Monday, April 8, 2024
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LORRY LOADS OF RUBBISH DUMPED
Council says ‘nationwide organised crime racket’ leaves taxpayers footing £150k bill ISABELLE PARKIN
isabelle.parkin@mnamedia.co.uk
Trailers filled with rubbish have been dumped on streets in an “organised crime racket” which has cost over £150,000 to clean up.
Dudley Council says it has seen three incidents of lorry loads of waste being ditched in the borough in the past five months and 11 since 2019. The local authority has spent an average of £16,000 each time to properly dispose of the rubbish and remove the vehicles. In the latest incident, two lorry loads of building materials and household waste were dumped in Attwood Street and Stourvale Road in Lye. The vehicles have since been taken away and reported to the Environment Agency and the police. The council has urged the public to report incidents to the police as it attempts to clamp down what it describes as a “nationwide organised crime racket”. Nicholas McGurk, director of environment, said: “We have had to remove a number of dumped trailers, so it is residents of the borough who foot the bill. This latest incident in Lye is expected to cost a minimum of £25,000 to deal with.”
PLUS: RAVERS TURN BACK THE CLOCK – PAGE 2
Overhaul on the way after £9m car park demolition backed
A town centre is heading for a major overhaul after councillors backed the £9 million demolition of a car park. Cannock Chase Council is also set to acquire units in Cannock Shopping Centre to enable improvements to take place. Cabinet members gave the multi-storey car park demolition the goahead after being given an update on the progress of the regeneration project, which received £20m from the Government’s Levelling Up Fund in 2021. The decision means that building work can begin later this year. Plans include redevelopment of the former multi-storey car park and indoor market hall site to make way for a new cultural hub. A northern gateway including a new café is set to connect the town centre to the bus station and Beecroft Road car park and the car park itself will be refurbished. Speaking before the meeting, council leader Tony Johnson said: “I am pleased that we are now close to being able to spend nearly half of the £20m funding and will get on and create the improved town centre in Cannock everyone deserves.”
Bench is unveiled to commemorate war Site manager Dave Cox and Dudley Mayor Councillor Andrea Goddard at the opening party of Roots Allotments
Growing a community at new allotments site Green-fingered growers gathered for the grand opening party of a new allotments site – and it was a blooming success. Mayor of Dudley Andrea Goddard cut the ribbon with garden shears to declare Roots Allotments in Sugar Loaf Fields, Stourbridge,
officially open on Saturday. The site, one of four the Roots team have developed across the country, actually got off the ground in September when many of the 150 existing plots were snapped up by a variety of experienced and novice gardeners. And around another 100 plots
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are now being added to the former potato field in Sugar Loaf Lane so more people can get involved. The mayor said: “It’s been wonderful meeting people who have formed an amazing new community of growers. If I had more time I think I would get stuck in myself.”
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The Lord-Lieutenant of the West Midlands and the Mayor of Walsall have attended the unveiling of a bench commemorating the Falkland Islands conflict. Members of the 1,400-strong Short Heath Lest We Forget bought two benches after raising £7,500 in a fundraising walk between war memorials in the area. Yesterday one bench was placed at the Lane Head memorial and the other one will be sited 8,000 miles away in Liberty Lodge, Falkland Islands.
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