Another busy week drawing to a close. Will be keeping a weather eye on what happens at today’s West Midlands Combined Authority meeting looking for any particular references that might benefit or conversely be detrimental for our area.

As part of my responsibilities as Lead Member for the Land Task and Finish Group I will be meeting up with Metro Mayor Andy Street next week. We will be discussing the Mayor’s plans for land use and housing across the West Midlands. I will be reporting on the outcomes back to the Authority’s Scrutiny Committee and share it with you via these pages.

Have had meetings this week with Willenhall Police to discuss the concerns a number of you have expressed about burglaries, thief from vehicles and anti social behaviour across our area. On the latter I can report that a number of actions have already been taken and the culprits have been dealt with. Other initiatives are in progress to reduce the number of incidents.

I think it’s fair to say that our local neighbourhood policing team are doing a good job given the lack of funding due to a completely out of touch Government attitude to local policing needs. The Government seems to think it’s more important to have people behind desks than out on the street dealing with the everyday things that affect you.  Our view is that there is a need for both. Without the front line intelligence the back office suffers.

Clean and Green issues have dominated a lot of our work in recent weeks and we are working hard to support those groups and individuals who are helping to clean up our area. More resources are being put into enforcement in order to deal with the problems of litter and fly tipping at source as well as getting to grips with the issue of empty properties and unauthorised encampments.

When we took over the council back in May 2016 the previous Tory administration’s budget cuts had all but decimated the council’s ability to take enforcement action. Since taking over we have sanctioned bringing the Planning Department’s Enforcement Team up to full strength, reorganised environmental health and community safety enforcement.

The team has also been dealing with individual problems where residents have come to us asking for help in these difficult times. Many of the cases we are dealing with are as a direct result of continuing austerity measures from a Government more concerned about giving tax breaks to the super rich whilst at the same time cutting aid and assistance to those who need it. This combined with the self inflicted 15% devaluation of our currency and the corresponding rise in the cost of living is pushing many of those who were just managing over the edge.