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<\/p>\nI am no fan of politicians of any variety. They appear out of hibernation in December before a May election and preach how things will be better if they are elected.<\/p>\n
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This year locally in the English West Midlands, we get both council elections delayed from last year, plus the pointless Mayor and Police and Crime Commissioner polls thrown in. The latter two positions have no mandate for their creation by the public, and there does not appear to be any mechanism for removing this shackle of tax payer burden either. If the candidates had the b \ud83d\ude1b llocks to allow a “scrap this position” on the ballot paper then I would bother to vote.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, there really is no difference between any of the Mayoral candidates when it comes to brownfield building. I have called out current mayor Andy Street before for his “brownfield first” agenda ,<\/a> which offers nothing for those who live around such sites, particularly historic landfill sites, except disruption, exposure to long buried hazardous dusts and chemicals , and the eventual prospect of lack of services, increased density of population and loss of green space. His “brownfield” are our green spaces, or those which have the potential to become the nature reserves of tomorrow with sensitive and limited management. Unfortunately, what you will probably get from a development in such areas are plenty of houses with\u00a0 a “tree lined boulevard” or hedgerow thrown in as some form of “mitigation”. Effectively, litter traps where the new neighbourhood dogs can have a piss.<\/p>\n I looked at the Government’s abysmal planning reform white paper,<\/a> and how this “developer’s charter” if approved makes the prospect of having no green space left in our area even easier if you are deemed to be in a “growth” area. Growth that is by developers and the construction industry laying their cuckoo eggs on our soiled soil.<\/p>\n The West Midlands County is tiny compared to the surrounding counties, yet the population is greatly in excess. The rich keep it that way\u00a0 with their “greenbelt” agenda. <\/span><\/p><\/div>\n Locally, the unelected West Midlands Combined Authority, a poor man’s reinvention of the West Midlands County Council and “The Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership”, a new name for the The Black Country Development Corporation is being handed obscene amounts of tax payers money for the house building “clean up” of toxic sites. There is even a \u00a317.5m new building being built in Wolverhampton called the “National Brownfield Institute.” Again we pay for this, when the polluters of the said land never did.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n According to this gushing article,<\/a> this building will\u00a0 “be home to a state-of-the-art research and innovation centre and will feature commercial testing facilities and lab space.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n It will also house a national policy institute which will inform and guide future strategy development around brownfield regeneration, give specialist advice on dealing with contaminated land and repurposing buildings and sites and look at new and innovative construction methods such as modular housing.”<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n “Specialist advice” from whom? This is a private sector body created using public money, and also funded by public money to pay for land that was abandoned, or from which serial polluters like Severn Trent Water PLC can flog off for their shareholder profit. WHY THE HELL SHOULD WE PAY FOR THIS, AND, DID I MISS THAT DEBATE?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Around Rattlechain lagoon there is an evil air stirring on “Mount Doom” that has been buried for some years, a “sleepless malice” with the renewed prospect of more built development. Nothing escapes my eye, and I have been monitoring it for some time, as have local residents, and I will be reporting soon on this.<\/p>\n In this regard, I will be asking questions of those standing in Sandwell in the wards of Oldbury<\/strong>– which contains the lagoon and surrounding area, but also Great Bridge<\/strong> which locates Sheepwash local Nature Reserve<\/a>– which is under increasing threat of such developments on its border. Every candidate standing in these wards will be contacted and asked the same questions and invited to make comment without editing.<\/p>\n It is important at these elections that people voice their opposition to housing being targeted on open space and the very worst historic landfill sites adjoining their homes and the direct threats that “remediation” of these pose. Once the greenspace is gone, it will never be replaced. You should not be left with no open space because green belt votes are considered more important. Use your vote wisely.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n #STOP THE GARDEN CITY<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I am no fan of politicians of any variety. They appear out of hibernation in December before a May election and preach how things will be better if they are elected. This year locally in the English West Midlands, … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/whatliesbeneathrattlechainlagoon.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Scan_20210403-3-287x300.png\")
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