“It would be great for Wednesbury” opined Cllr. Costigan, promoting the Wednesbury Business Improvement District scheme. Wednesbury traders might be forgiven for wondering whether it might also be “great” for Costigan and the Labour party considering the interest taken in the proposal by the Wednesbury North Labour party.
Certainly the minutes of a Labour party meeting, held before the traders voted, show that the local lefties took a close interest. Members were told the process “had to be seen as...totally non-political” but that “branch members could play a role in supporting the BID, particularly by promoting it to retailers when going into the shops, and by talking to other members of the community about it. There was also likely to be some BID campaign promotion days, where members could be involved”.
So much for its non-political nature.
The mask finally slipped with the observation “it would reflect well on the party”.
The BID game appears to be to get more money from traders to pay for services to which they are already entitled and for which Labour councillors can then claim credit. Little wonder that the source of this scheme is the Local Government Act 2003 when the Blair government was at the height of its conning ascendency.
Another indication that the whole scheme might not be as non-political as presented, has been the involvement of Labour Sandwell council and its officers in promoting the bid with flyers, organisation and campaigning.
The functioning Wednesbury North Labour councillors, Costigan and Peter (Zorro) Hughes, supplemented by new town lead, Pam Hughes, from the South side, rushed from shop to shop smiling upon those who promised to vote for the BID and disapproving those who wouldn’t.
Of the Wednesbury deputy town lead, Cllr. Fudgy Meehan, unsurprisingly, little was seen. The man with the grin of the Cheshire cat had disappeared again. But there were the accompanying trots from Wednesbury North Labour party promising everything from the cleaning of pigeon mess in Union Street to oodles of cash if the BID went through and ruination if it didn’t.
The propaganda department of Sandwell council was quick to proclaim the result as a triumph with 68% voting in favour. Except like everything about the scheme that 68% was not quite what it seemed. Of those entitled to vote less than a third did. Of those who voted 55 were in favour and 24 against. So the scheme secured a mere 22% approval rating from all Wednesbury traders.
In recent years Wednesbury residents have seen an aggressive takeover of institutions and events by the Labour party. Wednesbury 2000 was edged out of organising the Christmas Lights by the Costigan gang and Wednesbury Celebrates, which is little more than a front organisation for Wednesbury Labour party, has commandeered the town hall.
The annual Wednesbury Carnival organised by the town’s Rotary Club is now in their sights and for the first time this year that charity was charged to use Brunswick Park for the event. Charging any community organisation, especially a charity, to use the park was previously unheard of.
Is the socialist philosophy that state or council must dominate and organise all, behind this? Or was it the clever idea of bankrupt and failed builder Cllr. Richard Marshall who directs Leisure in Sandwell? Unfortunately, both Marshall and Sandwell's Labour Council can be relied make a dog's breakfast out of any leisure event they organise.
Wednesbury town centre is certainly in need of stimulus. In a recent survey of town shopping centres it ranked 977 out of 1000, even trailing behind West Bromwich which tottered in at 795th place. A difficulty is that many shops in Wednesbury suffer competition from the Gallagher retail park and from Morrison’s.
Here the loyalties of Cllrs Costigan and Peter Hughes appear divided. At the same meeting where they promoted the BID they also attacked fellow Labour councillor Bob Lloyd. His sin was to raise public concerns over disruption caused by works at the Gallagher retail park.
The minutes read “Gallagher Retail Park – details were given of the proposed improvements that were going through on this retail park ……. EC/PH pointed out that they had built up a particularly positive relationship with the representative of the Management Company, Quadrant. They also expressed their extreme disappointment and disgust at the intervention of the CLP Chair, and Wednesbury South Councillor, Bob Lloyd, in criticising (in articles in the Express & Star and Sandwell Chronicle) the Management Company with regard to the car park works being carried out over the last few months of 2016.
This could have resulted in damage to the relationship that had been built up with the company, which had sponsored the artificial skating rink at the Christmas Lights switch-on. They both said that they may raise this further.”
Coming from Cllr Costigan who regularly asserts that she is only in politics "to help people" this was surprising. The lure of lucre can challenge the saintliest.
Traders in Wednesbury town might be wise consider whether BID status is really in their interests and whether some of those promoting it are wholly committed to the interests of ordinary traders.