Busy weekend again for myself and the Willenhall Liberal Democrat Focus Team. True a lot of time was spent dodging the heavy downpours as we went round delivering Focus. Must say it felt more like the onset of Autumn rather than the start of Summer holidays.

Surgeries this week have been busy as usual and we’ve covered a wide range of issues including planning applications, housing problems along with problems with trees and footpaths.

Saturday saw us revisiting the problem of trees in Coltham Road which we reported on a couple of weeks ago.  The lack of response to our request to Walsall Council to do a bit of maintenance to the trees there is annoying at best and to be frank shows a complete disregard for the elderly, and those with poor eyesight. We shall be chasing this up with Walsall Council today (Monday).

On Sunday we popped round to Astoria Gardens to check out complaints about footpaths. Now we know that the state of footpaths is a very touchy subject as there are many that have had little or no work done on them for many years. However the footpaths in question are the responsibility of Walsall Housing Group (WHG) and not Walsall Council. Last year WHG resurfaced their footpaths on the Allens Rough Estate. All but those in Astoria Gardens it would seem. The footpaths there have not been resurfaced since the estate was built back in the 1980’s and are full of dangerous trip hazards, cracks and flood spots. So the Lib Dem Team’s questions to WHG today will be why has this quiet backwater been forgotten? What are you going to do about the health and safety issues?

Staying with Allens Rough and WHG there is also an ongoing issue with the rubbish collection from the 3 storey flats. It would appear that any excess from the rubbish chutes are collected up and brought round to the block in Dorchester Road. Our question to WHG today will be why? Why should those living in this particular block of flats and those residents in houses opposite be confronted with rubbish from elsewhere?