When you argue for a new route for the new tramway ...

 ... (it was, once a new route for the new, devastating motorway), you are tacitly admitting defeat and inviting the thing to be built.

If the whole thing is wrong or obviously unnecessary, best to be strong and oppose it.

Make clear that a new route is your last ditch strategy when all else fails.

Some wrongs are so very wrong, silence is deafening!

A SCANDAL LAUNCHED IN 1981 by Centro and the W Midlands County Council (now WMCA) - turning two former mainline railways in congested W Midlands into tramways and, still building the second to destroy Nature further!

Some causes are so important that whether it is impossible to win, they still must be fought - always non-violently (shockingly, has to be emphasised in the violent West).

Even if it is impossible to stop our good friends and major ally from slaughtering Palestinians at the rate of 70x7 what Hamas manage at the peak of Israel's war on them, it is still the morally right thing to do to kick up a fuss about the slaughter of the wholly innocents in Gaza, Judea, Samaria and Lebanon.  Killings done by us - Jews, Muslims, Christians, all faiths and of none here in the good ol' (self) righteous UK!

Similarly, even if it was impossible to stop our fellow Christian nation Germany from their racist behaviour towards the Jews, the right action was wholesale, committed action to oppose, by all lawful means, the singling out of the Jews and the other minorities from 1933 onwards.

Our failure to criticise and oppose and use BDS in the early 30s against Germany, perhaps, contributed to the holocaust - and 6 million killed.  All to maintain a guilty silence of shocking, 'No way will I get involved.  It's not our country'.  'Nothing to do with me, Guv.'

Even in a trivial case right on our doorstep, the final 600 metres of the Dudley Tram into Cottage Street Brierley Hill, costing £60 m in price and in weight of GHG emissions must be opposed.  Because of:

1. The seriousness of the Climate Emergency.
2. We are actually accelerating the horrors when we refuse to cut back on luxuries like a tram up to the Merry Hill tram stop, still 140 metres from the main entrance to the shops.  There remains the bus from High St, Brierley Hill to Merry Hill bus station, right outside the south entrance.
3. Refusal to object means complicity in the stupidity of replacing a principal mainline railway "of national strategic significance" with 22 mph average speed trams.
4. Wasting £60 m for a tram (simply "a bus on rails", as the UK Tram Ltd conceded in 2016) is ratcheting up the runaway greenhouse effect by 60 million pounds in weight, as a very rough rule of thumb.
5. It is greedy, self indulgent, wealth flaunting at over £1 billion for only 10 Kms when the 10 Kms to Merry Hill is finally opened for the public to use (2030? would make 50 years to build it!)
6. A shocking waste of public funds when servicing our national debt is getting ever more expensive.  A deficit of £3 trillion and rising.
7. The money (£15 BILLION at 2020 prices for 150 miles of yet more trams) must be better spent on slashing GHG emissions from every building in the land, URGENTLY.
8. Or, for free regional public transport for EVERYONE which I have had for 18 years, I'm so old!

Tramways accelerating Climate Emergency

Fighting the 2020 announcement of £15 BILLION for  conversion of nature/gardens, buses, trains into 150 miles, 8 lines,  380 tram stops INTO TRAMWAYS is accelerating the Climate Emergency. It is urgent to cut GHG emissions not boost them unnecessarily. 

Please explain why you all refuse to support/help me in anyway whatsoever! Timweller1@gmail.com

Two kinds of Back the Track

The well known Back the Track is the large, hard working group which has succeeded in their aim of reopening the UK's last principal mainline railway "of national strategic significance" for walkers and cyclists between Brownhills and Lichfield.

Then there is me! My blog, 'Trains Back on the Tracks', with one train driver, have been spending very many years failing to convince others, and the authorities, to simply put passenger and freight trains back on the full length of 56 Kms between Stourbridge Jct station and Lichfield City station. 

The upshot is now six ways of getting about:-

Heavy rail freight trains to near Merry Hill Shopping Centre;

Light Rail Metro trams on two short sections;

Very Light Rail test track through Dudley's Castle Hill tunnel, between the two short sections;

Walking, Cycling and Wheeling  makes 6!

Please walk the new cycle-walkway in South Staffordshire but also keep writing for the Black Country Cycle-Walkway from NW Wolverhampton to Stourbridge ring road to also be finished to the same high standard throughout.

Make fun of the well meaning authorities mixed up Trump-like railway!

Make gentle fun of the authorities' so well meaning but mixed up, Trump-like railway!

There's even a Government department called Mixed (Up) Use Railway!!

On Saturday 19 Sept, 2 pm at KFC, The Boulevard, above/back of the Odeon, Merry Hill Shopping Centre. 

To see a vertical guerrilla garden and the 100 year old successful railway

 "of national strategic significance".pdf

which has been broken up into six different transport uses over 56 Kms (35 miles):

freight railway to Waterfront and Lichfield to Burton on Trent;

Light Rail tramway on two short sections;

Very Light Rail test track on 2 Kms in Dudley town;

Walking;

Cycling;

Wheeling - all 3 in Walsall and Staffordshire to Lichfield;

and healthy fresh air/nothing in places!

Thanks to our transport experts.  Involves a walk to see it from a road bridge on the Dudley Road.  This is on the north side of the Waterfront Marina, by the old Blue Ball(?) pub now closed.  Near Wallows Road.  It is worth seeing the 100 year old successful London, Black Country, Edinburgh mainline railway - that WAS, before the scrapyard of the Dept for Transport!

Email to Jayne Pilkington, Dudley Council

Good morning, Jayne and Vicky

My previous emails have already put in writing my suggestions but repeated here to avoid any misunderstanding.

Thanks so much for your brilliant help and interest yesterday.  It was great to see the public realm improvements in Brierley Hill, too.  It was so worthwhile.  This is my understanding as to what I think you said you would do.

1. You would speak to colleagues to make progress on the multi-named but, what I call, the 25 Kms Black Country Cycle-Walkway from Stourbridge Ring Road to NW Wolverhampton.  Particularly, in the very worst 3 Kms section from the border with S Staffs DC to Pensnett Nature Reserve/Fens Pool Avenue, Brierley Hill.  In the folder below, is a photo of something I came across this year after it had decades of burial in undergrowth.  Pensnett Railway Walk and Kingswinford Railway Walk were probably created in the 70s or 80s.  Dudley Council soon lost interest - from the state of the walkways ever since.  Now, a shameful, slum-like disgrace when the route is a delight in the  other two council sections where it is well used.
2. Should there be an NCN or NCR number for, at least, the better section north of our border with S Staffs up to NW Wolverhampton and the Staffordshire Canal?
3. You would speak to colleagues about the urgent Climate Emergency measure of using open spaces on the Dudley section of the A 456, Manor Way/Halesowen Bypass, to reinstate long awaited landscaping on the wide central reservation, to extend the remnant of thick woodland opposite the Shell filling station.  In addition, the other remnant needs extending eastwards where the cherry trees are from the Manor Way/Manor Lane junction to the eastern side of the Manor Way/Lapal Lane South junction.
4. The dozen or so cherry trees were my reward for years of writing for 100% reinstatement, earlier this century.  I achieved perhaps 25%!  But I think, those cherry trees prove how right I was about the thick woodland cover, admittedly for only a short time, before carriageway resurfacing destroyed so much.
5. My £1,000 will go directly to the Woodland Trust, to offset council costs, IF the following is done:
6. Woodland Trust trees and shrubs are used for the reinstatement for these three vital areas:-
7. Extending the two remnants of woodland cover, as indicated above.  There is still plenty of space for suitable trees and shrubs, purchased from the Woodland Trust.
8. Grange roundabout is finally landscaped, not with sculptures as once intended but by Nature.  At least grass with an annual mowing to maintain visibility, of course.
9. The area of land alongside Lapal Lane South, on its western side, is smartened up with additional suitable planting.  Purchased from the Woodland Trust.  Including the triangle area in front of the 5G mast and adjoining footpath.
10. Future lawn mowing of grass alongside Manor Way on the carriageway edges only, instead of the whole central reservation width.

FUTURE PLANS I'm suggesting:

The unfortunate looking Halesowen Asda car park roundabout needs to look as wonderful as the Halesowen in Bloom plantings in the town.  Photos, here:

 Asda roundabout folder

Are you able to view them?

Our very well used Laurel subway to be left intact, please when the Pool Road car park is demolished.  It is wonderful to walk under busy roads separated from all the traffic and therefore, not adding to the air pollution from vehicles braking and accelerating for walkers to cross.

The Summer Hill Pelican crossing to also be left in its present position.  Please!

I would love to meet with Luane to hear more about her work on Geo-trails - on site, preferably.

With best wishes

Tim   (Weller 0791 380 4363)

We caused immigration and would do it ourselves under the same circumstances!

For centuries we've been all over the world to rule over other peoples, to claim them for ourselves, to make them work for us for nothing as enslaved then, indentured labour. Members of the British Empire, so Brits like us. They are here because we first went there. But there is no way we are going to take our fair share of migrants fleeing our Western wars and Western wealth bringing dangerously disturbed climates from fossil fuel burning changing the chemical composition of the atmosphere.

My response to Pastor Michael Youseff

Remember the Way of Jesus. Repent of the way of the world of control, domination, coercion, violence. Obey His teaching in the Sermon on the Mount - moral, lawful and always non violence without exception. 

You can't beat evil by doing a bigger evil. This is always the hypocritical, coercive, violent way of the world, the church and the state. It brings never ending violence and war and hastens the End. Totally illogical, suicidal, ecocidal and very foolish! It is the way of dear Michael Youseff.

It was Michael who was advising his flock to vote Trump in 2024 - the very antithesis of Jesus' Way. I heard the interview with Ed Stourton. Astonishing! Michael also needs to repent, especially in such an influential position. My Linda, along with 100s of thousands, hang on his every word.

Israeli rights group B’Tselem

Israeli rights group B’Tselem says Israeli actions in the occupied West Bank form part of a broader project aimed at eliminating Palestinians as a distinct people.

In a new report titled The Elimination Project, the group identifies five interconnected Israeli tactics and policies: “violence, ethnic cleansing, movement restrictions, economic strangulation, social and political destruction”.

Mash of FoE local action groups

Dear Masharof

This is excellent stuff.  Please add that HMG and regional governments, too, must oppose the renaissance of tramways in three out of four countries in the UK.

They are adding to the £3 trillion deficit and high interest rates to pay back these loans.

They are replacing buses and trains when it is these modes that must have the money to boost their use and to finish the conversion to electric.

And trains back on the remnant of remaining railway lines in the UK.

Remember that the tram is a highly extravagant/greedy "bus on rails" (UK tram promotion group in 2016 at the time of the Croydon tram crash).

The money saved must go for regional Fare-Free Public Transport and English free buses which I have had for 18 years (I'm now 78).

And the money used to entice/bribe car commuters out of their tin boxes onto public transport, as here:​

 Bus and businesses at the centre of a virtuous circle

​

​Keep up the good work.

Moral depravity at the heart of ...

... the Judeo-Christian world for the last 1700 years and Islam for the last 1400.

Having been steeped in the Bible all my life and read both Bowen and Bibi and the Quran less diligently, I am horrified by the behaviour of my ancestors.

Exploring, trading, grabbing land for ourselves, hijacking their people and taking them off to other parts of our world wide empire to work in appalling conditions, not for low wages but for nothing and, living in deplorable homes.  300 years of the British despicable slave trade ended by paying the millionaire slave owners yet more millions! Yet more millions in compensation and nothing for the injured party!

N​ext, coercion, force, violence; control, domination and warfare by the Western/Judeo-Christian nations on their subjugated people for so much of the world's population.

Colin Armstrong on Israel/Palestine

CORRECTION - delete Jacob/Israel in one place.  Substitute Isaac, below in my notes.  See Genesis 21 v 12-13

 Through Isaac we get Jacob/Israel and eventually the Jews derived from Judah, I understand.

In v 13 "I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman also."  That son is Ishmael leading to the Arabs.

My Bible notes have: "Though Ishmael was not the heir of the promise, God was with the lad, destined to be the ancestor of Bedouin tribes of the southern wilderness."  Genesis 16 v 7-16 for Hagar giving birth to Ismael.  Leading to the Arabs.  Chapter 16 is a fuller/different/parallel account of chapter 21.

On Mon, 14 Sept 2026 at 21:28, Tim Weller <timweller1@gmail.com> wrote:

Yesterday, I came across Colin Armstrong on Andrew Marr's Facebook page and liked what I heard and what I read, below.  So here it is from my blog.  CORRECTIONS, COMMENTS WELCOMED:

Sunday, 13 September 2026

Colin Armstrong on Israel/Palestine

I came across this on journalist Andrew Marr's Facebook page, in a comment on what he said on LBC.

SELF:

The Lord God/Yahweh gave Jacob/Israel's descendants the land 3,000 years ago - for all time.  But was it for all time?  I don't think the Bible says anything about God giving the tribes of Israel the Promised Land for an eternity.  Only once after leaving slavery in Egypt and capturing/defeating  mainly the Canaanites.  Their aggression and victory was rewarded with them keeping the land.  Just like 1948.  Today, contrary to international law, of course.  

In 1948, God gave Israel the Promised Land for a third time.  But that was after a gap of over 2,000 years when they did not have it.  Therefore, the promise of ownership is more in the breaking of that promise than in its keeping.  One third of the time, at the very most, God has kept His promise of ownership for Jews only.  But for two thirds of the time, God has denied His People their supposed rightful ownership.  And remember, the Hebrew Scriptures were written by Hebrews/Jews.  Of course, fully inspired by the mighty Lord God Himself - who was always on their side, the lucky people!

Therefore, it is very dodgy for Bibi and our fervent Christian/Messianic Jewish friends to be arguing that the Bible proves only Israel must have the Promised Land and all of it, from the River to the Sea - and, forever.  Or, even for a third time.  A third time by defeating the biggest empire the world had ever seen, when we brave Brits meekly surrendered and went slinking home in the face of the three Jewish terrorist gangs shooting at us.  One of the gangs, Haganah, became the Israeli Defense Forces.  Still terrorists in my book but, I must be wrong because they are "the most moral army in the world".  And don't you forget it!

In addition, two lots of descendants of Abraham always wanted and still want the same land and are unable to share.  It came about like this.

The Arabs came from Ishmael after Abraham had sex with Hagar, his slave woman/mistress - and, permitted by Yahweh/God, would you believe.  So Ishmael was Abraham's first born son.  Jacob/Israel was eventually born to Sara in her old age.  There was a big row, Ishmael stormed off and Arabs and Jews have been unable to get on ever since.  Are family rows always the worst kind?!

Tim

Colin supports a one state solution.

 

COLIN ARMSTRONG:

He (Andrew Marr) is right but the consequences for Israel will be terrible if they don't moderate their behaviour and accept that the Palestinians exist. 

Many of us came from the same position as Andrew Marr but since Oct 7th '23 and the disproportionate response of the Israelis our views regarding Israel have changed. 

We've looked at its history and we've realised that the European Jews who moved to Palestine in the 20th century didn't take over an empty land and make the desert bloom. They took over a land populated by an indigenous population who had lived there for thousands of years and from the beginning they systematically killed and ethnically cleansed that population in a ruthless, cruel, and illegal way and Gaza is just a continuation of that evil. 

There's no coming back for Israel. Its reputation has been destroyed by its own brutality and the only solution is a one state solution where everyone, living in Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank has equal rights and live in a secular democratic state with protected rights. They managed it in N Ireland; let's hope a similar solution is possible in Palestine/Israel.

TO: Colin Armstrong 

Palestinians were invented in 1964 by Arafat as a political ploy against Israel, under the British Mandate of Palestine the Arabs didn’t call themselves Palestinians because it was associated with Jews. Read your history. The Jews are the indigenous people of that land and they started turning it into something and then the Arabs started coming in droves way before 1948!

TO: Phyllis Lane Sciborowski

There was a very small Jewish indigenous population in Palestine in the 19th century. The bulk of the population, also indigenous, was Arab and then the Austrian, Herzl invented zionism and the Palestinian Arabs miraculously disappeared according to the zionists and it was an " empty land", another lie. 

The Jewish population of Israel today is largely made up of European, Arab, and Russian Jews who colonised Palestine throughout the 20th century but the Arabs/ Palestinians were and are still there.

The facts of history are that Zionism and current day Israel is a racist supremacist colonial manifestation of a form of race based politics that prioritises one group over another and that the process of clearing the land of Arabs who have lived there for millennia has been ongoing since the inception of that state in 1948. 

Your reasoning that the Jews are the indigenous population of that land is ludicrous. We might as well say that the Anglo Saxons and the Celts have the right to the land that they controlled a few thousand years ago. Maybe we could search out the descendents of Boudica and demand the right of return for her clan. That's how ridiculous the zionist justification for stealing the land from the people that owned it actually is.

This current crisis and Israel's murderous behaviour has opened the eyes of millions who formerly supported it. There's no getting away from it and the myths of the "empty land" and "making the desert bloom" have been exposed for the lies they are. Israel was founded on theft, ethnic cleansing, and murder and that's the historical fact and it will be recorded as such in years to come.

Corbyn on 9/11

Today marks 25 years since the attacks of September 11. 

We remember all those whose lives were lost and shattered that day. And we honour the bravery of first responders, many of whom are still battling illnesses and campaigning for their right to healthcare.

What followed was a catastrophic 'War on Terror', which killed many hundreds of thousands of people, left many more in desperate poverty, fuelled a wave of Islamophobia, and triggered an endless spiral of conflict, hatred and misery. 

The US led, and Britain supinely followed. The world is still living with the consequences of this disastrous decision, yet there is still no accountability for the death and destruction it left behind.

Today, we must learn the lessons of history. That means recognising that war is not the answer, ending the horrors of occupation, and striving to build a world of peace and harmony for all is.

Did John Simpson get it right on 6 pm Radio 4 News this evening? How would you have put it?

How would you have put it if the BBC had asked your good self to prepare something?

And, Jeremy, was it Saudi Arabia's very close links with the USA military in allowing the 'American infidel' to take over so much of that country in order to oust Saddam from Kuwait, the red rag to the bull for Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda?  Western military bases on holy Muslim soil - a grievous outrage for Muslims?

He had offered his own Muslim fighters to deal with Saddam, had he not?  Instead the West chose USA led forces?

And the moral depravity of the USA/West also led to 9/11?

Tim

On Fri, 11 Sept 2026 at 22:18, Tim Weller <timweller1@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Jeremy

John went straight from 9/11 to Saddam Hussein and Iraq and missed out the war on Afghanistan which started two months after and was prompted by 9/11.  " 13:38 ... The USA was the world's sole superpower. ... The undermining of this status began that day. ...  It homed in on Iraq  ... The US, with Britain's enthusiastic backing, tried to persuade the world that Saddam's supposed WMD posed a threat to the West. ... America came dangerously close to outright defeat in Iraq.  The sole success after 9/11 seemed to be introducing democracy in Afghanistan."  This is the first mention of Afghanistan at 14:30.  John ended at 14:55.

Perhaps I'm nit picking.  You are all excellent and highly valued by me but you are the best.

What is your judgement over the West's Judeo-Christian catastrophic war on Iraq?  A win for the West but a collapse of civilisation, law and order and some way back to the stone age for the Iraqis - still to this day?  And, our side perpetrated the lie of WMD in Iraq to help justify the attack.  Unprofessional and dishonest governments - at the lowest level.  Actually, far far worse of course.

I would have preferred your assessment report and conclusions, Jeremy.  Or, have you written something?  Where do I find your daily writings?

It is always a pleasure to hear your accurate, fair, humane and measured tones on Radio 4.

Long live dear Jeremy B!

Treat cruel, callous, vicious Israel (our side, shockingly) like ...

... like apartheid South Africa, until Mandela was freed in 1990.

ALEX, We must be more upright, humane and Christ-like, according to His Gospels teaching, to make it obvious in our policy and practice towards pariah Israel that we are upholding international law, justice and humanity to bring Israel's government into line, as we did with South Africa.

It was a Christian nation responsible for the Nazis.  It is the only Jewish state in the world who is behaving as the new Nazis treating Palestinians, Lebanese, Syrians and, now, Iranians too in wiping out wholly innocent, non-violent members of the one human family.  In addition, the state of Israel is wiping out and evicting Palestinians from Judea and Samaria to impose their people on the Lord's/Yahweh's/God's Promised Land to the Jews, alone.  Exactly as the UK ("the Islamic Republic of Britain" - Bibi Netanyahu) allowed in surrendering to the three Zionist terrorist gangs in 1948 when we handed back the British Mandate to the UN.

The erasure of Palestinians from the River to the Sea is spoken about openly by members of their inhumane, lawless government and, that policy is contained in the Likud Charter, too.  We fully support them because we will never allow BDS for Israel, as we imposed on South Africa last century.

9/11, Prayer rooms, Bible bad bits

Thanks for an excellent edition of 'Sunday', once more.  My comments:

• What were the reasons for the 19 hi-jackers doing what they did?  Our BBC International Editor, Jeremy Bowen does suggest their motives in his very helpful and illuminating book, 'The Making of the Modern Middle East.'  Could you invite Bowen to speculate, indeed tell us, what he has discovered?
• Has the Bible's bad bits, although a very small minority of the Bible, been an inducement for the three Abrahamic faiths featured in our Holy Book, to be the most violent and destructive in the history of humanity?
• The nations which have done the most killing over the last 3,000 plus years, in the Middle East, have all been the Judeo-Christian-Muslim nations, have they not?
• Is it really true that all the world religions' holy books have violence/slaughter in them as Giles Fraser said.  I don't think so from what I remember when reading the Quran years ago.  And surely not in the Bhagavad Gita which I haven't read?

Multi-faith prayer rooms dismissed as makeshift mosques or Islamic prayer rooms by Jonathan Sacerdoti, a Jewish campaigner against Islam who wants them relabelled

• I have used the beautiful, sacred, quiet room at Russells Hall Hospital in Dudley in the Black Country.  I read the Quran there - no violence like 1 Samuel 15 v 3 in the Hebrew Scriptures/Christian Bible.  The Bible was also available.
• I thought Jonathan, a journalist and campaigner, "has spoken widely in defence of Israel and against antisemitism" (Wikipedia), is a devout practising Jew as he told us towards the end of your piece.  Therefore, it is not surprising that he sees them being Islamic prayer rooms, no evidence of Jewish religious practices and being, as he said, "drab, miserable places.  They are these plasterboard rooms, no windows, have almost no features and if there is any clue of what these places are for it is in the form of a prayer mat for Islamic prayer" and some even have a clue for the direction of Mecca, Jonathan told us.
• He called them, revealing his own bias, makeshift mosques or Islamic prayer rooms.
• Does Jonathan realise that in the UK, Muslims represent 6.5% of the population and his own faith of practising and non practising Jews is a tiny 0.4%, according to Wikipedia?
• In addition, Muslims are much better and have a much higher proportion of their adherents practising their religion, even every single day, plus Friday prayers, than Christians or Jews.
• Muslims are more disciplined/rigorous/keener in praying, even in public, than the other faiths. 
• Jonathan came across to me as being indignant and not exactly broad minded or friendly towards Muslims.
• He rose to the bait by the unfortunate statement from the Muslim Council of Britain of: "A wild distortion that they are undercover mosques.  That has all the hallmarks of intellectual rage baiting" which was like a red rag to a bull to dear Jonathan!
• Better, next time, to have a fair minded Muslim who has used a quiet/prayer room up against Jonathan, perhaps.

Mass Transit = massive spending for destruction when the money is needed for ...

... enticing motorists out of their cars onto a free and superior bus/train provision without anymore Light Rail/Very Light Rail trams, tram trains, train trams and high speed trains.

Compliment for Dudley's Avoidance in Engaging with me

I wish to compliment you over forty years of the most minimal contact and zero interest in any of my concerns, indeed scandals.

You have shown the most amazing determination not to understand or to take any interest in what I have been writing about over these years.  This takes considerable skill in ignoring matters that are wholly your responsibility in working with the WMCA and national government (HMG) over matters that they are also involved with.

E-mails are never or rarely answered.  In fact, I cannot recall any email from any officer but there must have been ONE.  So brilliant, dumb behaviour from your professional, fully trained officers.  In fact, your studious ignoring and total uninterest was ended with an eventual reply from Jayne Pilkington who, in July, broke the Council's skill in apathy and acquiesence and in blanking me out.  She does seem to be breaking your traditions and engaging with me.  If somewhat reluctantly.  Your halo of delightful decades of deffing me out may be slipping.  So this compliment of brave apathy and negligence is now a little less than 100%. 

to and from Cllr Jon Mucklow re HEL, Cycle-Walkway, railways converted to tramways

You have done brilliantly well, Jon in receiving this reply. Thanks so much for getting their attention. Something I have never achieved in 40 years of writing and campaigning! But they can't even get my name right, the hopeless people!!

They must not close the case in 10 days time, of course. THEY must work on the matters we have raised. THEY are responsible for pursuing the matters now that we have reminded them. THEY are the full time, fully trained professionals who are meant to be up to the job. They are supposed to be competent and efficient. 

Could you, perhaps, send ALL (or whatever) of this back to them above my name? For me to be responsible, of course, not you. Just say, "Tim has written this for you to read".

If we could meet, as arranged, on Thursday 10 September at En Cafe for a plan of action - and a good chinwag over a drink I'll pay for this time!

All the best and thanks again for doing so well.

Dear Councillor Jon Mucklow,

Your case Cllr-863251667 Tim Wheeler is waiting for you to approve its closure. Please see the below response from the service area. This may include any attachments such as images or documentation that may aid in your approval of closing this case.

Dear Cllr. Mucklow,

In relation to the points raised in Cllr-863251667.

1. Former Himley Environmental landfill site, Gornal.
The former landfill site is owned and managed by Himley Environmental Ltd, who have since ceased trading. Matters relating to landfill gas emissions, environmental permitting, and regulatory compliance are primarily the responsibility of the site operator and the Environment Agency as the relevant regulatory authority. Any concerns regarding landfill gas management and environmental controls should therefore be directed to the Environment Agency and Himley Environmental Ltd.

2. Completion of the Black Country Cycle-Walkway
The development of the Black Country Cycle-Walkway is being progressed through the Black Country Transport Smestow Working Group. The route has a working title of the ‘Black Country and South Staffordshire Leisure Route’. This is a partnership initiative involving the West Midlands Combined Authority, City of Wolverhampton Council, Dudley Council and South Staffordshire District Council. Work is ongoing to consider opportunities to improve and extend the route and to enhance accessibility and connectivity along the corridor. There will be opportunities for member and public consultation.

3. Use of existing railway lines for commuter and regional rail services
This matter relates to wider regional and national transport planning. The proposal referenced is understood to reflect the personal opinion of a transport activist. Decisions regarding the future use of rail infrastructure, including passenger rail services on existing or freight-only lines, are matters for the rail industry, transport authorities and Government rather than Dudley Council.

Regards
Mark Williams
Acting Countryside Manager

FoE never believed me. Now the Warehouse is down for demolition!

Dear Libby

Did I tell you that on a BBC Radio WM phone in, Mayor Andy Street, in his answer to my question over two mainline railways destroyed for trams, replied that the two railway chord schemes in Brum, one of which affects our Warehouse, would get round the problem of the railway​

 "of national strategic significance".pdf

​​having been used for Metro trams?

In other words, how very foolish for new railway schemes, one affecting ourselves at the Warehouse, must now be built to get round the little matter of the rebuilt tram network (the first destroyed in the 1950s) being put on disused, former mainline railways!

Over the forty years of my one man campaign, FoE never got behind me in opposing Metro trams rebuilt on railway lines.  If Brum FoE had helped me, perhaps, the Warehouse would not now be threatened for demolition to make way for a new platform or two!

All the best

Tim