Brownhills High Street, outside Knaves Court, 7:06pm, Tuesday, 24th April 2012. Picture by David Evans.
I just thought I’d drag the issue of the standing water at Anchor Bridge, and Walsall Council’s response to it, into the light again. Following last week’s post on the subject, council officer Glyn Oliver replied to my concerns here on the blog. His reply is remarkable, and I’d like to feature it prominently so everyone concerned about this issue can be aware of it.
Glyn Oliver
We have been conscious of the problems with the gullies in this location and have regularly attended to clean them out. Each occasion the ponding has taken longer and longer to release which suggested a problem further along the line. We carried out a survey and discovered that the developer had placed a bollard through the public sewer. The majority of gullies drain to a public sewer. Public sewers for over 20 years now are the responsibility of the water company in this area it is STW (one assumes this means Severn Trent Water – Bob). Walsall Council cannot a repair on a third party property for a number of reasons not least being ultra vires. This is the legal position and Walsall operates within the law. The problem has been reported to STW and will be monitored to ensure they repair the problem.
This response, to me, seems mealy-mouthed and unhelpful. Who is ‘The Developer’? How might we contact them? We need to get this fixed before it causes a serious accident. One assumes the ‘bollard’ talked of is one of the ones on the right of the image, to the front of Knaves Court and inches from the public footway. Since Walsall Council bigged up their part so much when Knaves Court was opened, it seems strange that they won’t lift a shovel to this. Perhaps the civic investment was in all the functioning bits of the building. Mind you, straying 6 inches into private property – all be it a social housing complex part funded by the authority – would be a heinous crime indeed. Anything in latin sounds profound, but is usually bullshit.
I would, however, point out that this situation has existed before Knave’s Court and before those bollards were erected, so I think it’s probably a red herring. Still, the council are ‘monitoring’ things so we can all sleep easy…
Since I posted last, a complaint about the same issue has appeared of Fixmystreet, and David Evans has got a great picture last night of just how bad the situation currently is. My hopes were raised somewhat earlier today, when David mailed me to say workers were excavating nearby, but having been to look and the hole, I don’t think the job is connected, and South Staffordshire Water (whose name is on the barriers) seem to be digging in order to lay a water pipe instead.
I welcome opinions or knowledge of the matter.
I was digging a hole - and causing awful traffic congestion. 6:05pm, Wednesday, 25th April 2012. Picture kindly supplied by David Evans.