A planning application has been submitted to Walsall Council seeking to demolish the Locksmith’s House on New Road Willenhall, reports cllr Ian Shires.  “This devastating news has come like a bolt out of the blue” said Ian. It was only back in April that Willenhall’s Local Neighbourhood Partnership (LNP) received a presentation relating to the future of the Locksmith’s [...]

Thanks to timely Lib Dem action at least some of the activities for young people will go ahead this summer reports cllr Ian Shires.  You will recall that the Ready Steady Summer programme was put at risk because Walsall Borough Stretegic Partnership failed to provide funding this year. Walsall’s Tory controlled council lurched into action once [...]

Residents living in the 3-storey flats on Tennyson Road and Southey Close came away from a recent “consultation” event organised by Willenhall Housing Group bitterly disappointed when it emerged that the project only included those properties in Coleridge Close and Tennyson Road to number 132. “The Focus Team has fought for these improvements for the past five years [...]

Following on from Friday’s breaking news about the funding fiasco surrounding summer events for young people, further revelations have uncovered the source of the £30,000 in “contingences” identified by Walsall Council. It transpires that the money comes out of an underspend from the Youth Service Budget! “This just goes from bad to worse” said cllr [...]

Work to enable motorists to use the hard shoulder on a busy stretch of the M6 through our area is to begin in April 2009 according to an announcement by the Highways Agency yesterday (Friday).  It will run from Junction 8 to 10a of the M6 which was designed to be used by 72,000 vehicles a day but is now used by [...]

Walsall’s Tory Cabinet has dumped the responsibility for delivering a much watered down programme of events for young people during the long summer holiday onto Local Neighbourhood Partnerships (LNPs) reports cllr. Ian Shires The fiasco of the “Ready Steady Summer” issue dropped through the letter box of LNP members in the form of a letter from the [...]

Recent events might force a change of approach by Local Neighbourhood Partnerships (LNP’s) reports Lib Dem Group Leader cllr. Ian Shires. Walsall’s Tories never did like LNP’s. One senior Tory has said more than once that he’d gladly see the back them! They only agreed to them as the price they had to pay for Lib Dem cooperation [...]

The Lib Dem Focus Team has received notification of a planning application which is looking to increase the amount of parking around the Woodlands Shopping Centre in Bloxwich Road North, Short Heath. To achieve this the applicants want to put in a new service road infront of the shops along with a number of new [...]

Grass is getting cut once again around WHG properties in the Willenhall area reports Lib Dem Cllr Ian Shires. The evidenence on the ground is that those areas worst affected have received a cut this week following a sustained campaign by the Lib Dem Focus Teams in Willenhall North & Short Heath wards. Welcoming the [...]

Whilst out delivering Focus across Willenhall North and Short Heath wards this week-end I spoke with a number of Walsall Housing Group (WHG) residents who are clearly fed up to the back teeth with the grounds maintenance service they are receiving. All of them appreciated the work being put in by the Focus Team. many of those affected [...]