Briefly, Network Rail say they need a million new concrete sleepers for the railways each year. A plant at Doncaster (operated by a different company) supplies 400,000. The rest have been made at Washwood Heath but that polluting plant is closing because of HS2. NR allege that they have looked at 28 potential sites to replace it but at the first day of the consultation yesterday they were unable to give any details of this whatsoever. Sometime ago they started talking to bent Labour Sandwell Council. Protesters say that a senior NR figure - a Mr Frobisher - told them the Council had given them the "green light" but NR are now vehemently deny this.....
NR are a state-owned company and god knows how much of OUR taxpayers' money they are spending on the consultation. They had many specially-made pop-up banners and a veritable army of staff present to "sell" this project. Go and see for yourselves between 10am and 2pm TODAY.
(I was present for over two hours yesterday but met no representatives from Sandwell opposition parties except For Britain yesterday. I do hope that all non-Labour parties will make it today if they have not already done so).
Concrete is primarily made of highly alkaline wet cement. The manufacture of cement is a major producer of CO2 - a potent greenhouse gas. The cement will be made off site but NR yesterday were unable or unwillig to say where. As the cement was not to be made at Bescot they had no information available about the polluting effect of this process and limply stated that "a full environmental impact assessment" will be available with the planning application. (Incidentally, bent Labour are pushing the new swimming pool through on vital green space at Londonderry Fields without an Environmental Impact Assessment at all by the simple ruse of saying one is not necessary and knowing that locals are unlikely to be able to afford to sue them for this absurd decision (made by Amy Harhoff, the corrupt Council's Director of Regeneration).
NR say the cement etc will be brought by "sealed" lorries to Bescot and then, in a "sealed" environment, tipped into moulds and formed on a sprung floor to minimise noise. There is no kiln or heating process - the heat within the cement does the job itself. A large crane will then stack them outside the factory and then onto trains to be taken away. The promoters of this scheme allege that all this is perfectly safe for local residents and there is absolutely no dust. There is no "exhaust" as there is no heating process. When questioned about all the dust at the current Washwood Heath works this was explained away on the basis that a different, older, process was used at that site.
With all these things, companies persuade planners that very high levels of safety etc will be deployed but, in the real world, corners get cut. We know from the major nuclear disasters that even the most stringent rules of all get "overlooked".....
The real killer here is that all the goods "in" are to be delivered by lorry and NOT by rail - 7,761 huge lorries per annum. (As they couldn't say where the cement comes from they couldn't say why the couldn't build a manufacturing plant next to the cement works....) This is undoubtedly the major flaw in the ridiculous decision to select this site given the very heavy congestion in this area which is blindingly obvious to anyone who tried to drive there.
NR blithely say the lorries will come (from an unknown destination "lol") to M5 Junction 1 and then thunder along Sandwell roads to near Tame Bridge Park Way station where a new road will allow access to the site. They will then leave the site and rejoin the motorway system at that oasis of calm, M6 Junction 9!!!
The NR apparatchiks present yesterday seemed to have no conception of the level of traffic in this area. They blithely said that it will ONLY be 7,761 lorries a year but I pointed out that this was disingenuous since the site would generate lots more traffic with other suppliers visiting, workers arriving by car etc. They said - and I sh*t ye not - that people should travel more by rail but when I said that there was parking chaos around Tame Bridge station they said that "a lot of cars were parked illegally" so that something else will need to be done about that! I pointed out that if they were going to make it even more difficult for folk to park at Tame Bridge this was hardly conducive to encouraging them to travel to work by rail. But NR had the answer - such as it is - ie that it was all ok since Guy Craddock of Travel for West Midlands and Andy Miller of bent Labour Sandwell Council say it is!!!!
(NR have leafleted locals but not those in the rest of Sandwell who will be affected by traffic issues).
The site will have the capacity to operate 24/7. Yesterday NR told me that there will be no lorry movements or crane movements between 11pm and 7am "unless that becomes necessary." WTF does that mean? Hardly reassuring for local residents!
The corrupt Labour Council have given NR a lease for land by the site. This was given by the bent paid service via "delegated authority" but contains an option for NR to purchase the site for £125,000 which is above the delegated authority limit in the Council's own rules of "£100,000". This shows a very high level of efforts by bent Sadders to try and push this deal through but, on the face of it, the deal is ultra vires the Council's powers and unlawful. The campaign group have tried to ask Jan Britton, the disastrous head of the bent paid service, about this but he is refusing to comment. He has also refused to respond to me. Labour Councillors who claim to be against this project need to get a grip on this and make sure the facts are put in the public domain. NR flatly refused to comment on this yesterday and said they were happy with their contract and all enquiries should be put to SMBC!
The lease relates to highly polluted land and appears to show that Sandwell Council will may huge sums for remedial work (again suggesting a high level of political decision-making going on in the background here by the corrupt comrades). NR denied this yesterday and claimed they were responsible for remedial work but this also needs to be clarified asap!
Curiously the names of Councillors Steve "Squealing" Eling and Paul "The Cipher" Moore keep cropping up in discussions about this project but no less than four NR staff - including the main man - told me yesterday that they had "never heard of Paul Moore"! All very mysterious.
The campaigners have played a blinder here and all opposition parties and groups fighting the Labour dictatorship need to take note. They are putting boxes in local shops to collate the letters of objection against this bizarre scheme so that they can be collated and not "lost" by corrupt elements on Britton's staff. Please go along and speak to them today and follow the Facebook Group "The People of Wednesbury Say NO to Network Rail".
It is not often this blog gives a pat on the back to Labour Councillor and Cabinet Member Simon "The Sandwell Slasher" Hackett but he spent considerable time at the event yesterday. He assures me that he is NOT conning local residents with an election coming up and that he stands four-square behind the "anti" campaigners. Let's hope he can persuade his fellow cabinet members to stop this but, as above, deals have been done, leases signed etc.... and it is unlikely that Eling's hand was not in that. Simon needs to put a boot up Britton's massive arse and, for starters, get as much info as possible sent to the campaign group. Also NR say the environmental assessment has already done (cf their comments about cement production above) and so why do we have to wait for the planning application to go in to see this? Simon should be demanding disclosure NOW.
(Some of the other joke Councillors for Wednesbury - including the one who pushed for the Lidl centre - turned up yesterday but they are not worth talking to. Whilst claiming to be with the campaigners it is difficult to trust them on their past records and you wonder whether they are sucking up to NR to get some cash for their fish'n'chip karaoke nights and the like. London-resident MP Tom Watson also claims to be against the scheme but campaigners should remember what he did to The Public before they get too excited about that......)
In passing it must be mentioned how bent Labour works in Sandwell. They manage to push even huge and controversial planning applications (eg Lidl at Wednesbury) through in record time. This is because the political leadership has already agreed the applications BEFORE they are even made (this is what they are up to at Lion Farm as I write). This makes organisation NOW essential since they are deliberately ensuring that protesters have as little time as possible to campaign against the will of Labour's tinpot power brokers. But the worms are turning against the Dictatorship in Sandwell. Good luck everyone and keep going!
URGENT INFO REQUIRED!
There was a big rumour last night that Jan Britton's right-hand man and enforcer has been suspended! Three sources have told be this but more information urgently needed! 07470 624207.
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