Author Archives: swanny

This is a guest blog post by local campaigner Darryl, active in the community in relation to environmental concerns and issues surrounding “reclamation” of contaminated land, in particular the so called “Friar Park Urban Village”, much lorded by the WMCA … Continue reading →

  Well, we seem to have been here before and are going around in circles. 🙄 It is now becoming as farcical as an episode of Allo Allo. Just a quick recap. The Black Country Core Strategy set out to … Continue reading →

This third and final week of the Sandwell Local Plan examination was about specific policy areas and their soundness and was conducted online instead of in the council chamber. I had never used Microsoft Teams before so had a practice … Continue reading →

It has been my longstanding personal experience of this local authority that wildlife protection and the protection of wildlife habitat have been thrown to the wolves or housing developers over time. Nature corridors like those which border Sheepwash Local Nature … Continue reading →

And so to week 2 of the Sandwell local Plan examination. Week one and my participation in that I looked at HERE. This week saw “the big one” as I see it, discussion of soundness of the plan regards site … Continue reading →

With Rattlechain lagoon again being in focus of late regards the ill conceived Sandwell local plan and its examination-( a further update on that for weeks 2 and 3 coming soon), it is with interest that a new sign has … Continue reading →

Albright and Wilson’s 1950’s advertising was somewhat creepy as well as bizarre, as I looked at on this page, and also in the previous post in their 1954 annual accounts. Another ad however I have found looks as though notorious … Continue reading →

  The post war Albright and Wilson, having benefitted heavily from that war were at the peak of their controlling powers in the early 1950’s. They ran Oldbury, and had for some time with ratty Wilson and fan boy industrialists … Continue reading →

This town, still the centre of political life in Sandwell has at its core a legacy of the worst kind of chemical polluting industries, glorified by useful idiots but mainly the political class who in some form have benefitted financially … Continue reading →

The idea of attempting to relink the demise of two brickworks operations, filled over with toxic wastes and foundry sands into some co-disposal super tip to use as a foundation for housing is absurd, and yet here we are with … Continue reading →