Posts from — May 2008

I wrote recently about the continued problems in Shenstone around HGVs using roads through the village which just aren’t suitable. The very big lorries are forced to mount the pavement when they pass each other in opposite directions and that is an accident waiting to happen.

But I’m still not absolutely sure whether the problem is getting worse or not in Shenstone. Some figures I’ve just had from radar counts undertaken by Highways over the past couple of years suggest the numbers are similar now to 15 months ago. Too high, but not increasing as some say they are. Certainly nowhere near the numbers when Willi Betz were there.

Actually, whether the numbers are increasing or not, the roads aren’t suitable for the very big HGVs whatever the number. We delivered letters from me to 500 homes in the area yesterday encouraging local people to comment on a planning application which could well increase the number of HGVs using village roads.

I intend to speak against that application when it goes before Lichfield’s Planning Committee in a few weeks time and the response to my requests for formal comments from locals to be sent in support of a refusal will be a good measure of the strength of feeling.

It’s not practical, possible or fair to simply close the industrial estate down…. what is sensible, and that is what I’d like to see, is to try to stop the problems being compounded with yet more heavy traffic to and from a new distribution centre.

It’s plain daft to keep endorsing something which is not sustainable. As these lorries get bigger and bigger, the situation becomes less sustainable and more dangereous for pedestrians and other road users. I want the Planning Committee to draw a line in the sand, to make a statement saying we’ll stick with what we’ve got for the moment but won’t tollerate continued increases.

That may just trigger a general environment where we can start to look at other alternative locations for HGV operators but until that line is drawn, and they know there is no long term future at that location, nothing will change. Will there be a big response from local people and will the Planning Committee at Lichfield stand up to the daft and inadequate national planning legislation?…. we’ll see.

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My work as a local politician is often frustrating usually because in the public sector, whether it be local government or central government, it takes too long for things to happen.

But the issue of HGVs using Shenstone’s narrow roads to get to the industrial estate in Lynn Lane goes way beyond my normal frustration levels because it feels like I’m banging my head against a brick wall. The problem is the increasing numbers of 38 tonne monster trucks which, when they meet coming in opposite directions, have to mount the pedestrian footway to pass.

It’s been going on for many years and it is something I’ve been trying to tackle since my election to Lichfield District Council over four years ago. I’ve not had much success other than a couple of years ago when, after a long battle, I managed to get the biggest user of lorries at the time to move somewhere else. And for a while it made a big difference… I had a lot of letters from local people saying ‘they felt they’d got their village back’.

But within a few months the numbers of HGVs steadily increased because of a number of smaller operators taking the place of the big one that went. Not to anywhere near the level of before but, nevertheless, far more than is safe or sensible and far more than local people want. But my real frustration has come this last couple of weeks since I learned of a planning application submitted to the local planning authority for a massive B8 classification warehouse near to the industrial estate. B8 means distribution warehousing and that in turn means yet more HGVs.

So I’ve started the same old process of talks with planning officials, talks with Highways officials, talks with the Traffic Commissioner, infact, talks with anyone who’ll talk. And they all listen but all, in turn, seem to be powerless to do anything useful. I rarely feel there is no answer to a problem but this one is defeating me.

Nationally, this country is doing little or no planning to deal with the continued growth in HGV traffic, both British and Continental. The lorries are getting bigger but our infrastructure isn’t keeping up. I’ve had hours of meetings over this latest application but, yet again, there isn’t a single reason under national legislation to refuse it.

Everyone concerned knows it is foolhardy to allow yet more lorries to use Shenstone’s narrow roads. But I’m running out of ideas on this. It’s crackers. I have ‘called in’ the application which means that it will be decided by an elected planning committee rather than officials but despite that I’m certain they will have no alternative but to approve it or risk a Government Inspector overuling and then awarding Hearing costs on top against Lichfield and, in turn, council tax payers.

Frustration is an understatement in the extreme!

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A few weeks ago I was contacted by a constituent who lives in Whittington. Derek is blind, relies heavily on his guide dog Ricky (who is extraordinarily intelligent), and was upset at the way Network Rail had designed and built one of their new West Coast Mainline bridges near to the village.

Despite his circumstances he is a keen walker and refuses to let his disability stop him from living a healthy and independent lifestyle. For many years, with Ricky by his side, he has walked the same route twice a day to and from Whittington village.

It was when the new railway bridge was constructed by Network Rail that his problems began. Guide dogs are trained to avoid curbs and uneven surfaces which may cause their owners to fall but the way this bridge has been built means that Ricky is forced to lead his owner further into the narrowing road under the bridge. For a while they coped running the gauntlet of traffic on what is becoming a busier and busier route.

The first time a car brushed Derek he took it in his stride. A few weeks later when his white stick was clipped by a passing vehicle his wife contacted Network Rail for help. But after several calls to their help line and several promises of calls back… nothing. So they contacted me with the problem a couple of weeks ago. I can’t say it’s been a sprint by Network Rail to put this right but the series of conversations I’ve had with them resulted in a meeting on site this morning.

One thing I was reminded of today when I experienced myself how Derek and Ricky have to use this route is that it is very difficult, until you physically try it, to appreciate the challenges a disability like blindness can bring. I’ve asked Network Rail to come back to me in the next seven days with some proposals on how to put right this design fault which, to be fair to them, was also approved by County Highways.

I’ll write no more at this point but may have more to write depending on Network Rail’s view in a week’s time. I’m hopeful, however, it will be the right one.

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I wrote not long ago about Staffordshire County Council’s continued use of media manipulation to try and fudge U-turns by the Labour administration.

Hot on the heels of the million quid of tax payers money spent on the County’s new glossy Staffordshire magazine all households receive every few months is the latest waste of tax payers’ money.

Welcome, ‘My County Council‘, the latest use of tax money to persuade Staffordshire tax payers that the last few years of bad news has just been unfortunate and that, really, Labour are really good for our county.

Look out for the ‘My County Council‘ branding and you’ll see where the latest hundred grand or so has gone.

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A very bold statement I know but one that I hope will be true for the village of Elford near Tamworth.

I’ve written quite a few times about Elford since the terrible flooding there about a year ago. Since that time I’ve been working with different public agencies to try and find a pragmatic long term solution to the problem which saw dozens of homes flooded and meant an expensive operation twice for emergency services and other authorities during the flood period.

It also meant real hardship for many families who spent months and months not being able to be in their own homes, including over Christmas. The Environment Agency have been helpful and commissioned a new super pump which would clear much of the major flood water in similar circumstances to last time.

And this week my work with a small group of public agencies I convened four months ago to look at a small but significant flooding problem which the EA pump does not prevent came to fruition. It was one of those difficult problems where right from the start there was a liklihood of the different water management authorities passing the buck by claiming the particular water, river, highways drain or just surface water, was a different orgaisation’s responsibility.

And it did start off a bit like that. But once we got the right ‘culture of pragmatic thinking’ the different organisations have come together to just get the job done. The final piece to the flood mitigation jigsaw came into place after I made contact with the Chief Executive of Severn Trent Water PLC.

Without any obligation to do so, he agreed for the company to carry out some work on private land, at their expense, which would have been far more complicated legally for the EA or County to do. I was rightly critical of STW during the floods of last year but the new boss of the company has been excellent showing a real sense of social responsibility. The work starts next Monday and I’m very grateful to them. Well done Severn Trent… a good example of a public utility which is prepared to put helping a local community before their balance sheet.

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