BATTENHALL OF NEWS
Worcester Labour calls for research into creating energy from River Severn as Government condemned by watchdog based in Worcester County Hall for lack of action to make water companies accountable
Human sewage is Worcester's real poo problem
Sewage pumped into River Severn around Worcester increases by 92% in the past 12 months and Government condemned by UK Office for Environmental Protection based in Worcester's County Hall
© Graham Taylor 2024
Dog poo in our parks is a menace but shocking new figures have revealed a bigger threat to our health and futures in Battenhall – human sewage pumping into our rivers, streams and even our streets.
And today the UK watchdog for water quality – the Office for Environmental Protection based at Worcestershire County Hall – has condemned the Government’s record and demanded an action plan within three months.
The number of hours of sewage pumping into our waters has rocketed by 92 per cent in the past year. Environment Agency figures released at the end of March show a staggering total of 2,588 hours of sewage pouring into our waters in and around Worcester – on 319 occasions.
In the Orchard Street/Waverley Street area in Diglis – which has just become part of the Battenhall election ward – the hours of sewage pumping shot up from nil hours in 2022 to 83 hours in 2023 when there were 33 spills. If outflow pipes on either side of the Bath Road are included there were 54 incidents with 112 hours of sewage flowing into the Duck Brook and across the road through the Cherry Orchard nature reserve.
The Environment Agency, the Canal and River Trust, and many others have spent £19.7 million building fish passes including the one at Diglis Weir. But there is a sewage outflow, which spilled for 1,633 hours in the last 12 months, just 50 metres from the Diglis fish pass. Migrating fish that can move just before and after floods may swim through this slick. The clean-up will take years and local anglers say that the years of sewage dumping threaten the very survival of fish in the River Severn.
“This staggering rise of 92 per cent is quite appalling,” said Graham Taylor, who along with Ian Benfield at Battenhall Labour, is a keen fisherman. “Severn Trent has tried to blame the wrong kind of weather and residents for using wet wipes but the real culprit is lack of investment in drains and pumping stations. Water companies were handed water in a privatisation in 1989 that let them off £5 billion of debt (£12.666 billion at today’s prices). Only now when the sewage is on the streets have we started to hear about how the companies claim they will fix this disaster some time in the future.”
“Anglers, rowers, Dragon Boaters, canoers, wild swimmers and householders like those in Diglis know the damage that has already been done. The Environment Agency which has been cut to shreds by this government has to be given the power to act against polluters along with Ofwat. The city council wants to defend the water and rivers that are critical to our tourism and well-being. And perhaps the UK’s new Office of Environmental Protection set up in 2021 in the wake of Brexit should weigh in and act. After all, it is based in Worcester – at County Hall,” he added.
Stop press: Worcestershire County Cricket Club says it may be forced to leave the iconic New Road site after many years of filthy floods at the ground.
Come back to Labour after Tory vote shock collapse
There is no need to vote tactically in Battenhall elections because this is what has happened to the Tory vote since 2010. Complete collapse. Green Party leaflets bizarrely suggest that the Tories are running a close second. But the Tories were almost 1,000 votes behind. (1346 to 398) The defection of a Green Battenhall councillor to the Tories, Partygate, Trussonomics, and scandal after scandal have all played their part. And our door-to-door snap poll in the past three weeks has shown that trend is steeper than ever before.
In 2022 this is how the vote split. Since 2016 many people in Battenhall who only wanted rid of the Tories voted tactically fearing a split vote could let a Conservative back in. But that will not happen in 2024. The vast majority of those people tell us they will vote Labour in the forthcoming general election.
A large part of Diglis next to the park and up to Bath Road that was in Cathedral ward is now in Battenhall’s election ward after boundary shifts. We are finding strong Labour support on the doorsteps from people who have only recently returned three Labour councillors to the Guildhall. So now, with the Tory vote collapsed, it is safe to vote Labour. Why? Because even if the anti-Tory vote split evenly both Labour and any other anti-Tory party would easily beat the Tories (and that’s true if the Tory vote stayed the same as 2022 which just isn’t going to happen)
So, if you want to support Labour – vote Labour.
Worcester Labour manifesto for the future
Finding a way to create energy from the River Severn – instead of watching Severn Trent fill it with sewage – fighting holiday hunger of Worcester children, tackling rogue landlords, boosting business start-ups, holding developers to account and ensuring every child has access to safe, green spaces – just a few of the creative, practical pledges in this election’s Labour Worcester manifesto.
No empty promises, just real straightforward pledges to give power to ordinary people and help them make lives better.
Our four themes are:
- Helping you through the cost-of-living crisis
- Economic growth for everyone
- Creating a healthier and great place to live
- A sustainable city for now and future generations.
You will find our pledges on:
- Growing our economy
- Expanding our bus services
- Improving air quality in the city
- Supporting struggling families
- Building up our High Street
- Making our streets safe.
Click the red button below now to read it for yourself – it will take you just five minutes. Close the page or click back to the previous page to return to the faithfultowhom main website.
Former Co-op milkman, farm hand and launcher of UK’s first wheelie bin service candidate Graham Taylor has 42 years of council experience to support you
Faulty school safety zone with hidden street signs and no lollipop patrol threatens children, parents and pets
Battenhall of Fame – bid for Olympic hero Ernie Payne living exhibition to discover all the mysteries about his life
Ian Benfield your Labour candidate has the knowledge about the energy crisis and the cost of living that you need
Battenhall Labour candidates
Ian Benfield
Following a long career in environmental research, heritage preservation and energy sector regulation, both in the public and private sectors, Ian is now a full-time carer to Jenny, to whom he has been married for 32 years. They live in Battenhall with their granddaughter, who attends one of our local schools. Ian has two adopted children, one of whom also lives and works in Worcester.
Ian believes strongly that his experience in environmental protection and research, heritage preservation and energy sector regulation can contribute to ensuring Worcester has a sustainable future, whilst growing our local economy and protecting and empowering the most vulnerable members of our community.
Ian feels very strongly that Labour is the only local party that can successfully balance those important policy objectives and that, in order to achieve them, it is critical that Labour achieves a working majority on Worcester City Council at the May elections.
He has been a lifelong and active Labour Party supporter. He was formerly Trade Union Chair for the whole of English Heritage and later for Ofgem, as well as spending a period as District Secretary for Central London for the Society of Civil and Public Servants and a Labour Party Branch Secretary.
Graham Taylor
Promoting pump tracks, tackling the lack of social housing, getting roads resurfaced, saving trees and campaigning for better public transport – Graham has worked hard to make local government and the Battenhall community work well.
He has lived and worked in Battenhall with his family for many years.
Graham believes the council must use its limited but precious resources to help people in Battenhall cope with the cost of living crisis. Young children need play areas and safe routes to school. All people need job opportunities, healthy parks, freedom from air pollution and a better deal from water companies who have failed to stop leaks and failed to stop sewage pumping into our rivers and sometimes even our streets.
For the first time Worcester City Council is holding an election of all 35 councillors at the same time rather than having a third elected every three years and then no election in the fourth year. The old system led to short-term thinking, horse trading and shaky coalitions. The election on Thursday 2 May gives you the chance to elect a Labour council and allow it four years to carry out a well-thought out set of policies to benefit everyone in Battenhall and Worcester. So if you support Labour, please vote Labour.
Pumptrack coming to Battenhall Park
A bike pumptrack in Battenhall Park was supported by Labour councillors and voted through at the city council last month. The proposal was opposed by Green councillors representing Battenhall and St Peters wards despite being backed 2:1 by local residents and all the other councillors at the committee - including two other Green councillors! Building work should start soon and other parks such as the one at Diglis are also being considered as sites for similar tracks. Here Gary Vallance, from Camp Hill Road in Battenhall, who has visited 160 such tracks around the UK – watch the video of his son at one in Stoke - says why the tracks are a huge success and why they strengthen communities.
“I have been to 160 tracks across the UK and they work. Pumptracks give kids a reason to want to be outside, to go somewhere, to be active, to meet friends. For people “too old” for playgrounds, they’re a place to play. They bring people together that might otherwise never cross paths, nurturing understanding and respect.
Riding with my young son, we have always been welcomed by local pumptrack users. If these places were hubs of antisocial behaviour as some people fear, we wouldn’t still be seeking them out. At a pumptrack in Glasgow, in an area with genuine social challenges, a local dog-walker stopped to chat with us. Referring to the track, and the failed projects that had come before it, he said “I love it. It is the only thing they’ve ever built here that hasn’t been burnt down.”
People who live near parks such as Battenhall or Diglis are understandably nervous of new facilities, with public parking either limited or non-existent. But pumptracks attract far fewer vehicles than almost any other play equipment. Most users cycle, scoot or skate from homes nearby. In busier periods, riders are most likely to be kids of an age that absolutely don’t want to be accompanied (or even dropped off) by their parents.
The tracks proposed for these areas bring in people from the immediate neighbourhoods. For Worcester to reap the rewards that pump tracks can bring, the construction of multiple “neighbourhood” scale tracks is key. With the Battenhall Park project furthest along, this needs to set the standard. Then there’s a very strong argument for additional, unique tracks in other city locations as local as Diglis and St Peters, as well as “destination” scale tracks at venues suited to receive visitors from further afield.
Once built, tracks are inexpensive to maintain and simple to enhance. They are reached by paved pathways to minimise muddy wheel tracks, the asphalt surface is much stronger than a normal pavement. The sloped areas immediately around them are commonly turfed or seeded in grass, but can become ideal habitats for diverse species of indigenous flora and fauna. Once the track surface reaches the end of its natural life, the materials can be recycled, with fresh asphalt laid onto the existing structure for a fraction of the original cost. Cities like Telford (with fourteen tracks), refresh two or three tracks a year, while continuing to invest in new locations.
When done properly, pumptracks are a real community asset. They are enjoyed by grandparents coaching toddlers round the track on scooters or balance bikes on weekday mornings; school pupils on scooters, skateboards and bikes on their way home; friends, family and neighbours of all ages and backgrounds, sharing the space in a way that champions the original social purpose of public parks.” Gary Vallance
* Labour candidate Ian Benfield at Battenhall Park with the site of the proposed pumpbike track in the background
Living exhibition bid for Worcester's only Olympic hero from Battenhall
Worcester’s only ever Olympic gold medallist lived in Battenhall but just how many mysteries are there about this joiner who lived in two houses on either side of the London Road?
Perhaps in this Parisian Olympic year we should honour the memory of this heroic cycling figure with a special living exhibition which discovers these tantalizing unknowns. These were all discovered while interviewing his neighbours, cemetery, museum staff as well as by BBC staff who conducted research into the First World War.
Was the gold watch he gave to his employer on his return from the games in return for all the time off he had been given, actually made from the melted down gold medal? Is that why he claimed to have lost the original medal on the battle fields of France in the First World War? Why did he claim to have fought in the Guards when at 5’ 6” he would never have been accepted into those ranks? Are the pair of silver chandeliers – a race prize – which paid off drinking debts to a Worcester pub landlady still in a dark corner in the City Museum basement? Where is the medal certificate, handed to the Guildhall by his wife after his death in 1962, which used to hang on the wall of the Randall Room? Why is the replacement medal made by Ernie’s own St Johns Cycling Club not out on public display? Was the lack of celebration of this humble son of Worcester the reason the couple in one of Ernie’s houses pulled down the plaster in his bedroom that was covered with a handwritten diary of all his successes and records just after they moved in? And finally, who was his daughter?
Major Taylor a world beating cyclist who rode professionally lived in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA, our city’s twin town. This year he has been put forward for the USA’s highest civilian honour – The Congressional Medal. Only 184 individuals and groups have received one since the first was given to George Washington in 1776.
Perhaps Worcester should be starting a living exhibition for Ernie Payne that will start before the Paris Games and continue until all these mysteries are solved.
If you have any memories of Ernie Payne send them to: faithfultowhom@gmail.com
Trees threatened with the chop are rescued
A proposal to chop down two trees in Battenhall has been defeated.
The 100-year-old sycamores on the London Road were saved by quick action by your Battenhall team, Ian and Graham, who led a group of neighbours in the rescue.
The threat to the conservation area trees came when a tree surgeon advised the new owner that they were dangerous and could blow over. Tree officers at the city council advised against the move and when the team alerted the Worcester News and secured a front page splash the owner withdrew his plan.
Graham and Ian have thanked the owner who is setting up his new lettings business and is working closely with all the neighbours.
Graham said, “Neighbours working together can achieve a great deal. You can just replace cut down trees but they take generations to recover to the state and benefit to the environment they had in the first place. Much better to team up with neighbours and save the trees.”
Tree officers aware of the fact that conservation trees have some, but not full, protection are now carrying out a review of all conservation trees in Worcester to see if they need tree preservation orders.
Hard drugs found by schoolgirl sounds a warning to all Battenhall parents
Candidate Graham Taylor describes how drugs were discovered on his doorstep
Drugs are everywhere Dad, my kids told me. They were right but we didn’t expect to find them right on my Battenhall doorstep just as I was taking my daughter to school in the morning run.
But there were warning signs. Scrawled on the wall in the Fort Royal Park 100 metres away used by dozens of Battenhall residents was a sign reading ‘Drug dealers beware, we are watching you’. The dealers had tried to scrub the sign off. Perhaps the first time drug dealers had cleaned graffiti off a park wall. Dog walkers reported a gang in the park with a lookout who tipped them off when police were near. Three incidents of drug dealing just off the London Road had recently been reported to Worcester police.
So guided by my 18-year-old I phoned 101 and told the police I was coming in with the plastic bag of drugs. At the police station the desk officer at first thought I was going to hand in Weed but when she saw the package she called down an officer to “seize” the crystal hard drugs. They were later destroyed.
I was impressed with the care taken to note all the details and I was assured that patrols would be increased. We have not witnessed anymore incidents and the dealers may just have moved elsewhere but I would urge everyone in Battenhall to keep a lookout and report any finds or dealings. While canvassing during the elections people have told me of incidents in two other locations in the area where drugs have been spotted.
Reporting incidents doesn’t solve everything but all assistance and evidence the neighbourhood police can have will help.
Poor road safety scheme at schools threatens injury to children pets parents and residents
A loud public outcry about road safety around two major Battenhall schools has followed Labour Party research.
The roads around Blessed Edward’s and Cherry Orchard in Timberdine Avenue have been designated a 20mph zone but defects in the scheme are frightening residents.
The defects highlighted in our photographs include: Signs blocked by a telegraph pole; hedges overgrowing vital 20mph flashing signs; no lollipop patrol outside Cherry Orchard school for months and no enforcement.
One resident has lost two cats to speeding traffic. Many others have called for urgent action from the county council that oversees the scheme and has said it will conduct a review.
Our survey of the Battenhall Road speed sign – using a speed gun supplied by Bike Worcester and observation – carried out in February at different times of the day showed that of 311 cars 59 per cent triggered the speed sign with 126 not triggering the 20mph flash.
Ian Benfield, the Labour candidate who carried out the survey, said, “Poor signage, no lollipop patrol, and signs drivers just can’t see, are creating a safety zone with very poor safety and enforcement. The county council needs to sort this out before someone is injured or worse.”
Talk to us
Questions about the new pump bike track or sewage in streets? Ian and Graham are here to support you.
faithfultowhom@gmail.com