And so it came to pass, the last full Tamworth Borough Council meeting of 2024. So what was on the agenda at this meeting of Tamworth’s community leaders? Well not a fat lot to be honest, most of it was statutory housekeeping with reports briefly commented on before being summarily accepted so that Councillors could enjoy a buffet laid on by the Mayor.
Prior to that, the only interesting parts of the meeting, and by interesting we mean mostly deathly boring, were questions from the public and Councillors. A certain Paul Sharman who submitted questions as a member of the public, wasn’t there to read it out. Which is a surprise because he’s often on Facebook blurting out some crap or other but hasn’t quite made it to the village idiot status yet. He has previous for abusing Councillors online because of course he knows best, maybe he couldn’t bring himself to face them in person like most good keyboard warriors. His questions related to the recent Council takeover of Ankerside shopping centre (there’s people including him still calling it a purchase, when it really is nothing of the sort). Sharman asked questions regarding the status of the building.
The problem with both of these questions is that the acquisition has literally just happened, and they are pretty much the same, last time we walked through Ankerside there weren’t bits of building flying off and hitting shoppers, so we can’t quite understand what Sharman thinks is imminently unsafe about the place for the public. The Council did have the answers though to be fair to them, which we point you to the video of the meeting to listen to. Unfortunately it boils down to hundreds of thousands of pounds of liability to fix up the neglected centre, and since the shopping centre used to provide over a million pounds a year guaranteed in rent, the money is now starting to flow back the other way. It is unfortunately going to be a millstone around the councils neck and it’s time is up. Unfortunately Labour look set to keep Ankerside in a zombie state and let it lurch around until it’s inevitable death, but not before a metric butt tonne of money has been thrown at it. Do the right thing Labour and put it out of its misery.
The next questions from Councillors were all about flooding and effluent, which we thought rather fitting for one of these meetings. We had Councillor Paul Turner asking about the robustness of the flood plans the Council have, since we are more likely to be under water much sooner than was foretold by the band Busted who apparently lied to us all. Naturally Labour dodged any responsibility by saying it’s all down to the Environment agency, apparently they are happy to commit only to passively work with them and meet with them. Since Labour are in charge of this town and its welfare you’d think they’d be somewhat more concerned than that, after all the Labour MP Sarah Edwards has been busy talking the talk and having ‘flood summits’ that involved the Council, yet strangely enough neither she nor the summit were mentioned. It’s almost like it was a bullshit stunt to make her look good and she didn’t involve her local Councillors whatsoever. Noah knows he needs an ark, but he’s got someone else building it after having a quick glance over the plans. That’s essentially the position Labour are taking for all their and the MPs bluster.
Next was a question about discharge (of the sewage kind) from Councillor Martin Summers who again highlighted the fact that the Labour Council have not given a shit about the shit being pumped into our water courses, despite their party having moaned at the Tories prior to the elections for allowing this to happen. Labour have given no time to this issue locally, and not held anyone from the water company responsible to account. Isn’t it strange that despite being one of their parties priorities, it disappears never to be heard of again.
Then, quite an odd question from Councillor Sam Smith:
We’re not entirely sure what the point was with this question. It was after all (and this was pointed out by Councillor Carol Dean) that it was the Tories who started off the Future High Street Fund works. Apparently people are concerned about the disruption the works are causing, although we aren’t quite sure exactly what people expect with a regeneration project. As they say, you can’t make an omelette without breaking some eggs. As for the castle gateway bridge specifically being removed to be replaced along with the Nationwide building being pulled down, then people are going to have to walk around the other way aren’t they. It’s quite simple when you think about it Councillor Smith.
Both Councillors Smith and Turner asked questions regarding the recent telegraph pole stink that has been kicked up. Essentially this boils down to apparently the Council not being proactive enough in response to these poles popping up all over the place, despite the actual gosh darn truth that the Council does not in fact have any prior warning of these poles going in, and in fact can do absolutely bugger all about them and they require no permission to be given to install. That apparently isn’t good enough for these two Councillors who are advocating wasting Council and officers time on speaking with just one of the many many alternative network companies that could come along to Tamworth and install fibre optic cable on our streets. Lightspeed the unfortunate first company that happened to darken the doorstep of ill advised busybody popularity seeking Councillors such as Richard Kingstone are probably now wondering why they bothered at all and why they in particular are being singled out. Openreach the spun off infrastructure arm of British Telecom have been going about the town sticking up poles all over the place and not one word has been said about them other than on this site.
Lightspeed have been made the whipping boy for the sake of some Councillors political ambition and public popularity and have been forced into public engagement and meetings for their trouble. Will the same meetings and scrutiny fall on to the plethora of other fibre providers who were looking to invest in Tamworth? One (brsk) has apparently already pulled out of Tamworth having seen the ridiculous farce being played out over wooden poles objected to by NIMBYs ‘just because’. Fact is, the poles are the only way real competition amongst broadband providers is going to be provided to Tamworth. Some of our short sighted Councillors are in fact just creating a monopoly for Openreach based providers and Virgin when other areas are going to have a wide gamut to choose from with real competition.
Have you noticed dear reader that only the councillors who regularly appear on this site are kicking up a fuss? There’s been no big fuss from residents that other Councillors represent. Strange that. Fact is, either each of these providers share poles, or every single one of them separately digs up the street to put their cable in (and we’ve already seen reports of how bad some of those digging efforts have been). and our towns pavements where it has been insisted that no pole shall pass, will be torn up on a regular basis for each new provider in town. We actually believe most simply won’t bother to do that, and it sucks for those residents who won’t get the choice of providers. Remember who to thank for that at the ballot boxes people.
Special mention of the evening and the last of the substantive business that had time given to it was a motion put forward by Councillor Marion Couchman.
Tamworth Borough Council requests that SCC share with us their strategy to manage increased traffic demand in and around Tamworth.
How will it ensure a safe and healthy environment for residents, particularly in respect of the ever-increasing housing developments, and proposed developments?
Will the County Council share with us any strategies that they wish to implement to improve the road infrastructure in Tamworth?
What an insightful and appropriate question you might think to yourself. Then you stop and realise that there’s County Council elections next May. As Councillor Martin Summers pointed out when speaking on the motion debate, ”we’ve just witnessed the launch of Tamworth Labours County election campaign”. He also pointed out to her that as the chairperson of the Infrastructure committee on the council, she had the perfect opportunity to call in the Staffordshire Highways department and have a proper discussion with them on the subject involving members across all parties. Recommendations from the committee, it was then clarified, could then be put forward to the Council to discuss and agree on as a result. In short it was just shallow electioneering that brought it straight in front of the whole Council at Couchmans whim. Indeed it was pointed out to her by Councillor Tina Clements that the information she seeks is public and available on the Highways website. Doesn’t stop a bit of irresistible and juicy County Council bashing to help along an election campaign though does it. You’re going to see a lot more of that in the coming months Debunking Reader. Oddly enough the Tories voted to approve the motion along with the rest of the room, not that voting against it would have made any difference of course.
In all it was a pretty pedestrian Full Council meeting. We fully expect the next one to be full of election guff from Labours’ candidates who if elected will be dividing their time between the two Councils. Labour have their sights on the County Council thinking it’s only right they get hold of it. Despite their party leader doing his best to screw the country up early doors, sadly they may still get a shot.
