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found 232 stories.
Comment
Roger McKenzie 17 Feb 11
I am sure that I have mentioned several times before that I was born and bred in Walsall. This bond with Walsall, the Black Country and the region as a whole is really important to me.
Wherever I have worked and whatever I have done I have always done everything that I can to defend our region against those from outside that seek to belittle or run us down. I have also taken every available opportunity to work for and to sing the praises of our region.
We are a region that has led the way in innovation. Not only were we the cradle of the industrial revolution our region also gave birth to a system of local government in Birmingham that was later to be copied across the World. We have also, over the years, been one of the powerhouses of the labour and trade union movement…
Comment
Pheasey Park Farm Labour 14 Feb 11
It is good to hear from you on the issue of the library situation within Walsall yet at no point do you directly address the fear on Pheasey about the future of our library.
The review you propose does not address the funding gap that is clear to see in the Walsall budget documentation. It is clear that no Library is safe under a set of conditions you have set that some libraries will find impossible to meet.
Lets look at one example, you said (letter published in the Great Barr Observer) …
News
Jane Tyler B'ham Mail 15 Feb 11
West Midlands fire chiefs said they had been “shafted” by the Government in the spending cuts. The service will lose £6.7 million from its budget this year – but bosses warned that in three years’ time its budget could shrink by as much as £30 million.
At a meeting of the fire authority yesterday, members were told they would be able to find this year’s savings without any increase in its share of the council tax and through natural wastage and efficiencies…
News
Express & Star 15 Feb 11
Around 120 staff at Walsall Council are facing compulsory redundancy, it was revealed today.
Only 165 members of staff applied to voluntarily leave the authority. In total, the council is axing 421 jobs — 187 of which are already vacant.
Council bosses are now talking to the most at-risk workers in departments such as regeneration and planning…
News
Bloxidge Tallygraph 14 Feb 11
A planned Day of Protest at Walsall Central Library by a coalition of local library supporters intended to take place on Saturday 19 February has now been officially called off.
The organiser, Rev. John Davies, who is Superintendent Minister of Walsall Methodist Circuit, said “We were meeting mainly to protest about the rumoured closure of six branch libraries, which the Council informs us is now not going to happen. We are delighted that the views of Walsall people have been listened to about this as people of all ages and backgrounds were up in arms about the possibility of such a major cutback to the library service”.
“However”, he continued…
News
Express & Star 14 Feb 11
Eight hundred firefighters could lose their jobs, 16 fire stations close and 30 fire engines taken off the roads in the West Midlands if anticipated cuts come into force, it was claimed today.
The government grant that makes up about 70 per cent of West Midlands Fire and Rescue Authority’s annual budget has been slashed by £10.164m, or 12.5 per cent, over two years from 2011 to 2013.
But the fire authority’s boss today predicted this could rise to a total cut of between 37 and 40 per cent…
Comment
The Plastic Hippo 14 Feb 11
On the 42nd day of the year 2011, Ground Hog Day was more than a week late in Pennsylvania, 18 days late in Cairo, seven months late in Sandwell, a thousand years on Cannock Chase and much later than that in Walsall. It remains to be seen if the hope of Spring is a false promise or a prompt to send us back to our burrows to sleep through the continuing winter blizzards.
February 11 was, to use David Cameron’s words, “a remarkable day”. We celebrated the births of Thomas Edison, King Farouk of Egypt, Dennis Skinner, Manuel Noriega, Gene Vincent, Jeb Bush, Sarah Palin and Jennifer Aniston. Imagine compiling a horoscope for that lot. We also commemorated the passing of Rene Descartes, Sylvia Plath, Roger Vadim, Jackie Pallo and Alexander McQueen…
Comment
The Bookwork Turns 12 Feb 11
Governments should be afraid of their people
This week, there is the heady fragrance of revolution in the air. A revolution by the people, and for the people.
A revolution against arrogance, against pomposity, against vested interests, and against those who feel that power is their right, not their privilege.
A peaceful revolution, but one which was, in the end, unstoppable by force of arms and the oppression of established authority. In Egypt, a people who built the pyramids have awoken, and thrown off their chains.
Can we expect the same from a people who built an empire that spanned the globe?
Let’s face it, despite the arrogant, pompous and irrelevant nature of Walsall’s ruling cabal of out-of-touch Tories, and the decadent lunacy of …
News
Express & Star 11 Feb 11
Book borrowing machines to be introduced
No Walsall libraries will close in the next year — that was the message from defiant council bosses today following weeks of protests. Chiefs were accused of making a U-turn on claims six of the borough’s 16 libraries were facing the chop at a meeting last night.
They vowed no libraries would be lost in the upcoming financial year and even after that they would do all they could to avoid closures — possibly passing on the running of a handful of sites to community groups, schools or even churches…
Comment
Pheasey Park Farm Labour 11 Feb 11
Well done to the campaigners
First lets say well done to all the local campaigners in Walsall who stood together and fought these savage cuts, we have only put off the decision for another day…
… whilst it is totally true that at no point in any of the Cabinet and scrutiny reports that the actual words ‘Libraries to close’ were used, shall we look at what your fellow Councillor Garry Perry said about his local library in Pelsall…