A Poster for the Board

The following was written by Facebook Group member Darlaston Duo. He put it together from various comments that had been made on the group for one reason; to print off and to put on notice boards at work. Please feel free to do the same! We're beginning to be heard. Make us even louder!

Save Walsall’s Green Spaces and Countryside Services


I am asking residents of the Walsall Borough to please help and save our green spaces and countryside services after Walsall council have proposed cuts of £400,000,00 from this department.The vast majority of accessible nature has been managed by man for centuries. If we want it to remain accessible and enjoyable – and this is vitally important in a borough like Walsall, which is not exactly the Lake District, the New Forest or the Cotswold’s (which are all managed, not left to go to waste) – we need to maintain the staff levels in parks and countryside which are already minimal, having been continually run down since the 1980s. It’s not that long ago since we lost our permanent on-site park keepers, and dare I mention the loss some years ago of the highly productive parks department facilities in the Arboretum. And what about real efficiency savings which can be made? I can’t think that exporting money outside the borough to pay for contractors, agency workers and the flowers that bloom in plastic buckets on our High Streets makes very good economic sense either. Bring it back in-house if you want to save money. Hell, you could even generate income that way. Sadly, modern governments are all about the short-term headless chicken balance sheet especially when it involves things that only affect us plebs/commoners/serfs – and a knee jerk application of ‘slash and burn’ which allows for neither thought nor careful consideration of legacy. The leader of Birmingham Council, Albert Bore, recently made it clear that the Con-Dem government’s cuts regime will see the end of local government as we know it, and this is just another sad symptom of that thoughtless culture. Ill-considered cuts will surely mean that one day our green spaces will end up as locations exclusively for burnt-out cars, fly-tipped rubbish and drug addicts, not havens for both hard-pressed wildlife and those of us in need of a bit of spiritual freedom in stress-distorted modern life. As well as these cuts the council has also announced a SPEND of £400,000,00 for the Arboretum to make it into a country park so they can attract more visitors. Surely they have got things wrong, therefore I ask residents of Walsall to please, please, please sign an E-Petition that has been set up to try and tackle this issue.
The web address for this is as follows https://walsall.cmis.uk.com/walsall/Petitions/tabid/40/ID/13/Save-Walsall-s-Green-Spaces-and-Countryside-Services.aspx

There is also a Facebook group you are welcome to join for more information. https://www.facebook.com/groups/437765136281023/

Please log onto this address and put names of all your family within household even the very youngest as these parks, green spaces and countryside services are the future for your children and their children. Thank you very much for your co-operation, if you have any concerns please contact (Add your name)