Greenbelt Signs Update

Blink and you missed it! The decision to build two huge  - allegedly entirely speculative - "toblerone" signs on greenbelt land at Ray Hall Lane, Great Barr was entirely that of the Darren Cooper dictatorship and they have no prospective customer lined up! So says Nick Bubalo, the head of planning at SMBC, today and the man who has been so heavily involved in so many of the dubious land sales entered into by Cooper and his comrades.

As I pointed out in an earlier post, some years ago Sandwell Labour's planning committee rejected an application by international signage company J C Decaux to build a toblerone sign next to the elevated section of the M5 at Oldbury but Decaux appealed to the Planning Inspector and the decision was overturned. The sign was duly built, though not on greenbelt land.

The crafty comrades decided that they wanted more of these things to raise some cash but Bubalo claims there have been no negotiations with any potential customers (although, mysteriously, J C Decaux claim to have been "consulted" on this application even though they are "not involved"). What better way to push this along than for Sandwell Labour to authorise an application to itself for planning permission. Sorry, I am being cynical - Bubalo describes the comrades forcing through their own scheme as determining the issue in "an open and democratic manner" (I kid you not!)

So this decision was made at The Cabinet meeting of 19th August, 2015:

"the Council need to consider motorway advertising signage as a source of income, as previously, the Council had opposed such applications which have subsequently been overturned by the Planning Inspectorate. The Council would need to consider how such advertising could bring money to the Council, and therefore could help services continue to run" (Minute 143/15).

You will note despite the miles of motorway crossing "Sadwell" there is no mention whatsoever of the signs being placed on greenbelt land and the comrades are clearly nervous about the planning process. Clearly they acted very quickly as the planning applications were made in Bubalo's own name at the beginning of October just weeks after the August meeting. You will also see that there is a clear hint that this exercise will be likely to be repeated if the shifty "socialists" can get away with it.

The Cabinet members who approved this wheeze were -

Darren Cooper - the brutish leader [sic], Y. Davies; Crompton (recently caught out sharing Facebook propaganda from Britain First); Eling (who lied about the casino costs fiasco and was, seemingly, the sole architect of the disastrous Council Tax Benefit scheme which was slaughtered by a High Court Judge and which cost us taxpayers hundreds of thousands of pounds); Simon "Two Homes" Hackett whose Children's Services department faced such public ignominy yesterday and Paul Moore (who, happily, was able to confirm to The Skidder recently that one of his male Councillor comrades had been shagging the daughter of another).

The observers were the potty-mouthed Bill Gavan; Linda Horton, Trappist mother of the liar Cashmore; Peter Hughes, who did a letter of support in respect of the bent Wednesbury Celebrates grant application; Steven Jones, of the now infamous Wednesbury Jones family; Underhill and, last but not least, the weird Cllr Sandars (coming to a necropolis near you real soon...).

So that looks like 12 votes to despoil the greenbelt in the bag straight away from this ghastly galere alone!

Don't forget you can attend the site visits tomorrow at 1.50pm on Ray Hall Lane or at 2.15pm at the corner of Andrew Road/Manorford Avenue, Great Barr. You can also attend the actual planning committee meeting chaired by Cooper's great mate, the multiply-named Steven Frear, from 5pm at the Oldbury, Kremlin.

I wonder whether the advertising contracts will be put out to tender once this has been forced through, eh readers? We shall see.....

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