I note from local news services including Licfield Live, the Express and Star and local free sheets that local councillors in Chasewtown and Burntwood are still attempting to make lame political points out of the closure of the dam road in Chasewater.
The Express & Star reported:
Councillors are calling for a new car park to be built on their side of the Chasewater reservoir, after grudgingly accepting a through road will not reopen following dam repairs.
There is only car park space on the Brownhills side of the reservoir, with people from Burntwood having to travel a nine-mile circular route to park their cars.
Lichfield councillors say it is unfair that people on the Burntwood side pay their council tax towards the upkeep, while people in Brownhills have a place to park at the Chasewater Innovation Centre.
Pool Road, which was closed for repairs at the pool, is likely to remain shut.
The £5.5m work to prevent an overflow and flooding at Chasewater is now complete, but the road, which closed in August 2010, has remained closed.
Councillor Eric Drinkwater said: “There’s a lot of land there and for a lot of people it is a nine-mile round trip. They ought to provide a car park on the Burntwood side too.”
The road in question, closed in 2007, had only been practically accessible for a few years since the Chasetown Bypass opened before closure on safety grounds. It’s a very narrow road, just one vehicle wide, with no passing places, footpath or even a decent surface. It’s reopening, just to satisfy a moaning minority who find the extra couple of miles (not nine, for heaven’s sake) too much to ask would be a disaster and open the part to antisocial behaviour, rat-running and car cruising, just as it did last time it was open.
Thankfully, sense seems to be prevailing and the road will remain closed. I have no objection to building a car park to the north of Chasewater, but it must not encroach on habitats, and councillors should bear in mind why the car park at the end of Church Road was closed when not in use.
The barriers clearly don’t apply to these people, because they’re special… Anglesey Basin, 5th June. Up on the dam road, the roadblock had been pushed aside.
I note that already, the road block created by the barrels halfway down the dam is being moved to force access, and see fisherman’s vehicles down by the canal basin. There was a reason this access was stopped, and I have no wish to see the antisocial behaviour and drug dealing return to the basin area. That barrier needs to be replaced with something substantial. Is it really so hard to pull your kit a few hundred yards?
I noted over the Jubilee weekend anglers camped on the basin, lighting fires and suchlike, and when they left, they tidied all there rubbish into carrier bags and stuffed them into a tree. Come on lads, you brought the shit with you, take it back, eh?
I realise it’s a tiny minority of anglers getting the others a bad name, but give us a break…
From the Express & Star website, Monday 11th June 2012. Click on the screenshot to visit the article.