafy boulevards in a semi-rural but urban environment. The history of such sites however hides a sinister past. These were the brainchild of “The Society of Friends”, or Quakers, a fake religious cult more aligned with “liberal” business monopoly domination through inter cousin marrying families. Think of the Barclays, the Lloyd’s, Albright and Wilson, Cadbury and Rowntree amongst others and you get the picture. The garden cities in the South of England were a eugenics experiment, a fake utopia, where the very wealthy and gentrified would live at the centre, and the poor, the mentally ill and others deemed not worthy to society located on the outskirts of the concentric circles. It was basically a caste system in all but name, and its inventor, Quaker Ebenezer Howard was a minted fraudster.
I spoke to a former Sandwell Council officer who came from one of these original Garden Cities, Welwyn Garden or Letchworth I believe, and he told me when applied to an area like Sandwell, the term was “ludicrous. He is not wrong. Unfortunately, there remain many academic disciples of Howard involved in Town planning, and they appear to want to recreate his eugenics experiment, with other terms such as “15 minute cities”- towns without cars, and where you cannot travel outside of such zones the ultimate outcome of a prisoned off world. These people cry “conspiracy” for mentioning this, but they are a tiny minority, like the society of friends before them attempting to cage us the majority off from the rest of the world, whilst they profit from the centre of it and travel freely using money from the public purse. They take us for fools, and they must be stopped with force if necessary. Their plans must not succeed.
THE HISTORY OF TIPPING
For many years, Sheepwash has been under threat from over development on its border in the lower Tividale area and the loss of habitat once agricultural in nature. The back end of Sheepwash should be thought of as two separate entities that were once linked to the former Rattlechain Brickworks.
The former historic marl hole has an infamous past which can be read on our sister Website HERE. Known as “Rattlechain Lagoon”, the site was infilled from the 1940’s with industrial chemical waste from Oldbury based Albright and Wilson, a WW2 British Government contractor who made white phosphorus based weapons. This highly toxic waste stream was continued until 2006 under the French company Rhodia, who made often ludicrous statements in the face of the proof that their chemical waste was systemically poisoning wildfowl landing on the lake. All birds that came onto Sheepwash were threatened by this banned rat poison, and so began a long campaign to expose what this chemical polluter were hiding.
The surrounding land to the marl hole owned by one man began to be progressively sold off from the 1960’s for anything other than brickmaking which was becoming unprofitable. It was used for factory waste infilling- the Duport Group who made furniture in the area amongst others, and then predominantly foundry sand which was all unregulated.
People living in the Temple Way environment would do well to read the link HERE, in terms of human health and What’s in their backyard.
Only from the mid 1970’s did land owners have to account for what was being tipped on their land and by whom following a cyanide dumping scare in 1972. Rattlechain lagoon was one of several sites where illegal dumping of this chemical were found.
When the tipping stopped on the former brickworks land, Sandwell council were considering buying the land but ultimately did not due to the high cost of remediation. They instead focussed on the land at Sheepwash- then a former tip.
Unfortunately, what followed were years of dubious planning applications that caused “misery” for local residents living on the Temple Way estate, with their homes being blackened by foundry sand activities. The pools at Sheepwash were also frequently soiled by the black dust blowing across from a high plateaux mound that is still there today. The former sewage works site in John’s Lane was eventually given permission for housing to be built, and some land off McDonald Close also began development. These however were much easier to bring forward compared to what has remained for the last 20 years. The land has been effectively abandoned as “private open space”, though it has increased the wildlife potential of Sheepwash and an extension of the canal wildlife corridor. WE WISH TO SEE IT REMAIN THAT WAY.
TIP ON YOUR HOMES. Gladstone Drive 1994. photo Robert Brook . This would go on for another 7 years!
The history of the site, and the knowledge base recorded by those watching the site since its development confirms the loss of habitat linked to the decline of birds in the Brades Hall former “Duport’s Tip” area. Sheepwash itself has also seen a decline in several bird species as a result of increased visitor presence and disturbance from human activity.
CONSULTATIONS
In 2017, a document by Sandwell Council was released talking of The Dudley Port area, (or not really the Dudley port area, but a large part of Lower Tividale) becoming a “Garden City”. I have looked at this HERE.
These schemes are ill conceived as has been explained already. More consultations have taken place as firstly part of “The Black Country Core Strategy” and then “The Sandwell Plan”. Both are oppressive reading and make for difficult consultation, but it is important from the information I have given here that people do remember “WHAT’S IN THEIR BACKYARD” as future planners will attempt in every conceivable way to try to deny it was ever there. The planning system is on their side, and was made that way by the followers of Howard and others.
Thumbs down to “The Garden City”
This page will be updated as the process of consultation progresses or any future planning applications are submitted.
Currently you have until December 18th to comment on the draft Sandwell Plan, and can set up an account to comment at the link below. The best way is to create and register an account and comment using the speech bubble opportunities at the beginning of the paragraphs. In this way you should get an email back with the comments that you make, though it would be wise as I have to take screenshots of comments as you go for your own records.
“Draft Regulation 18 Sandwell Local Plan”
The Friends of Sheepwash Local Nature Reserve have objected to The Garden City at every stage and will continue to do so- indeed we were part of a petition signed by around 400 users of the site and residents of Temple Way Estate who called for it to be scrapped.
The politicians in this area would do well to support our objections and not facilitate bent development on contaminated land.
For this reason, please Support us and do contact the following and let them know of your concerns and opposition to foisting unsustainable Government housing targets in our area and in a green space.
Cllr Will Gill
Cllr Sahdaish Kaur Pall
Cllr Soyfur Rahman
Cllr Suzanne Hartwell
Cllr Rizwan Jalil
Cllr Nagi Daya Singh
