I HAVE lived in Bromsgrove for 17 years now and a major part of what attracted me and my family to come and live here was the atmosphere of a thriving market town with a good mix of quality shops and schools.
Over this period there has been a steady decline in the number, variety and quality of shops in the town, and just to highlight the point I see we have yet another charity shop taking over what was McDonald's. The schools' planning and provision is yet another area for concern.
Every week I read the Your View letters with dismay after seeing the same frustrations and concerns being raised by the residents of Bromsgrove week after week.
advertisement
The vast majority of these concerns appear to relate directly to the actions of Bromsgrove Council. The main reoccurring issues include insufficient parking, being hounded by clampers, increasing parking charges and removal of parking concessions for the less able amongst us.
The other main issues appear to relate to the introduction of wheelie bins and boxes. The sheer number of letters and content on this subject reads like a comedy of errors and to some it may seem amusing, but the underlying fact is that we previously enjoyed a weekly bin service.
We were sold a service on environmental issues that reduced normal house waste collection to a fortnightly service and alternated with garden waste (green bins) and box content collection, bearing in mind that the cost for garden waste collection was included in the council tax.
For our part we are required to sort, wash and separate all the waste into the appropriate container, thus doing the most time consuming part of the job for the council.
The first erosion of the service was the withdrawal of the green bins for thee months of the year. Now I believe that if we want to keep the green bin service we will have to pay an additional fee.
After all our effort the question is surely how much waste is actually being recycled? Unfortunately the answer is a mere 38 per cent - not exactly a resounding success.
Well enough is enough- I for one will not be paying again for a service already included in the council tax and I would invite you all to join me in sending a clear message to the council. In addition to this we have had the household waste permit imposed upon us and I refer to J Connor's letter from Stokes Heath recently - Easy task became a nightmare. I can understand the need to control commercial waste disposal, but what happened to Mr Connor is just plain ludicrous and unacceptable for a normal householder. I have to question why we need a permit at all as I understand it, you can also use other forms of identification, and if we have to have one, why does it only lasts for 12 months? Yet more waste.
In general Bromsgrove council tax charges appear to be amongst the highest in the land and we are now officially advised that our council is amongst the top four worst performing in the country. In practice they appear to have only two tools in their arsenal to meet budgetary requirements, cut services, or increase charges. Let's face it any one can put up charges, but that's not effective or efficient management. What the residents of Bromsgrove want and deserve to see is value for money.
Overall the council's performance in my opinion is just not good enough and I believe we are entitled to expect a vast improvement. Perhaps we should invite them to share their plans detailing how they intend to become more efficient and start giving value for money.
We need more incentives and less stick. Driving residents and shop owners elsewhere is not the answer. There is however something else we need to consider, we also need a council with a vision for the future that will make Bromsgrove a place where people are proud to live and shop and the envy of other towns.
I believe it's about time we reminded the council as to whom they serve and that they need to start listing to what the residents see as their priorities.
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
Print
Email this
Comment
