Comment: Doughnuts on Lichfield Street

Comment
Doughnuts on Lichfield Street
The YamYam 22 Sep 09
About 140 years ago, Joseph Chamberlain said: “In politics, there is no use looking beyond the next fortnight.” All these years later, the decision makers within Walsall Council are not bothering to look beyond breakfast.

Desperate to reduce an eye watering budget shortfall, the people who run this town are ransacking the house to find stuff to take to the pawnbroker. The policy seems to be that if we sell the cooker, we can afford to live on takeaways. When challenged as to the prudence of this action, our leaders will bleat that it is due to economic conditions beyond the control of the council and that all of us are in the same boat. Unfortunately, the council tax payers in Walsall can no longer afford the gravy boat.

This recession is a fact, and even Westminster leaders are now talking about cuts in services. But this global downturn was brought about by short-term, short-sighted greed. Combine this with a history of gross financial mismanagement at a local level and the result is a recipe for disaster. Season this dogs-dinner with further incompetence and denial and it will not be long before the health inspectors and the bailiffs come knocking on the door.

There is now a bunker mentality in the big house on Lichfield Street. Criticism is treason and accountability is being put through the shredder in order to save space. The message is cut and cut again and when the cut reaches the bone, keep cutting. Sadly, when the limb falls off, there will be nothing left to cut.

In this increasingly dangerous scenario, an interesting strategy has emerged. Some clever person, certainly not a member of cabinet, has come up with the idea of putting all council services under threat. Then, our council will look like the good guys when they perform a U-turn having “listened to public concerns.” The proposed sale of Walsall market was reversed, Brownhills market was closed and then re-opened, the Chuckery Youth Centre building was transformed into a bus, the on-off, on-off development of the Arboretum is now on (“We can`t afford it – oh yes we can – oh no we can`t”) and the Grange golf course will now not close but be improved.

In all these cases cabinet members bellow out their “common sense” credentials and imagine being carried shoulder high through the streets by the grateful, cheering masses. But attempting to take credit for reversing idiotic decisions that they themselves had taken in the first place is a spin worthy of Nelson Piquet Junior. With this strategy in place, we can look forward to smug councillors telling us that swimming pools will be saved, day centres will re-open, Serco will be served with a restraining order to keep them out of contact with children and the council tax will be reduced to a rate comparable with neighbouring boroughs.

Don`t hold your breath. U-turn will follow U-turn as this inept council leadership descends into a spiral of mendacious duplicity. A measure of the disarray that this cabinet finds itself in is that the left hand does not know what the left hand is doing.

There are boy racers in “pimped up” cars, desperately trying to get a life and impress a girl, who perform handbrake U-turns in late night supermarket car parks. Some of the less moronic protagonists can keep the car going around in a circle with one foot on the accelerator and one hand on the brake. This practice is known as “doughnutting” because of the burnt rubber markings that remain on the tarmac. It ruins the car and the driver goes home alone. Expect to see lots of doughnuts on Lichfield Street in the coming weeks.

Way back when Joseph Chamberlain was mayor of Birmingham, he championed free, secular and compulsory education and left the city, in his words, “parked, paved, assized, marketed, gas and watered and improved.” When squabbling utility companies kept digging up the roads, he simply bought the whole lot and provided rate payers with affordable gas and water and less disruption. If he achieved this and so much more all those years ago by only looking ahead in two week chunks, imagine what Walsall could do if councillors looked beyond their own egos, electability and self interest.


BrownhillsBob 19 Sep Comment: ...and so it begins
YamYam 19 Sep Walsall leisure centres under threat
Express & Star 18 Sep Walsall golf course spared the axe
Plastic Hippo 13 Sep Comment: Be careful with that axe, Eugene
YamYam links 9 Sep Cash crisis at Walsall Council
BrownhillsBob 5 Sep Comment: Brownhills market - back from the dead
YamYam 27 August Chuckery youth centre axed
Express & Star 20 July Arboretum revamp back on track
B'ham Mail 25 June Market sell-off plan scrapped

Wikipedia Joseph Chamberlain

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