In the Bleak Mid Winter of Cuts and Decline

Main pathway into Park Lime Pits from car park

 As there are some long shifts ahead for the rest of this week and weekend, we decided to put aside a couple of hours today for a walk. We stayed local and dropped by on Park Lime Pits. Regular readers will know how much I adore this local nature reserve and the taste of countryside that it offers to the people of Walsall.

This winter although stormy, wet and windy has been incredibly mild and today would have been a pleasant day for a walk had the conditions been conducive. Attempting to walk on incredibly wet ground where the clay mud attempts to suck your sturdy walking boots off your feet is hard going and there is no let up. Even on walkways and hard pathways there are puddles and slippy, slimy mud waiting to trap you with each footstep.

Water levels are incredibly high- the steep embankments look positively benign!

I was saddened to note that there are many signs that anti-social behaviour continues at the Lime Pits. Well trodden paths lead to areas where only those with certain unsavoury activities in mind, go. There are now parts of this lovely nature reserve that are no-go places for ordinary, law abiding, non-exhibitionist people and for children too. It seems that all the hours of work identifying and assessing the situation, liaising with the local police and Network Rail were all for naught. Cuts in budgets and in staffing levels at Walsall Council mean that only rudimentary work is being carried out and much of the clearance work to discourage certain behaviour, previously undertaken by the Friends of Park Lime Pits was for nothing because for it to have been effective, it needed to be kept up to date. It hasn't been.

The brook that runs through the reserve was as fast and full as I have ever seen and it is making massive inroads into the banking. No willow weaving to keep the banks sturdy and strong.

The pools also are as full as I can remember and this can be seen from the level of the water line shown in some of the photographs I took today. No steep embankments at the lower end of the large pool and no decking platform on which to pond dip on the smaller pool because it is several inches below the water level. Despite the clearance of an old and damaged beech tree, the shrubbery on the edge of the small pool by the pathway between the two pools is in dire need of some attention. The view to the smaller pool and the hope of seeing the resident kingfisher is constrained by the abundance of willows that have set strong, even in the bleak mid winter. Come spring there will be no view at all.

Towards the small pool, getting difficult to see

Turning to the canal the walking didn't get any easier as can be seen and I worry as to the safety of Riddians Bridge. The sandbagging of the edge of the canal in an attempt to hold up the embankment and keep the water where it should be, is holding well as a two year old temporary measure but alas there is now a huge stretch of canal that requires attention before all of the water in the canal pours into adjacent fields.

Although I enjoyed the walk today particularly as the small birds were in abundance, their song a joy to hear and we even had the pleasure of spotting a yellowhammer, I couldn't help but feel the gradual decline of these places I love, through neglect, wanton or otherwise. What I feared is coming to fruition, only much sooner that I feared.

The farmer's compost heap gets larger, a home for all sorts of insects

Rushall Church through the trees

I'm always amazed that this very old beech tree manages not just to survive but to thrive despite the damage to its heart

Cycling could prove difficult along here

Riddians Bridge - looking like it needs some TLC

Beware - Plant Crossing

Back in the mid to late 1960s my parents made the most of having good babysitters readily and willingly available by allowing my maternal grandparents the honour of looking after me and my siblings every Saturday night whilst they enjoyed the offerings of The Muckley Corner Hotel. If you live in Aldridge you will know that there are several routes to what is now a huge roundabout on the A5, the quick direct way and the more paced, measured and interesting way. I believe it was the latter route that my parents took although this cannot be confirmed by my father as his lips remain sealed however, based upon the evidence of what could be found in the kitchen on a Sunday morning, I am 100% certain they didn't follow the direct route.

My Mom's Sunday dinners were beautiful and bounteous affairs. The main meal would be a good joint usually of beef but sometimes pork or lamb, cooked to perfection accompanied by potatoes of roasted and boiled persuasions and various vegetables, always of a seasonal nature and extremely fresh. I have never been able to replicate Mom's gravy, made with the juices in the roasting pan with additions. I wish that I could for I could never have enough of that nectar like liquid upon my plate and every single drop would be consumed.

I added emphasis to the seasonal nature and freshness of the vegetables for a reason. I return to Sunday mornings of my childhood. Without exception there on the old wooden draining board, next to the butlers type white porcelain sink would be a large and sumptuous example of vegetation. Green cabbage or cauliflower, bunches of carrots, parsnips, turnips, their green leaves a little wilted and dark soil attached to their fine, long roots. Now and then a mound of soil encased potatoes or peas still attached to their winding, leafy vines. I recall asking my Mom where these bounties came from but never got an answer but as I grew into a teenager that would now and then, make a few pennies from picking spuds and the like over Stonnall and Shenstone way, the source became clearer to me.

It seems that there is a family tradition in such matters as a trawl through the archives of newspapers now available online has revealed. Thomas Plant was my Great Great Grandfather. He was born in Walsall and for many years he traded as a poulterer and green grocer on the Wolverhampton Road. He also tried his hand as a publican of the now fire damaged shell of what was The Orange Tree Pub shortly before moving to Aldridge to farm. His farming was of no great acreage being limited to the fields around the Walsall Road heading up to where the White House pub is now but it was enough to help maintain the hoards of grandchildren that had now arrived courtesy of his numerous children. It seems he was quite a character....

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The Lichfield Mercury Friday 11 January 1895:

AN EXPENSIVE CHRISTMAS BUNCH 

Thomas Plant, farmer, Aldridge, Walsall, pleaded guilty to having damaged a holly tree, at Mile Oak, Drayton, the property of the Trustees of Sir Robert Peel's settled estates to the amount of 2s 6d, on the 10th Ult. - Harry Jones, gamekeeper, said about 3 pm., he saw the defendant and another man in a cart. Defendant, who was driving, turned the cart under the tree, from which he cut two boughs (produced).- Defendant said he was very sorry. He was a 64 years of age, and had been punished enough without having to come there. - The Mayor said defendant was old enough to know better. (Laughter).- The Chairman questioned whether the holly was worth 2s 6d, whereupon the Magistrates Clerk (Mr E Argyle) pointed out that that amount was for the damage done to the tree. - The witness Jones said bills cautioning people against damaging the trees were exhibited on the road, and a reward of £2 offered to persons giving information which would lead to a conviction. - The Bench fined defendant 4s with 1s for the damage, and 10s costs.

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His daughter in law, Rose, my Great Grandmother was renowned (according to my father) for her thrift and ensuring what pennies she did have, multiplied and went as far as anyone could stretch them, was no stranger in attempting to use the bounties available for free if only you knew where to take advantage. The one photograph that I have seen of her reveals a sturdy but small woman, with light coloured curly hair pulled tight into a no nonsense bun at the nape of her neck and a very set and determined expression upon her face, no smile, just grim determination.

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The Lichfield Mercury Friday 2 October 1903:

RAKING THE CANAL

Rose Plant, married woman, Speedwell Lane, Aldridge, was charged with stealing coal from the Birmingham Canal on Sept 16. - PC Collins saw the defendant raking coal out of the canal, and said she offered to give him a nice fowl if he would not report the affair. - Defendant pleaded guilty, and was fined 10s and 18s costs.

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I have to say I expressed astonishment that a person could be prosecuted for what they found in the canal especially through industrious activity! You have to admire Rose's attempt to bribe the police officer with a 'fowl'.

Me? I think we call it foraging these days.......

Banking on Food

Late this afternoon, three of us went over to The Thomas Project in Lancaster Avenue, Aldridge to drop off our Christmas donation to the Black Country Food Bank.

I had always thought that any donations would be sorted and distributed centrally. Not so. If you take food and other donations to Aldridge they are used in Aldridge, unless there is a large surplus. For some reason this piece of knowledge touched me. Perhaps it's something to do with Aldridge being considered one of the more affluent areas of Walsall, not even worthy of a youth centre any more. Yet here we are in the 21st century and Aldridge has its very own food bank because there are people here that for whatever reason, find themselves in need of the emergency three day supply of food that is supplied to anyone who is given a voucher by certain agencies.

We had added lots of Christmas type treats to our donation and I'm so glad that we did because the sheet that I was allowed to take describing what is supplied to a single person as the basics for three days is not luxurious. Take a look and remember that say for a family of four then the amounts are multiplied by four.

Item	Amount
Cereal	1 Small packet or 4 single servings
Soup OR Cup a Soup	2 std cans or pkts
Beans OR spaghetti	1 std can
Tomatoes	1 std can
Vegetables	2 std cans
Tinned potatoes/Mash	1 sml
Meat OR Veggie Option	1 small can
Ready Meal	1 sml pky/can
Sav.Rice OR pasta OR noodles	1 pkt rice, pasta OR 2 pkt noodles
Fish	1 sml can
Fruit	1 std can
Rice pudding or Dessert	1 std can/pkt
Biscuits	1 sml pkt
Sugar	250g
Pasta/Dried spaghetti/Rice	Small – 500g
Pasta/Cooking Sauce	1 regular
Tea or coffee	20 bags/small jar
Fruit juice UHT	1 carton or 4 ind. Cartons
Milk UHT or powdered	2 x ½ litre or 4 ind. Cartons
Baby milk or food	Dependent on age
EXTRA TREATS WHEN AVAILABLE
Sauce or cooking ingredient	1
Chocolate/Sweets	1 sml
Healthy snacks	3 individual (1 per day)
Peanut butter/Jam/Marmalade	1

When Iain Duncan Smith walked out of the food bank debate the other night and when all those MPs voted against the motion, did they for one moment, consider what it is to find yourself in the situation where you are issued with a voucher to use at a food bank and also what food is then given to you. It isn't luxurious. It's basic and there's nothing fresh there for very obvious reasons.

If you've a few tins spare or pasta or rice or you've some home made jams, chutneys, mince pies, can I urge you to pop down to your local food bank, you can find details HERE for the Black Country, before Christmas Day and put a smile on someone's face at a time when they personally have little to smile about.

Thank you and a very Merry Christmas to all who read my mad ramblings.

Sharing blessings

Snow Bunting at Titchwell

When I made the decision that I was finally ready to date again, after suffering the devastation of a relationship break up that all but broke me as person, I was in my late forties and to be honest was scared to death. When I had last dated the t'interweb and its plethora of sites for the purpose of, was in its infancy and was a far friendlier and more intimate place than now. On first dangling my toes in the water of such sites I discovered that many read 'late 40s' as meaning 'desperate' and 'ready to consider anything', neither of which applied to me, as was soon made clear to those with such uneducated thoughts!

What I lacked in recent experience though was made up by the fact that I knew exactly what I was looking for in a partner and wasn't prepared to compromise. Late forties meant that I had lived enough life and made enough mistakes to not settle for second, third or fourth best. Confidence in your own qualities and abilities is a powerful thing, as is the knowledge that you're happy enough on your own but that it would be nice to share once again, provided the strict criteria for doing so, was met.

Eventually I met Aiden and being honest, it became clear within days of our first date that he was someone who was going to become very special to me. Just how special and how lucky I am to have met him has become something that I have been reflecting upon in the last few weeks. Not for any other reason than we have shared some exquisite moments in those weeks.

Seal at Blakeney Point

As regular readers will know I have a deep love for the natural world, the bounties of nature and the beauty of this planet, country and town that we live in. To meet someone who shares and matches if not exceeds that love, who wants to do and share the same things that I do without any question whatsoever, is a lucky thing indeed.

In the last month I have seen and experienced  things I've never seen or experienced before. At every step and for every moment holding my hand and feeling the same as I did, was Aiden. We watched seals in Norfolk and saw otters playing at Leighton Moss and then on Sunday we witnessed a murmuration of starlings at Middleton Lakes. In between we did our usual bird watching at Sandwell Valley and further afield, made cider and have walked and walked. If I said that I valued every second of sharing a love for the wonders of nature with a wonderful man would you believe me? Well you should because I did. He is one of the reasons that all of this is so very special. And I wouldn't want to experience these things with anyone else. The shared peace and tranquility cannot be described. At one with each other and at one with the world.

I am well blessed and I know it.

Sunset at Middleton Lakes

Further News on The Manor House Aldridge

I complained to Walsall Council about the break of promise in holding a further public meeting regarding the future of The Manor House and the Youth Service in Aldridge.

The response is below.

Couple of points. The so called minutes of the meeting are not minutes but a log. They are inaccurate and misleading. I was the person that called for a further public meeting and was told that there would be one. There are lots of witnesses to this including councillors. Furthermore, tweets from Walsall Council indicated that a further public meeting was being planned. Previous blogs detail all of this.

Someone is lying.

Yes, I shall be taking this further. I'll let you know the outcome in due course.

Oh and I saw no evidence whatsoever of 250 flyers. 13 people attended. I do not consider this to be because of apathy but because there was virtually no publicity. Walsall Council relies too heavily on their own social media for publicity. This meeting wasn't given any other publicity by local bloggers/twitterers prior to the event. With a few lines in the local freebies, the drop in session was doomed to failure before it began.

And perhaps I'm being a little cynical in noticing that the drop in session was arranged for a date when local councillors were all busy at a local community area meeting and therefore could not attend to face their electorate.

Petition the current Lords of the Manor House

Please could you find 30 seconds to sign my new e-petition on the council's web site calling for the promised public meeting into the sale of Aldridge Manor House and future youth provision in Aldridge?

The petition reads:

We the undersigned petition the council to  hold a public meeting in Aldridge with regard to the sale of the Manor House in Aldridge and the future provision of youth services in Aldridge. This meeting should take place before the end of October 2013 and should be widely advertised and publicised using all forms of media and social media.

Press LINK to open up the page to sign.

Thank you.

Pillage at The Manor: A Tale of Broken Promises

Forgive me for returning to the subject of Aldridge Manor House and Youth Provision in Aldridge once again but even I was surprised by the audacity of the lies and broken promises from Walsall Council, that were highlighted yesterday afternoon by a single tweet to this mad old baggage.

As I have recounted previously, back on 13 June this year, a hastily convened public meeting was held to discuss the council's plans to run the youth provision for Aldridge from the back of a van. A further public meeting was promised for the community of Aldridge, a promise made in front of five councillors including the Deputy Leader of the Council, who were present. It was clear from the meeting that people present were not only concerned with the proposals for youth provision but also about the sale of the building. The two subjects are entirely separate but also linked.

My attempts to chivy the council along in setting a date were detailed here and I continued to tweet them on a regular basis throughout the summer, even from holiday, mostly to a blank wall. However, any responses always led me to believe that a meeting would be held.

Earlier this week, the council issued a press release, praising themselves on their 'consultations' with the young people of Aldridge and their reassurances to the residents regarding the sale of the building and announcing a 'drop in' event to be held at the Manor House on 1st October. My instincts were aroused and so I asked a lot more questions. Yesterday afternoon the council confirmed in a tweet to me that the 'drop in' session is in the place of a further public meeting. How dare they and what justification can be given for the  such an important announcement has been made? They had the opportunity to make this clear in the press release but failed to do so, deliberately so in my opinion because this whole episode has been handled badly with not even lip service paid to the local community.

It is fair to say that the young people of the area have been consulted but confirming my suspicions from 13 June when I said there appeared to be no desire by the council to engage with the wider community, there has been very little attempt to consult with anyone else and what consultation that has taken place has been given very little publicity. The council have been keen to promote their view that it is the service users, in other words the young people, who are playing key roles in decision making about the future of youth provision but I know of young people who have snorted in a derisory fashion when asked if all of their opinions and views are being listened to. Furthermore when the council makes consultations about other areas of service provision, say provision for the elderly, libraries and leisure, green spaces, education do they consult only with the service users? Of course not! Services are provided for the benefit of the whole community and therefore the whole community is invited to voice their views and opinions. Clearly in this case IYPSS (Integrated Young People's Support Service - the department responsible for this shambles), has tried to keep a lid on consultation but at whose request? Cabinet members? Councillors? Officers? And for what purpose and reason? I only see party politics or perhaps council people politics at play here. Whatever happened to accountability?

Examining the five buildings identified as possible alternative venues for youth provision in Aldridge, I am not entirely convinced that any of them will be viable. The young people have made it clear through surveys conducted in June and July (who has been sitting on them since then?) that they don't want pop up or back of the van provision and have made suggestions about what sort of building they want and where it should be.  The Scout Hut in Middlemore Lane lacks space and has limited evening availability, as does the Community Centre which also lacks flexibility (read, we don't want a youth club there thank you very much) and the Outdoor Activity Centre at Aldridge Airport does not offer safety when considering there are not even lights for the road leading to it and whose car park is a hub for anti-social behaviour of a most unsavoury nature, even in broad daylight. Officers  couldn't even contact the relevant person for another building; The Anchorage 55+ Club in Leighswood Road. This leaves Croft House at 45 High Street which has identifed as an issue 'would require partners', read we would have to pay rent etc to a landlord.

The aim of IYPSS is to close the youth centre at the Manor House at Christmas this year and reopen in the new building in January. It is now September and a suitable venue hasn't even been identified. The five buildings is merely a list of desirable places with a further list of excuses attached as to why they are not suitable. Truth is there aren't any suitable buildings in Aldridge that meet the criteria for running a youth centre other than the building it is already in.

And what of that building? The Leader of the Council says assurances have been issued to residents regarding the safety of the building between it's closure and eventual sale. When? If he means those given at the meeting in June then forgive me if I take those with a rather large pinch of salt because other promises were made that evening that have already been broken. The council also says that any  future use of the building is open for debate. Hmmm, like the debate that we're not having the moment? One local councillor has talked about the proceeds of the sale being invested in Aldridge but official council press releases and utterances on this matter are very careful in their avoidance of such promises. There will be no sight of the £1 million proceeds in Aldridge. One of its few historic buildings left will be sold and there will be no recompense for the local community for that pillage. This is in stark contrast to the investment made in Willenhall by the council in preserving the historic buildings there. I have no problem with the wider Walsall community benefiting and certainly have no beef with investments being made in historic buildings, if I thought the investments were a worthwhile benefit but not everyone cares for a town centre Primark or whatever scheme is brought about behind closed doors, with no public consultation, debate or accountability from those who happen to be Walsall Cabinet members. It's a very private club that cabinet.

If you feel as enraged about this as much as I do, then I urge you to complain to Walsall Council about its handling of this sorry episode as I have done and I also urge you to sign the e-petition that I've set up calling for a public meeting, that will go live next week. Link to be posted then.

Omnishambles is now defined in the OED. It's alive and well in Walsall too.