Part 2 of An Awakening: the road from Walsall to London

Back to the early 1980’s in Walsall and the impending introduction of what was called and now seems a rather quaint expression, New Technology.

The IR Board decided that before the COP programme was rolled out nationwide there would be a pilot run in the West Midlands area. Offices from Walsall, Wolverhampton, Cannock, Stafford, Oswestry and Dudley were chosen. A peculiar choice but the Board were cute. The offices chosen were not known for any radical bias or even huge union activity plus these were towns were jobs were going down the sewers faster than storm water and so the Board thought they might get an easy ride. They were mistaken!

 There was a massive worry for the civil servants in the IR that the introduction of new technology would cause massive job losses and compulsory redundancies. This was a frightening thought for those who had been around for the while and really believed that they had a job for life, unless they were completely useless of course. So the main thrust of the IRSF was to secure a New Technology Agreement (NTA) with a no compulsory redundancy clause. As time went by it became clear to the union that the NTA was going to be very difficult to obtain and meetings between the higher echelons of the union and the ordinary office secretaries in the 14 pilot districts became frequent. They rolled out all the big names in their attempts to ensure that the office secretaries and chairpersons, plus the local branch committees were onside. Looking back on my youth I suppose I was impressed. Tony Christopher was the General Secretary and he visited every office to chat with the members. Clive Brook was a Deputy GS and usually chaired most of the meetings with us. Liz Symons didn't play such a large roll because she dealt with what were mainly issues in the Collection section of the IR but I met her often enough. There was also the Executive Committee, some of whom became personal friends.

Time began to run short. COP was due to go live on 1st January 1984. Shades of Big Brother ran deep. The date was deeply significant at the time. How easily we forget. Prior to the system going live though there had to be the process whereby all the clerical records were transferred to the online system. This was known as setting up and boy was that period instrumental in persuading people that the union had the right idea about a NTA.

The potential NTA wasn't just about a no redundancy clause but all the other niggling little things that seemed so frightening at the time. There was a big fuss about VDU’s emitting low level radiation and the defects that this could potentially cause to the unborn foetus. So allowing pregnant women to not work on VDU’s was an important element. So were eye tests and financial help for people who only required spectacles for VDU work. Then there were the ergonomics, the furniture, the postures and RSI. All were seen as real potential problems for which agreement needed to be reached with regard to protecting individuals and their health.

At the time that setting up began, the majority of the 14 pilot districts were in deep trouble with regard to work on hand. As I said in my earlier blog, there were massive amounts of repayments to process, plus there had been staff cuts, which had gone by natural wastage. The workload had increased but the staff numbers had decreased. Result? The office that I worked in had always been very proud of constantly reporting no work on hand that was older than 14 days from receipt, found itself in a situation where there were thousands of pieces of post older than 2 months old and no matter how hard you worked, the figures never got any smaller. Although I have never agreed with overtime, it is interesting to note that Mrs Thatcher had instigated a complete overtime ban throughout the civil service and no overtime was allowed.

We were now faced with a setting up period that was to last between 10 and 12 weeks, when virtually no other work would be done in the office. The post would come in and would be piled up to be dealt with in about 6 months time or so we hoped. All the ‘annual cycle’ jobs that had to be done in addition to normal day-to-day work were being left and because of this normal day to day work increased due to the knock on effect of not dealing with the annual stuff. It was a vicious circle!

The setting up began in earnest in September 1983. We started with that year's Tax Returns still unexamined, several months worth of post on hand and the telephones ringing off the hook due to the backlog of work.



Each taxpayer (they're called customers now!) had back then, a real life file and what was known as a concard, short for control card. The concard detailed individuals personal details such as name, address, date of birth, national insurance number, their recent employment history, if tax returns had been issued and if they had been returned, name of spouse and where they were dealt with, details of any other current jobs and on the reverse was a breakdown of around seven years worth of code numbers, pay and tax details and whether or not a person was underpaid, overpaid etc. All of this information on the concard had to be transferred to create an online record. In theory some of the information was already supposed to be there such as name, address, NI number etc, in practice there was nothing for about 80%.

We sat there for the working day of seven and half hours and inputted information staring at a green VDU screen. Now remember that back then few people had keyboard skills in the way they have now. This inputting was a plodding, slow process using just two fingers to type for the great majority. In addition we had training (ha ha) for using the new system, which you will appreciate was vastly different to a manual system and the bloody telephones never stopped ringing and the general public never stopped coming in to see us, wondering why we never answered the telephone or letters, or dealt with repayment claims and so on.

People started developing stress related illnesses. They also started developing dry eyes, headaches, backaches, achy fingers and wrists. Morale already low, now hit rock bottom. The Board of Inland Revenue educated the members of the IRSF in a way the union could never have done with regard to the absolute necessity of an NTA.

The Union leadership had decided that the way to entice the Board to the table with regard to the NTA was to take them to court. I believe the thinking ran along the lines of  the Board had broken our contract of employment by introducing a new way of working without our agreement and that the new way of working was so intrinsically different to the old way that we were entitled to some input as to how changes were to be implemented. That's how I remember it.

With much intensive prompting I was persuaded to become a plaintiff along with seven other sacrificial lambs, against the Board of Inland Revenue. I got some idea of what this might involve from the constant travelling to and from London to meet with solicitors etc to prepare affidavits and then swear them and all the other stuff that becomes part of the deal of taking your employer to court....whoa, taking the Board of Inland Revenue to the Royal Courts of Justice on the Strand? That's big stuff! These men (they were all men back then) in dark suits who every now and then put in an appearance in a local office just to see how the other half lived, were my employers and could make life very difficult for me and any future career I thought I might have had. I was young, still pretty much like a dustbin in that I took everything in and believed people when they spoke to me. I didn't lie, so I never thought other people would lie either. I can't believe that I was so naive in that respect and yet so bloody street wise in other ways. I suppose back then I still intrinsically trusted people and certainly I lacked the cynicism that comes with experience.

The papers were prepared, ready to serve but first we had a vote on industrial action to see through and then to ensure that the action actually took place.

A vote was held amongst the members in the 14 pilot districts along the lines of that as there was no NTA, we would refuse to work and operate the new system from its go live date of 1st January 1984. We would continue to work on a clerical basis but refuse to switch those VDU's on. The vote was won by a massive majority despite the fact that individuals had been made aware of precisely what would happen to them if they refused to work the online system. We all approached 1984 with much trepidation but believing that our cause was both reasonable and fair.

Meetings were frantic and convened at a moments notice. I remember Frank Winrow, the local liaison officer, calling me on Boxing Day 1983 to ask me to get into London the next morning and being unable to get any sense out of me because I was drunk. Well I was having a party at home that day! I got there.


I got into work nice and early on 'go live day'. I wasn't alone and on orders from above, the District Inspectors in each of the pilot districts had also had an early wake up call in order that they could switch all the VDU’s in their office on, so that a new year message from the Board of IR would greet every person. I don’t remember exactly what was on the screen that morning but it was something along the lines of ‘be good girls and boys because we’ll get nasty and big brother is watching you’. I turned my VDU off. Everyone else in my office apart from the non-members did the same, as did the vast majority of the PAYE staff in the other pilot districts.

We carried on working clerically and for a while nothing happened. To be honest many found it a pleasure to return to what they knew and had been trained for rather than something that they had received very little training for but were expected to get to grips with immediately. There were furtive telephone calls to see what was happening elsewhere but nothing was happening. Until lunchtime that is. Then I got a call informing me that in one of the Dudley districts the first six staff had been TRD’d and the rest were to follow. TRD means Temporarily Relieved from Duty.

I immediately ran around the office informing everyone of what was happening over on the other side of the Black Country. Some who had friends in that office started making phone calls, others started singing “we shall not be moved”. This surprised me no end. My office was pretty non-combative under normal circumstances. It was also an ‘old’ office in terms of its profile. Some of the women had worked for the Revenue for over 30 years and had never been involved in industrial action before apart from the odd one day strike. Some were within 1 to 3 years of retirement and therefore would suffer financially by embarking on industrial action so close to their retirement. Yet here was something that had motivated them to consider their younger colleagues and their futures. Here they were singing we shall not be moved. I admit that I popped down to the ladies loo and shed a tear.

I popped in to see my boss for an informal chat. I was one of the lucky union reps in that my boss was a decent man who supported the action although of course, at the time he never admitted it and he had his job to do as dictated by the Board. He told me that he would be starting to interview us all in order to TRD us within the hour. He was just awaiting his final orders. He said that although he had been informed that he wasn't supposed to allow it, he wanted me to sit in on all the interviews and he would then suspend me last of all. The orders for the DI’s were to suspend the Office Secretaries and Whitley committee members first, so that they would not be available to offer moral support to their members.

I was glad he did this because it gave me chance to get around everyone and get their last salary slip, so that IRSF HQ would know how much strike pay to make. Looking back I can see how hard this was for some of the maturer people I worked with. Not only were they doing something they had never done before but also they were putting their pensions in danger and having to give their salary slips to some chit of a girl!

The actual TRD interviews went smoothly and that was down to the boss. He had a set script, which he had to stick to but he was human. Each person was asked if they would turn on their VDU and return to working ‘normally’. Each person said no they would not but that they were happy to work clerically until the Board signed an NTA with the union. Each person was then told that because they were refusing to work ‘normally’ they were being temporarily relieved of duties, so would they collect their personal possessions and leave the building. They were warned that this was a formal disciplinary process and further action may be taken against them and could result in them being dismissed from service. In some offices people were escorted from the premises. Finally it was my turn. Following the formal bit the boss asked me to pop in on a regular basis for a cup of coffee. I promised him I would.

It would be nine weeks before I returned to that office to work and in that time I would grow up in so many ways. I would also appear as a plaintiff at the Royal Courts of Justice, be interviewed on TV and make my first political speeches.

An awakening: the road from Walsall to London

Following my blog yesterday, my thoughts turned to a series of blogs I originally published over five years ago which told the story of how I became a trade union activist and got involved in politics. That blog has long since been obliterated from the general internet but I was able to dig out the pieces and thought I would share with you a story of an ordinary Aldridge girl and her journey from Walsall to the Royal Courts of Justice in London and being enshrined in case law. These events all happened over 30 years ago, so I suppose it really is history now!
***********************************************************************


The Inland Revenue Staff Federation, IRSF (now subsumed into the monolithic PCS) was a small almost family like union for employees of the Inland Revenue. I was sweet 16 when I started work and oh so very innocent when it came to politics. I shouldn't have been. Dad was the secretary of the local labour club despite being a life long Tory voter, Mom was a member of the local liberals and I was forever being used to distribute leaflets at election time. All my family were, for some reason, vehemently anti trade union. Politics were always being discussed at home but I suppose most of it passed right over my little head. So when I joined the IR and was approached by the equivalent of a shop steward, quaintly called the Office Secretary, I didn't really want to join. Simon however, a lovely man, had other ideas and said I should join just in case I had any problems over my probationary period. Me thinks he looked at me and saw trouble writ large! So I joined and for a few years nothing really happened.

I took an interest in the local activities. The trade union 'side' comprised of a 'Whitley' committee, in the office who met regularly with management to discuss local issues in what were known as Whitley meetings. To be honest the discussions seemed to revolve around car parking issues, seating issues and parties. However as time went by the plans by the IR to introduce what eventually became the largest online computer system in Europe started to take shape. This was the early 80's and people were losing jobs left right and centre and so we cushioned little souls in the IR were scared. Scared of losing our jobs and our security.

All around us we saw what was happening in our own localities. For example, there used to be a thing in the old days called unemployment repayments. Before benefits became taxable, if you were unemployed you could send your P45 into the local tax office every four weeks and have a repayment processed based upon the free pay that you were not using. Gradually many of the factories in the area we covered started making redundancies and then closing down altogether. When I first started in the IR, as a local case worker I would deal with maybe four or five unemployment repayments per week. They were always given priority and dealt with on the day of receipt. Multiply this by about 40 odd other officers doing the same type of work on the PAYE section and you see the numbers involved. They used to take about 10 minutes to process. By 1982, there were 8 officers working full time on unemployment repayments and nothing else plus a higher grade officer working full time authorising the repayments.

People had husbands, brothers, sisters, wives etc who had been made redundant and were quite aware of what the chances were of finding other employment in the miserable Midlands of Thatcher's Britain, so when 'suits' as we used to call them started arriving from union HQ in London to have little chats with us because the West Midlands had been chosen as the pilot area for COP (Computerisation Of PAYE) people were reasonably easily convinced that their jobs were at risk.

By this time Simon had resigned as office secretary and as there was nobody else interested in taking on the role, I volunteered and had my hand snapped off. I had never heard of 'facilities time', which was what the time you spent on union duties was called and I was gobsmacked when I realised that I had to account for every minute that I did spend on union activities and that there was no corresponding reduction in my allocation of work! Oh baptism of fire, you hadn't even arrived yet! And I should mention that because there had been a freeze on recruitment I was the youngest in the office over 100 people. Not that I ever let that intimidate me!

Much time was spent travelling to union HQ in London and then visiting the actual computer HQ in Telford otherwise known as the National Development Centre. It's funny looking back because that place was filled with all those massive storage unit type computers with discs running on the front....just like the old films. We were not actually going to get computers as such on our desks but VDU's, visual display units, remember them?! Enormous great big things that apparently emitted low level radiation.

However before COP became a reality, there was the education that was 1981 and the long , protracted and probably the most bitter dispute in civil service history, the 1981 Civil Service Pay Dispute, which did actually make the Guinness Book of World records as the UK's longest industrial dispute, for a short time.

Dear Mrs Thatcher in her wisdom had abolished the Pay Research Unit which the Civil Service Unions (CCSU) had stood by for many years. The only hiccup on the horizon up to then had been the short lived 1979 pay dispute which basically added to the burden of the old Labour government and placed a few nails in their coffin. The CCSU made a claim for 15% with a minimum payment of £10 per week (those were the days....double figure pay increases) which was obviously turned down flat and arbitration was refused despite the fact that in theory there was supposed to be unilateral access to arbitration. The members voted and the dispute was born.

I attended my first mass meetings and boy did they grip me. The drama, the passion, the speeches, the cause, like church but so much better and so much more real life! Furthermore here were votes etc I was allowed to participate in because I still wasn't old enough to vote in a general election. It was then that my father baptised me with my new nickname; 'Arthur' after Mr Scargill!


Mass meetings and fervour! £10 a week bottom line sounded good to me. I was on £32 a week which I supplemented by working at the Molineux selling programmes for my beloved Wolves. Now that was a good job. 3 hours on a Saturday afternoon, commission basis, good pitch in the season ticket holders stand, which was brand spanking new, I'm told a pretty face and £40 in my pocket! I used to pray for a good cup run with home draws. I had started selling programmes when I was 14, I lied about my age to get the job. One of the perks was a free ticket into the game. I used to miss about 20 minutes of the first half whilst cashing up but the other perks made up for this.

There were always lots of speakers at the meetings but I do recall Tony Christopher who was then the General Secretary of the IRSF with his 'wilko' type moustache and very posh accent. He was hated by the left but loved by the majority because he felt like a safe pair of hands and sounded so damn reasonable.

The first part of the dispute was a day of action when virtually everyone came out for a one day strike. This I recall was successful and in my own office only six non-members went into work that day. We had a decent picket line outside the office, no laws then limiting numbers and everyone was so polite and nobody was called a scab.

The CCSU wisely decided to bring staff out on a permanent basis from a variety of locations, which were supposed to have maximum impact. I don't recall what other departments were brought out but for the Inland Revenue it was the two Accounts Offices in Shipley and Cumbernauld. These two offices banked all the money going to the exchequer and the strike there did hurt the government as Alan Clarke's diaries testify. They ended up having to get a loan from the IMF to tide them over because during the 20 weeks or so that those two offices were out very little money was banked. Only a few core staff defied the strike and as I discovered on a personal level a few years later, things got very nasty in those two offices.

The rest of us went to work as usual but every week I would have to go around the office and ask for a strike fund contribution. I think it was 50p a week for the lowest paid, £1 for the middle ranks and £2 for the Inspectors etc. The people that were on all out strike were being paid a certain percentage of their salaries each week by the union and so we needed to fund it. Some members refused point blank to make a contribution and I had my fair share of refuseniks.

During the pay campaign I started to attend Branch meetings and eventually I was elected to the Branch Committee. I have to admit that part of the attraction was one or two rather tasty young men but I was still going to meetings long after they had thrown in the towel. This in turn led to me becoming involved in Amnesty, CND and later on other groups, some more savoury than others. My eyes were opened to what was happening around me. The job losses, the factory closures, the way that things were changing forever and how people had to fight to retain any rights they had. Back then it was about group rights, now it is about individual liberties and rights but how much easier it is to erode the liberty of the individual when the rights of groups, unions etc have already gone.

It would be wrong to say that I was radicalised overnight because it was a slow process and a slow awakening and I wasn't truly radicalised until after attending my first union conference in 1984. Now that is a story!

The 1981 pay dispute was later settled, after a full vote by the members of all Civil Service unions, for a measly half a percent more than we had originally been offered. We were one of the first to discover that Thatcher really wasn't for turning. It hurt but not half as much as it hurt the steel workers and the miners for example, who followed us in due course.

One thing I learned very early on was that in order to gain the respect of your local members it was important when running a meeting to keep your own individual opinions to yourself and to merely present the facts and the whys and wherefores. I let others argue. This stood me in good stead with my own local office. At branch level I could never be neutral and I was therefore a revelation to some from my own office when they saw me in action at branch general meetings.

Slowly we got away from the car parking spaces scenario at local Whitley meetings and began to chat with management about more serious issues such as work and the organisation of work. I think my old District Inspector was a little perturbed by all of this especially as this was the same young woman who only 12 months previously was constantly being sent to his office for various misdemeanours. A few years later he confided in me, when I had returned for a retirement party, that he had enjoyed watching me mature in a such a short space of time. Good job he never saw what I got up to outside of work and that nobody ever told him!

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

That's the end of part 1...I'll be back with a second instalment soon and the full story of how I ended up in the Royal Courts of Justice.

Conspicuous in absence?

My recent journey has been a little cold and frosty at times!

Perhaps not! You may have noticed that the Mad Old Baggage hasn't been rambling so much of late. I have, just not here. Instead a lot of time and effort has been going into this. The flames that were re-lit last March appear to have grown into a full scale bonfire of local political interest.

I've always taken an interest in politics, particularly local but it's been more years than I care to remember since I was active in any way whatsoever, be it politically, on local issues or as a trade unionist. Aiden's accident rekindled the flame of not taking injustice lying down, so in a way West Midlands Police are to blame for what happened to me one Friday night back in November when the Save Walsall's Green Spaces and Countryside Services was born. I had blogged about my fears for Walsall's Green Spaces before that night but the passion that I felt for this exceptional service run by Walsall Council hit me like a sledgehammer that night (or perhaps it was one glass too many of red wine?) and I knew I couldn't let the council make the budget cuts they were talking about without at least trying to persuade them that there was a path to insanity.

The Campaign became my whole life for a while. I had a steep learning curve to negotiate reading every set of minutes of appropriate committees, examining the new Green Spaces Strategy adopted by Walsall Council, discovering that more could be learned by what hadn't made it into the final Strategy compared with the very successful earlier strategy and reading all manner of reports on parks, green spaces and local nature reserves. Lots of lovely people got in touch with me and helped so much with ideas, information and general advice. I'm not going to name them but you know who you are. Thank you.

The Facebook Group became a lively affair and I discovered that although we all shared a common bond, that didn't necessarily mean that there was agreement about how we should pursue the campaign! Administration work, keeping the blog and Group fully updated ate into my time and then thankfully because I organised a protest outside the Town Hall, the media became interested and in particular BBC WM. Adrian Goldberg must have got fed up with all my umms and errs as week by week I got invited to comment on his engaging morning phone in programme.

On the whole I have enjoyed the experience although at times it has been incredibly stressful. Being invited to give a presentation at a Council Cabinet Meeting was approached with nervous dread and days of preparations but in the end it was actually far less intimidating than meeting senior council officers. The reception was polite and courteous and I felt that the majority of Cabinet members had listened to me and therefore all the voices I was honoured to be representing, albeit there was never any vote for me!

The campaign has had it's dark side too. It is unfortunate that when you stick your head above the parapet some people, with all the backbone of a jellyfish, feel it is their right to email you anonymously and insult and threaten intimidation, name calling along the way. Fortunately it proved to be isolated and although I was shocked at first, I didn't think about it for very long. I've been called worse though usually I did know who was slinging the stones!

The situation with Walsall's Green Spaces has yet to be put to bed, it probably never will be in all honesty but that's OK because I'm not going anywhere. I've enjoyed this experience and feel that I have learned a lot and grown as a person even more. What's more, every time there is a full council meeting I get a night of free entertainment courtesy of our councillors, one or two of whom could do with learning some manners, by attending. I intend to continue and see where this path I've fallen onto takes me and enjoy the walk along the way.

If you're a user or a friend or a worker in any of Walsall's Green Spaces including allotments, nature reserves, parks, village greens or even that bit of scrub down the bottom of the road, you may wish to pop along and 'like' this.

Multiple Deaths in Walsall

Winter beauty at Park Lime Pits Rushall - soon to be lost?

On Sunday morning I was walking around Park Lime Pits with a group of people who through The Friends of Park Lime Pits and the Black Country Biodiversity Group had got together for a winter bird walk. As we ambled, binoculars and cameras in hand, quietly in order to pick up clues from bird song (and yes they were singing, someone forgot to tell the birds that it isn't spring yet) I had such an overwhelming feeling of happiness. One of my thoughts was that it really doesn't get much better than this; enjoying a local nature reserve, practically on my doorstep with such a diverse range of habitats giving rise to an extraordinary number of species in such a small area. We counted 27 different species including Kingfisher, Heron and Skylark in just two hours.

Last night I attended the full council meeting in Walsall. I witnessed death and destruction. The contrast in emotions in the space of just over 24 hours could not be wider. Firstly I witnessed Walsall Labour abstain from a vote on Councillor allowances. If they had voted against the proposed increases to allowances as they said they were going to prior to the meeting, then Mike Bird, Council Leader would not this morning be rubbing his hands with glee at the prospect of a pay increase of £4494, his deputy Adrian Andrew would not be suffering from friction burns at the prospect of an increase of £9232 and their Cabinet colleagues Councillors Towe, Harris, Arif, Ali, R Andrew, McCracken, Shires and Ansell would not be aiding the Walsall Fire-starter with further flame making with a £5123 increase. Yes these are increases not base allowances and yes, Walsall Labour played party politics whilst the people of Walsall suffer. It seems that we are all in this together, unless you're a politician and in Walsall, a Labour politician. RIP Walsall Labour. I doubt in a few years time you will be missed for if last night was an example of how you play games with the money and lives of Walsall people, you do not deserve power and you certainly do not deserve to be remembered with any sort of fondness.

Those were the first deaths of the night; democracy, accountability, credibility, honesty, integrity, politics in Walsall.

Still gasping with shock at the incredible and disgraceful scenario that I had just watched, I then witnessed the start of the long, slow death and mass destruction of Walsall's Green Spaces and Countryside Services. In with the Progress Report presented by Councillor Harris, Portfolio Holder for Leisure and Culture was an announcement of the cuts to jobs in Green Spaces. From April there will be just 2 Senior Countryside Rangers, 4 Neighbourhood Rangers, 4 Arboretum Rangers and 7 Park Rangers will see their posts downgraded to Environmental Operatives. No cuts for senior managers or staff who do not provide a front line service. The strangulation of Green Spaces since their take over by Street Pride is now complete.

In view of this announcement the final paragraph of Cllr Harris's report "Last year was a very successful one for the services in the portfolio, achieved in increasingly difficult times, and with the clear prospect of more good news to follow as 2013 gets underway."  looks risible, ridiculous and a downright lie and yet the report was adopted by the council.

When I started the Save Walsall's Green Spaces Campaign we were in the middle of a so called budget consultation exercise. I personally copied and pasted tens and tens of responses found on the Group's Facebook page, blogs and other places too, into the budget consultation box on the Council's website and submitted them. Along with this we protested outside the Council House at the last full Council meeting, we wrote letters to newspapers, many wrote blogs going into incredible detail as to why our Green Spaces were worth saving. There were radio appearances, emails to councillors, articles in the local press and finally I made this presentation to the Cabinet. All of this has been to no avail. We were not listened to. The whole budget consultation exercise was a sham.

Many years ago a president of a trade union pleaded with me not to start going to the union's annual conference. He liked my honesty and naivety and he thought full immersion into the trade union process would destroy those qualities. Despite the fact that over the years I have grown more cynical and disillusioned, I still, it seems retain some naivety because I honestly believed Cllr Bird when he said that we would be listened to and our views and ideas would be responded to and taken into account. I also believed him when he said that our fears would be allayed. I keep having to learn the same lesson over and over again; never trust a politician for the only interests they serve are there own.

One thing that surprised me on many occasions was how uninformed our local councillors are about how our Green Spaces work, what roles are carried out by various post holders and what that entails and how cutting posts, downgrading roles and so on would mean that our green spaces would suffer. Various councillors who passed our demonstration at the last council meeting responded by saying they thought that Green Spaces had been saved. This was after I had sent them emails, started a petition and the campaign. They obviously doubted my sanity, smug in their ignorance.

Last night they demonstrated the same ignorance of what this is all about, ably assisted by the Officers of the council who clearly have their own territories clearly marked, defined and the barricades manned in order to protect their own gross salaries, some in excess of £100K. Information has been hidden and omitted from reports by those Officers because they know Average Councillor will not care to understand the minutia  and even worse read the report properly, apart from how it will affect their own small ward.

Parochialism ruled supreme last night. As long as the little park in their ward was OK they didn't care to see the wider borough picture. What they failed to see was that their local green spaces will not be OK. That expensive exercise equipment that they are going to install in green spaces all over the borough will not be OK. The nationally recognised reputation of some of our Green Spaces Staff will not be OK. Our Green Spaces will not get the attention they currently get. Friends and User Groups will not receive the support they currently get. We will lose our best staff as they dessert the sinking ship that was once the proud and beautiful Walsall's Green Spaces and who can blame them? I can't. And why will none of this be OK? The staff will not be there. Not the devoted staff who have spent years building up relationships with all sorts of green space users, including those whose only intention originally was to vandalise and destroy. An informed presence is what is required not any presence. A regular presence by the same people. No councillors, everything will not be OK.

I witnessed multiple deaths last night but the one that reduced me to tears was the wanton destruction of Walsall's Green Spaces.

We will continue the Campaign. We have no choice.

Green, green grass of home

A young heron fishing at Park Lime Pits last Friday

On Friday, Aiden and I went for a long stroll around Park Lime Pits and Lime Pits Farm. Despite the fact that the Estates team were carrying out a lot of much needed work around the top end of the large pool, it was an incredibly tranquil walk. Looking at the abundance of autumnal colour, leaves falling through the air and finding rest upon the still waters of the pools, I felt privileged to live so close to a place that is largely unknown to the wider world outside of Walsall but that is precious to those who know, use and love the place.

Like many nature reserves in the Black Country, Park Lime Pits has it's origins in the Industrial history of the area. The industry is long gone and in its place nature has reclaimed areas for herself. I really cannot find the right words to describe to you how I feel when I walk around our local woods and nature reserves and especially Park Lime Pits. My spirit is cleansed and renewed and I feel peace. I know that I am not the only one who finds local walks in lovely places an essential in ridding oneself of the stresses and strains of  every day life. A place where I can relax, empty my mind and focus on the simplicity of just stopping and watching nature, enjoying the seasons as they journey into the years of my life. When I can stop to watch a heron fish or a woodpecker hammer, smell the flowers or forage for plums, apples, mushrooms and more, I know that I've found that space in my head that allows me to get through all the dross that sometimes fills my mind and replace it with the beauty of nature.

Following this blog many other local bloggers spoke from the heart too about what our local green spaces, nature reserves, commons, parks and so on meant to them. Brownhills Bob wrote of the sheer diversity of Walsall's wildlife, The Mushroom wrote about the variety of birds at Park Lime Pits, my lovely man talked about what a surprise the nature reserves of Walsall were to him when he moved here and The Plastic Hippo talked of allergies, dog walking and managed to mix a spot of politics into it all, as he does so very well.

It was with a heavy heart that I read of the proposed cuts in the 2013 budget of Walsall Council and that the Parks, Green Spaces and Countryside Services had been heavily targeted with a devastating £400K cut. My mind went back to a blog I wrote over two years ago. It made me feel incredibly sad that my worst fears could be realised on my own doorstep. For me this service may not be a statutory service but it is an essential one and cutting at its roots has dire implications further down the line. How long before we have to close our nature reserves because they are unsafe to walk around? How long after that are they sold to the highest bidder for development or paintball/war games? How long before playgrounds are dismantled due to them becoming too expensive to maintain due to vandalism and other anti-social behaviour? How long before there are no pleasant places in our locality available to all, from young to old to merely sit and enjoy the air, to relax, recharge or even to just watch the world go by? Some of us already have a negative view of our local councillors who have allowed our town centre to decay and crumble under the weight loss of empty shops, have allowed our heritage buildings to be neglected and torched but just how negative do they want us to be, if the one thing that is done well in this borough is also destroyed on their watch? Do they want us to lose all pride in our town and borough? Do they want this on their consciences or do they not care?

Much is being made of difficult choices and local council services never being the same again. Has all the fight left us? Do we really want to be (erroneously) brainwashed into thinking our national debt is on a par with that of Greece and therefore we have no choice; we must accept these cuts and if we don't accept one cut then we have to find something else to snip away? Do we have to lie down and just be so grateful for the crumbs at the table that are the remnants of services we were once proud of but now offer only the basics? Is all that is left for us a thankfulness that services to protect life and limb are now run on but a shoestring? Why can't we make a stand and say no? We want and deserve more than what we are being offered. We are told that all this cutting is so that our children and grandchildren do not have to pay our debts. I don't recall there being any national outcry over the tens of years that we paid off debts incurred because of World War 2. We got on with it because it was part of our duty for a previous generation. Are our children and grandchildren going to thank us for leaving them no green heritage to speak of because we destroyed it in cuts because we didn't pay £10 more council tax? Will our children and grandchildren be left with empty spaces where memories of visits to parks to play on the swings or have a game of football should be?

These are some of the things that I think about and I know I'm not the only one. If I was there wouldn't be people supporting the facebook group I set up or signing the petition to the council. I'm led to understand that I've upset some of our local councillors because I've had the audacity to mass e-mail them all not once but twice because I feel so strongly about this borough wide issue. So be it because after my first e-mail a mere 8 councillors bothered to get in touch with me. After the second a couple more got in touch but not my local tory councillors of Aldridge Central and South. To those who feel grieved and annoyed by my emails and the campaign that I've started and to my local Representatives who cannot be bothered to respond when  someone from their ward gets in touch with them about  a subject as important as this, I say hang your heads in shame. Please continue to bank your ample allowances whilst the borough is laid to waste by your ineptness, ignorance and inability to represent the people of your electorate. I would like to say that the ballot box will be the answer but alas the next elections will come too late on saving our green spaces and countryside services because any statutory redundancy notices will have to be issued at Christmas. I sincerely hope that if those notices are issued that the councillors who are on mute and are allowing this to happen suffer some seasonal digestive discomfort whilst wassailing and enjoying their festivities at Christmastime.

Oh and that £400K countryside park idea announced on Friday that the council is just about to spend thousands embarking upon a feasibility study for? Pray, I ask myself who is going to plan for, manage and maintain this park if you make redundant the staff who would have done so? The Park Fairies? I have an idea (not the only one  should they ask but they don't, regarding finances instead of cuts) it's a very simple one. That £400K exactly matches the sum that the councillors want to cut our service by....do you think they need it spelling out?

Save Walsall's Green Spaces and Countryside Services -NOW!

Park Lime Pits looking stunning today despite the gloomy skies

I've been a little busy since my last bog and I fully intend to bring everyone up to date with everything over the weekend. In the meantime I have this very important link to share with everyone. It is a petition to Walsall Council to save our Green Spaces and Countryside Services. The Service is facing savage budget cuts in 2013 leading potentially to a loss of 2 Countryside Rangers and 4 Senior Park Rangers. More later but please, I implore you, if you live, work or study in the Borough of Walsall, SIGN the petition. Thanks!

Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got, 'til it's gone

Joni Mitchell sang wise words about that Big Yellow Taxi, paving paradise and putting up parking lots. A hit 40 odd years ago, the words of that song are timeless and as relevant today as they were back then. On a day when hundreds of thousands of ordinary people including the wonderful Aiden and the Jafro Boy, also known as plebs, are marching in London to protest against austerity and just what the realities are of being a pleb and being in it together far more that any tory boy minister will ever be, it is apt that I write about how precious are the free things in life. Except that they're not really free. There is always a cost and when that cost is not met, there is a heavy price to pay.

People who live in Walsall are incredibly lucky. Yes you read that right! We have a jewel, a precious jewel. That jewel is called Walsall Countryside Services. There must be some very committed and hard working people who work there because the miracles that performed within this urban borough are a credit to them, a credit to the people of the borough and a credit to Walsall Council. They do an awful lot with not a lot of money and we all benefit from it. Think of the wonderful and beautiful green spaces, nature reserves and parks that we have in Walsall and you start to understand what miracles are performed.

The photographs here are of Park Lime Pits which is a beautiful place just 2 miles from the centre of Walsall. I take visitors from all around the UK there and always they are incredulous that such a place exists in Walsall. Other places that I enjoy on a regular basis are The Dingle, Cuckoo's Nook, Barr Beacon, Merrions Wood, The Arboretum; all of these and the many others in Walsall such as Shire Oak, Moorcroft, Rough Wood and Fibbersley Nature Reserves, the Commons of Brownhills, Clayhanger and Pelsall, Goscote Valley and Stubbers Green are cared for, nourished, improved, conserved and maintained by a group of staff from Walsall Countryside Services.

I'm lucky enough to know one or two of those committed and hard working souls through various means but the person I have most contact  with is Morgan Bowers. This is because I'm involved with Friends of Park Lime Pits and the Pits and Lime Pits Farm are part of Morgan's portfolio of work. I'm told that the other staff at Walsall Countryside Services are every bit as friendly, driven, conscientious and enthusiastic as Morgan. There's a lot goes on outside normal working hours such as the Meteor Watch at Barr Beacon tonight, courses on basket weaving, Peregrine Watch, all designed to bring what Walsall has to offer closer to the local people.

We all need a little time out to enjoy an oasis of calm and green and Countryside Services make sure that those spaces are maintained and kept well for us to be able to do that. Alas my concern is the financial juggling that the Council are about to embark upon in preparation for setting the budget for the 2013 financial year and the effect that loosely juggled balls will have upon this precious service. I am not aware of what cuts may be made and what that could mean in a practical sense to the service and for those that work for it but what I do know is presently they do a brilliant job, which the council is quick to milk for publicity purposes (because let's face it some other services at the council seem only to be able to garner bad publicity in recent times) and that it would be a great pity if those committed staff were to suddenly find their hands tied when it comes to providing a first class service or worse still, they find themselves making fortnightly visits to sign on.

We perhaps take this jewel a little for granted. If we do then we really will not know what we have enjoyed until it is gone. Personally I don't want to take any risks and will be emailing my local councillors to let them know that I do not want to see this service cut to the bone and decimated and for the jewel to be allowed to tarnish. I urge everyone to do the same.