DUDLEY ROTTEN BOROUGH COUNCIL

The bourough seems to be healthy, the people awake and thinking, it's the council and the business enterprise that are rotten, making deals with huge corporations, selling off land and property to the highest bidder, without the slightest idea of what culture, community and health mean, in 2009. Dudley is a beautiful bourough, the people from Dudley are down to earth folk, mostly working class folk governed and bullied by a conservative, old World War II government, still today, we are governed by dinosaurs. Out of touch with the revolution, connectivity, change and scientific research opposed to faith-based thinking and faith-based policy.

"Dudley is slammed as a 'rotten borough'

12:00pm Wednesday 9th September 2009

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A FURIOUS baths campaigner slammed Dudley as a ‘rotten borough’ with a Scrooge council - fast on its way to becoming the most unpopular in history at meeting this week.

Angry Brian Guest, who has campaigned passionately to try and save Coseley Baths from the axe, unleashed a no holds-barred attack on Dudley Council when he got his chance to speak at Monday’s meeting of the select commitee on regeneration, culture and adult education.

Referring to a letter about the Conservative controlled council’s handling of the baths saga which features in the current edition of Private Eye magazine - he said: “Dudley is now classed nationally as a ‘rotten borough’.

“It shows this council is the most unpopular in Dudley’s history.”

He also hit out at the council for having the “audacity” to approve a 25 per cent pay rise for councillors shortly after offering “Dickensian” late night and early morning swimming times to young members of Brierley Hill Swimming Club - which has since been forced to close; and for hiking the prices of meals on wheels for the elderly by more than 50 per cent last year.

He continued: “I think everyone in Dudley would be ashamed if this is the best this administration can do.

“Everybody in Dudley is angry with this council, which is now known nationally as a council with no heart.

“This is a Scrooge council - but when the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future appeared to Scrooge he did put things right - proving he had a heart. But we know this council does not have a heart.”

Leader of Dudley Council - Councillor Anne Millward - said afterwards: “If we’re so rotten - why are we a four star authority?

“We have got to do things we don’t really want to do because the of recession and financial situation we find ourselves in.”

What do you think? Is Dudley a rotten borough? - http://www.stourbridgenews.co.uk/news/4588476.Dudley_is_slammed_as_a__rotten_borough_/


"£300,000 losses at baths says leader

A Black Country baths was losing more than £300,000 a year before closing last month, it was revealed today.

Dudley Council leader Councillor Anne Millward said it was costing them hundreds of thousands of pounds to keep the pool open.

She said the council was snubbed by private leisure centre owners who said the Pear Tree Lane pool was “unviable”. The baths closed at the end of August. The council says the baths need £1 million of urgent repairs to make the roof safe and a further £1m of works to bring the building up to scratch.

Councillor Millward today said the council did not have the resources to keep the baths open – but reiterated that bids from any interested parties would be considered.

“If there is someone who has got the millions to bring it up to scratch and can then take a hit of more than £300,000 a year running the baths, I have said it before – we will speak to them,” she said. “But Coseley was making losses of a third of a million each year.

“We have spoken to private providers, we did that before the decision was taken to close the pool. They just did not see Coseley as a viable enterprise.”

Save Coseley Baths campaign spokesman Brian Guest said that it came as “no surprise” the baths were making a loss because the council had not shown the necessary commitment to the pool.

“I’m not surprised it was making that sort of loss because they reduced the staff and reduced the hours to such an extent it was not going to make money,” he said.

“Everyone knows swimming pools don’t make a profit and have to be subsidised but it is a service which should be kept for the community.”

Campaign leaders are taking legal advice about the possibility of mounting a courtroom bid to prevent demolition. Mr Guest is due to hear from barristers in London early next week. - http://www.expressandstar.com/2009/09/12/300000-losses-at-baths-says-leader/

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Swimming baths shut for last time. BBC finally shows up to tell us the BAD news!

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Swimming baths shut for last time

Protestors outside Coseley Swimming Pool
The protesters vowed to keep lobbying the council until the pool was reopened
Protesters gathered outside one of the Black Country's last public swimming baths as it shut for the last time.
Dudley Council said essential repairs to Coseley Swimming Pool would be too costly and it could not afford for them to go ahead.
Recent safety checks showed repairs to the building, which first opened in 1963, would cost in excess of £2m.
In April, more than 30 people, including children, had to be taken to hospital after a chlorine leak there.
Across the rest of the Black Country, pools still remain in Dudley, Stourbridge and Halesowen.
However, protestors said many of those were too far away for older swimmers to get to.
Parents, children and swimming clubs vowed to keep petitioning the council to get the pool reopened.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/west_midlands/8230207.stm

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It’s not over yet say baths campaigners

Defiant campaigners desperate to save condemned Coseley Baths from the bulldozer have declared: “It’s not over yet.” More than 200 people attended a public meeting last night.

They discussed their next step in their battle against Dudley Council’s decision to close the leisure centre on Monday. It was standing room only as supporters of all ages, some wearing Save Coseley Baths T-shirts, vowed to continue their fight. Spokesman for the Save Coseley Baths group Brian Guest said: “We have been overwhelmed by the support tonight.

“It just shows the strength of feeling, not just in Coseley, but elsewhere in the borough.

“It is not over yet. We are going to fight for as long as it takes.

“We do not want to lose these baths.

“Dudley Council is not doing what it is supposed to which is looking after the health and well-being of children and adults in the borough.”

Dudley North MP Ian Austin, who is backing the campaign to save the baths, said: “The support for this campaign shows the determination and desire to keep these baths open.

“I have swum in these baths myself and I know how important it is to teach young people how to swim.

“During the recession it is clear to me that if they demolish the baths and sell the site, they not going to get the money for the site that they would get in the future,” he added.

“It wouldn’t cost much to keep the baths open.

“There is funding available from the Government for the management and maintenance of public swimming pools.”

Dudley Council says that the baths need £1 million of urgent repairs to make the roof safe, as well as a further £1 million spent to bring the building up to scratch.

Decommissioning works will run from September 1 to 11, when the building will be handed over to Dudley Council’s corporate property department.

Electricity and water will then be cut off ahead of demolition, with leisure chief Councillor David Stanley keen for bulldozers to reduce the building to rubble as soon as possible after closure.

The authority has yet to secure funds for the six-figure demolition bill, and the money may have to come from the public purse, chiefs have admitted.

http://www.expressandstar.com/2009/08/29/its-not-over-yet-say-baths-campaigners/