I’d like to flag up a very angry post Lind Mason has written about the situation with Walsall Council’s Youth Services and the vexed question of Aldridge Manor. The Councillors may have wandered away now that the by-election is over, the Council Officers may be trying to fob us off, but neither I nor Linda have forgotten the issue of Aldridge Manor and the winding down of youth services in Walsall.
The lies and shambling over the promise for a second public meeting and proper consultation have been shameful and Linda speaks eloquently and passionately about the service she loves, and about the dissembling, stalling and evasion of those in charge.
This issue will not go away.
Please click on the screen shot to read Linda’s grey and incisive post.
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The answer lies in the Youth Club itself, if its not supported then it has to go, its a sad state of affairs that in these “austere” times – we and by that I mean everyone are having to make sacrifices of one sort or another … sad but true and the Youth Services are having to cut back along with everything else. Everone would soon start moaning if their rates were to go up as a consequence of an unused Youth Club being kept on… sorry … but that’s modern life today … each man for himself … or that’s what this Government want …
Think you have grasped the wrong end of the stick here Edwina. The youth club is supported and is very much NOT unused. Granted not in the same way as in its heyday but then different activities were on offer including a weekly disco. One would have to question if the activities on offer are actually what the young people want as it is this I believe, plus a total lack of publicity for the service in the local area, that lies behind smaller numbers attending. It is interesting to note from the so called surveys that youth leaders carried out that there was a call for discos!
This isn’t about cutbacks at all; it’s about closing a building (in order to sell for a lovely capital receipt of £1 million) and there being no suitable alternative premises available in the locality from which to provide the services currently located there! It is also about accountability of both IYPSS and councillors in sticking to their word and holding a public meeting as they promised to do. That promise has been broken.
Let’s face it one of the reasons that the cutbacks that are being proposed for the next five years are going to be so savage is because of government impositions and limits on just how much council tax can be increased. There’s no chance at all of large council tax increases because of the limitations.
Well Bob I hear what you are saying but … there is no quick fix for anything these days and if the Council want to sell it then that is what will happen. I used to go there almost every night as a youngster and it was fabulous. You only have to look at Aldridge High Street, see what a characterless place it is, to what it used to be and see where they are going. Aldridge was one of the most beautiful villages you had ever seen and now… well I’ll say no more about that. But the Council will sell it off … probably for houses to be built on and there you are … another beautiful part of Aldridge lost for all eternity… but do it they will – no matter what – you’ll see. But what else can you do? Nothing has worked so far… I used to live on the edge of Leigh’s Wood in Aldridge, so know a little of it decimation … back to the subject of town planners again I think. There’s an old adage – you can please some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time … sure to be true!
“But what else can you do? ”
And that is the key question Edwina, and one we aren’t hearing many viable answers to, from any side.
Hi Folks
You can fight hard, like Linda’s doing. You can support Linda in her fight. Me? I try and keep my community informed and help where I can.
We fought over greenspaces, and will continue to over this.
Fighting beats hang wringing – at least we’ll know it wasn’t lost without a battle.
Cheers
Bob
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