Council have treated residents with contempt

9:39am Tuesday 6th May 2008

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What have the council got against Whitehall Road? I received a leaflet from Lidl, it looked like their own information event and not any form of consultation, in addition I work Thursday evening and was unable to go.

The council have treated Whitehall Road residents with contempt.

They gave a public car park to Cradley Print to build on, and now want to allow a supermarket whose duplicate is only at Saltwells Road (less than three quarters of a mile away).

As far as offering a challenge to Tesco, there is already an Iceland and a Kwik Save in the town and another supermarket will only harm traditional traders - who we were told would benefit from the presence of Tesco.

We were years with roadworks, with bins frequently unemptied because the bins wagon couldn't get down.

Now they propose to dig up the High Street for mains work.

The green area formed by the old school yard, which used to have a number of mature trees, has been destroyed for the bypass' - which does not take traffic through Cradley Heath but simply delivers it to Tesco.

They have left an eyesore bombsite' where the church used to be without any attempt to clear or landscape it, or the new end of the road.

The road is now one-way but as you can turn right or left at the end it is still used as a traffic light rat run' - only now cars go even faster down it as they know no one will be coming the other way!

Despite having an elderly persons' home and access to a park used by many children we have been told we don't have any points' towards speed bumps.

The old DSS offices were used as Tesco recruitment HQ, leading to parking chaos, litter and vehicle damage. No doubt it will become Lidl recruitment HQ next - as it is difficult to rent out because it offers no parking area.

The multi sports area' was built in the park, right next to the only five houses that directly border it - without any consultation with those residents.

Anywhere else in the whole park would have been better! We were told it would be patrolled and locked at night - it isn't.

When we complained to the council about noise, litter and swearing we were told, "it's a sign of the times".

Underage drinking often takes place in the park - the police told us they feel it is wrong that the sports' area was sited where they cannot see it from the road - and soon teenagers will conveniently be able to get cheap alcohol from Lidl and go straight across!

No doubt the already bad litter situation in the park will increase but the Council will do nothing extra, despite council tax rises.

Maybe Lidl could create even more local jobs by employing someone to go over there and clean up.

By the way, when it comes to employment, many of the jobs in Tesco and Lidl (this does not seem to be true of Aldi) are done by students - I teach some of them and they often feel under pressure to do a lot of hours (or lose the job) to the detriment of their studies. These are not real' jobs.

If I write as if Lidl is a fait accompli it's because I believe it is - as a local resident I have had no communication from the Council about any form of consultation. I think they just want Cradley Heath to be a supermarket and takeaway paradise without doing anything to deal with the social consequences of this.

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