Councillor Phil Bateman Wednesfield North Labour Party Ward Report for October

This is my Ward Report for Wednesfield North Labour Party meeting scheduled for the 25th October 2013

National Express West Midlands has teamed up with The Royal British Legion to become the first company in the region to wear a poppy for Remembrance Day 2013. The area’s biggest bus operator has put poppies on 750 of its local vehicles and, on 5 November, the West Midlands own Poppy Day, NXWM will be allowing accredited war veterans to collect for poppies on-board its key services.

Whilst on matters relating to Remembrance Day. I was asked by Wednesfield British Legion to help resolve a problem with regard the Remembrance Sunday Parade to St Thomas Church. The Secretary informed me that they had been informed by the Police that they could not March on the Sunday 7th November and they would have to apply for a road closure order. Cutting a long story short I contacted the Police and resolved the matter, and the small fee of £600 is not going to be pursued. In short as the Police Inspector informed me, it was a misunderstanding. The Old Soldiers as I write this report are due to march as usual!

• Ashmore Park Nursery School has undertaken the Annual Audit with the Local Authority and has received a score of Outstanding! You may want to congratulate the Headteacher next time you see her!

• Dog Pooh - I have requested Dog pooh be cleaned from two alleyways, one at Sandy cres the other linking Lichfield road

City Council finances on the other hand looks very sick. Budget savings of £98m are required by the Government by 2018/19. This is on top of the almost £100m savings already achieved by the Council over the last 5 financial years.

We have identified £64m savings £3m remain to be identified with £ 8m of that needed by next year. The Authority is in a dire situation due to the Government’s policy of stripping out Local Government spending. It goes without saying that the loss of this spending ability will impact upon the services we deliver. These are the deepest cuts that Local Authorities have faced since the last War.

The point I want to make is that the Cuts we are facing in Wolverhampton are just not fair. The financial loss we are facing is far worse than Authorities are facing in wealthier parts of the Country. So to achieve our balanced budget around 1,000 jobs will have to be shed either by voluntary means or perish the thought by compulsory redundancy.

Wednesfield North Hub! Councillor Potter will brief you on any new information.

Councillor Neil Clarke Can I just pay my respects to Councillor Neil Clarke the Conservative member of Wednesfield North Ward. I may have been a political enemy of Neil, but I wish to offer my condolences and sympathy to his friends and family. His death was unexpected, however in life he was a helper, first with his career work as a teacher to our children at Oak Meadow, and through his work with the children coaching them for the football teams. I know he enjoyed this. Latterly through his political life we were very much on opposite sides I paid tribute to Councillor Clarke on my face Book page, and in a report I have written to the Community centre.


Councillor Phil Bateman MBE