Save Our Sandwell Canada Geese

Glossy advertising prompting time sensitive action- but the truth is with the RSPCA eyes, some animals are more equal than others

THE RSPCA HAVE ABANDONED WILDLIFE. 

Wild animals are no longer being rescued as they once were because they are not economically viable to the RSPCA directors model, in that they are aware that some animals like dogs are more equal than others in attracting public donations, facebook likes and social media shares.

In many ways this replicates the absolute stinking hypocrisy of “animal lovers” in the UK. I would argue that if you eat animals you are not an “animal lover” in terms of being separate to the harm that caused that animal to end up on your plate. You make a choice and a decision that it is acceptable to do this, and yet stroke a cat or pat a dog and give it a name. Someone in the Far East however may eat a dog and yet in the Western world great anger is aroused as the bacon sandwiches from a supermarket or butchers fry on the go from a factory farm where industrial scale abuse of animals is rife. It is a series of trump cards where you place some animals above others, and the RSPCA are well aware of this in how they target their donation appeals.

Wildlife has always been the second rate pastime of the RSPCA. Convictions for cruelty are almost none existent, as is the detection of wildlife crime through lack of interest in putting out appeals or real investigation, whereas dog fighting rings get the eye of the RSPCA “special operations unit” on the case, with no expense spared on covert surveillance and other means.

My personal experience with the RSPCA over 25 years has been they favour eugenics and euthanasia over rehabilitation or attempted healing. It is almost impossible to take wild animals to a rescue centre in the West Midlands because there are none in the county other than back garden jobs that the RSPCA would no doubt be happy raiding if they got wind of “collectors” doing the job they won’t. Wildlife would frequently be dumped by inspectors at other centres in the wider area because the only RSPCA wildlife centre was based in Cheshire at Stapeley Grange. Too far to go to keep dropping off pigeons, geese or the odd hedgehog every call out. Of course, with the donations that they receive, they could have opened one in The West Midlands, but instead chose to rehome themselves from Barnes Hill to  a place known as “Newbrook Farm”.                  .

A “political animal” is born 

In recent times nationally, the RSPCA has upped its advertising profile via a “new” logo- the same 5 letters in a different font. 😆 This is what they stated on social media regards this, and the reasons behind this. Queue the “focus group” initiative, so used by the political class for their aims and objectives. I wonder who suggested this tactic to them? 😮

“before embarking on the rebrand, we carried out extensive research and testing which concluded that we couldn’t afford not to do it. Sadly many people told us they felt the RSPCA wasn’t for them, and with a decline in our share of donations and a lack of understanding of both our role and the role people can play helping animals, we had to take action.

The scale of the challenge facing animals is huge. As the biggest animal welfare charity in the country, we have an important role to play leading the sector and bringing individuals and organisations together to drive change. We must attract more people to us so we can change people’s relationships with animals and collectively have a greater impact for them.

Our new brand is much brighter, bolder and more welcoming to inspire everyone, whoever they are, to get involved with animal welfare. Our audience testing has demonstrated that our new brand drives more engagement across people considering to donate, volunteer and campaign for animals. This means that investing in our brand is an investment in animal welfare.”

What a load of bollocks!

On their official page, the RSPCA explain why they stopped rescuing wild animals.

You mean you will be fobbing people off and not caring anymore about wild animals and birds.

Although it states that larger animals such as swans will still be rescued, I can tell you that this is a lie. If you call the NCC, they take your details, then at the end after they have checked the number of jobs for resources in the area, they end the call by reading out a script off a screen informing you that “unfortunately at this time we cannot attend” or words to that effect. They then attempt to palm you off onto a vet, or ask you to find a wildlife centre.

Vets do not accept wild animals for free or treat them for free either. Many vets have next to no experience of dealing with wildlife, it is not how they make their money! In doing this, the RSPCA are putting intolerable pressure on wildlife rescue centres from not doing the work.

I can also tell you that despite also claiming that wildlife cruelty cases will still be investigated, my experience is also that they are not. I have reported birds that have been shot, quite obviously so like the one below with a hole in its head, and yet the call was not put through by the NCC when I first reported this. I was told to call the police, who if you have dealt with WMP you know are fucking useless.

As a juxtaposition to this, here is the RSPCA attempting to make people gamble on their lottery to swell their coffers by using a swan and lying they “help animals of every kind”.

Actually- you can FUCK OFF!

• A 2024 Westminster Hall debate was literally titled “Government Support for the RSPCA”.

• Recognises individual politicians (leaders, cabinet members, councillors) who champion RSPCA-aligned policy.
• One of the first  “winner” was Cllr Kerrie Carmichael (Labour – Sandwell).
• Also awarded to councillors of other parties — but the criteria reward politicians who amplify RSPCA policy lines.

The Massingham Award is not independent, not regulatory, and not peer-reviewed. It is an RSPCA-branded endorsement mechanism that rewards political actors who support the organisation’s agenda. It is a lobbying tool — not an honour.

This year Councillor Richard Jeffcoat from Sandwell “won” this award after being nominated by someone from Sandwell council. I put in a freedom of information request for the submission of his entry, as well as asking if anyone from Sandwell had attended the sickly selfie laden “awards” dinner at a hotel in Leeds at £80 per head as reported on the RSPCA website. The council have so far been very coy in delaying the request, but I will be chasing this until they cough up the information as to whether taxpayers money was spent on this shite.

“awarded” after nominating themselves

• OBEs, MBEs, CBEs given to senior staff, inspectors, trustees and long-serving volunteers.
• Examples: Chief Inspector Lee Hopgood (MBE), Angela Cope (OBE), Claire Horton (CBE), Amanda Bringans (OBE).

• Close working with DEFRA, Home Office, DCMS committees.
• Friendly debates and receptions.
• Repeated government citations.
• High-level access to ministers and civil servants.

This year, their new CEO is a past civil servant deep throat. It is becoming increasingly difficult to tell the difference any more between the top table third sector and the useful connections they appoint.

FOREIGN POLICY MEDDLING 

Not only do the RSPCA dabble in British politics, but they also are active in lobbying the EU and much wider spans of global circumference. Indeed, I would accuse them directly of globalist interventions, championing those aims, but what is the agenda given they are UK charity, and such lobbying has nothing whatsoever to do with animal abuse in the UK?

“Herrow!”

This backward Asian country aside from making cheap plastic crap that doesn’t work (lateral flow tests) etc are also best known for their squalid inventions of “avian flu” and other laboratory created gain of function research psychopathic yellow perils. 

• China is the world’s largest producer/user of farm animals and laboratory animals.
• RSPCA has been active there since 2007 in farm welfare, lab animal training, welfare labelling, and education.
• The pitch: “If you improve welfare in China, you improve welfare globally”. 😮

It is safe to say therefore that the UK has absolutely nothing whatsoever to learn from this shithole noodle prawn cracker factory when it comes to animal welfare, with it being the most cruel country on earth hands down. 

• Training modules with the Chinese Association for Laboratory Animal Sciences (CALAS).
• Promoting RSPCA-style welfare labels to Chinese farms.
• Advising on slaughter, transport, poultry/pig welfare, and lab animal practices.
• International “3Rs” (Replace, Reduce, Refine) training for scientists.

A typical Globalist summit of fuckwit hypocrisy. How many animals in the UK could have been saved instead from these two wasted plane tickets? 

• A major US $450,000 (£359k) grant from the Open Philanthropy Project (2017–2019).
• Additional RSPCA “international fund” donations from UK supporters.
• Overseas work in total historically costs £250k–£350k per year.

• UK donors support the international arm.
• UK fundraising and brand reputation subsidise global outreach.
• Charity overheads, governance, travel and staffing ultimately draw from its general resources.

• China still has no national animal-cruelty law.
• Enforcement is weak, localised or non-existent.
• Cultural and economic factors heavily outweigh Western welfare standards.
• Welfare labels in China risk becoming PR tools without independent enforcement.
• No published independent audit showing measurable welfare improvements is attributable to the RSPCA.

• A large lobbying arm
• An international strategy
• Awards for politicians
• Soft-power ambitions
• Farm-industry ties
• And a traditional rescue service underneath

• politicisation
• self-promotion over rescue
• “welfare-washing”
• and drifting away from core charitable purpose.
• High political influence but low transparency.
• Self-nominating award schemes used to flatter councils and councillors.
• International work (esp. China) with unclear impact but real cost.
• Farm-welfare partnerships that sometimes undermine their welfare credibility.

• Governance overlaps with political actors through honours and networks.

1. How much total UK charitable money has indirectly subsidised RSPCA’s overseas (including China) activities?
2. What measurable improvements in Chinese welfare have resulted from RSPCA activity?
3. What is the full list of RSPCA staff and trustees who have received honours (OBE/MBE/CBE etc)?
4. How are RSPCA’s political lobbying costs accounted for separately from donor funds intended for animal rescue?
5. What independent assessment exists for the Massingham Advocacy Award scheme?
6. How many councils have submitted self-applications and what evidence was actually verified?

OPINION AND INVESTIGATION.

Some time ago it seemed that after nearly two decades of getting nowhere with this single issue, Sandwell council via the rather controversial Matthew Huggins were turning the corner and producing an angling policy with some teeth- this would finally see a charge for fishing and an end to the real problem of free fishing and the anti-social behaviour that it directly encourages.

I briefed in March 2024 that because of the local elections, it had been put off. Following that however, the assistant director left his post and what followed was a period of silence from his successor Ben Percival.

Mr Huggins was unpopular with many, but I found him generally amiable and willing to embrace change and the dogmatic lack of scrutiny that had gone before. Many officers and also serving Labour councillors were actively briefing against him to third parties, and some are still Labour councillors in post. His standards obviously did not meet theirs. Their reason for doing this was that he appeared to make the Unite the Union staff work, something in parks at least which was a rarity, because they have for many years been bone idle fuckwits and incompetent. Since his departure, we have also had briefers that they have had to “put things right” that he left behind. To me this is just a long line succession of blaming the guy who led before, and in truth when you do fuck all in a year, that speaks more volumes to me than the bloke you are trying to blame.

Ben Percival as far as I am concerned is a waste of space yes man. With previous jobs in many local councils including Walsall and Dudley, it transpires that HE made the decision to kick the draft policy , which had already gone to scrutiny, into the long grass and do FUCK ALL with it.

I have over many years had to produce evidence of the harm that this “working mans sport” causes to wildfowl that live in Sandwell’s parks and open spaces. Unfortunately, Labour are soft on this type of hunting and always have been, preferring the hypocrisy of class war fox hunting that does not take place in their area as their “animal welfare” championing. They are not interested on evidence of animal harm in their own back yards however, pointing instead over there to the countryside filth who hunt with dogs. I had to produce evidence of harm to the corrupt Geoff Lewis, a walrus faced Friar park buffoon and angler who would not accept what I said, and so a large report was produced to show exactly the harms that his fishing mates were causing. I never heard off Lewis again, and thankfully, he is now worm food himself- and good fucking riddance as well!

We then had the odious cocaine junkie Darren Cooper- another angler who did favours for his fishing friends- also now gone and equally good riddance.

Most of Sandwell’s councillors are talentless union plants or “rights” activists advising scroungers how they can leach off working people. They have made a career out of this shite and think they are doing good in the world, when all they are doing is scrounging themselves off expenses and “special responsibility” payments. Many just tow the party line up till a point where they conspire against one another and form factions. We have seen this with both Labour and the Conservatives in Sandwell.

Councillor Richard Jeffcoat. 

This individual stood as an  “independent” in the elections of 2024. He had stood many times prior to this, originally in the ill fated Sandwell Green party and then on his own. Many people in Tipton Green were absolutely sick of “BWA Barracus” and co and he got the nod, ousting a cabinet member and promising scrutiny and challenge to the Labour Group.

I met him in Victoria Park and explained the long history of issues in Sandwell with parks and the harm that fishing does. I was hopeful that he would take this on board and campaign for change, challenge the council to kickstart the angling policy and introduce fees and charges which removes asb issues at a stroke. I was hoping that unlike the other Labour councillors, he would speak out and criticise those causing harm to wildlife by fishing. Despite promising much, he has delivered nothing at all in this regard, mostly because he appears incapable of understanding that formal means are needed via an FS case to get a formal response which can be later challenged. Anecdotal meetings and asides from bent Labour and their officers is very very naive and will not suffice as far as I am concerned when they have of course openly lied before. He has I am afraid to say been a bigger waste of space than a so called “Nightingale hospital” at the NEC.

Unfortunately, Jeffcoat has fallen prey to the coercive control of Sandwell labour, and Kerrie Carmichael in particular, whom he appears to be in the thralls of misguided awe. We turn to our old “friend” the behaviour change wheel, so used by the fanatic looney bin nutters of SMBC public health during the fascist plandemic hoax, coercing people to have a medical procedure with a harmful “intervention” they never needed.

Carmichael lost no time in putting Jeffcoat on numerous committees as a stated “independent” councillor. She has feted him and showered him with attention and praise, and the upshot of this, and I doubt he can recognise it, is that when this happens it usually exhibits a rapport of reciprocal appreciation. Not so much Stockholm syndrome but “Sandwell syndrome”. So he thought he was being rewarded, when in reality he was being bogged down with something to do to keep him out of the way from challenging the council machine. Thus he has just become part of that machine and is incapable any longer of challenging it from the outside.

“The maestro” has become the organ grinder’s dancing monkey. His social media posts reflect this habitually in how he refers to the council and its officers in reverent tones without criticism or scrutiny. He has voted with Sandwell Labour on numerous occasions. He has become a hamster in their wheel and is frequently pictured alongside the usual arachnoid suspects, one of them a grossly obese silent sloth. He has also been used as a useful idiot to get messages back to me repeating stuff from the BCW which of course I can see through instantly like a lighthouse shining onto murky waters. No one changes my behaviour, no one, I am not a fucking dog. 

FREE ANGLING IN SANDWELL AND THE ANIMAL SHAMFARE “TASKFORCE” 

One of Carmichael’s useful webs was the distraction creation of her “animal welfare taskforce”. Like the many previous utterly useless Labour leaders, in fact every one of them, she failed to address the angling issue in the emails below. This is her only real interaction with me apart from brief follow up replies, and anything else she claims is a lie. This is why retaining every email and response you ever send is important as a record of fact.

Below  I outlined what I have witnessed in this park – criminal damage, breaking rules, no care for anyone or anything, animal cruelty, littering and in general all the people who fish there are just scum.

8/6/2025

10/6/2025

“Afternoon Ian

Thank you for your email.

I can only apologise that you have not received a response regarding the questions you have raised to council, and I agree that is not acceptable and will look to rectify that as soon as I can.

I will ask for the report about Saturday from the Wardens so that we can look at how we can improve the service when people are seen camping and fishing in a park as you had witnessed and kindly sent the photos through.

 I have emailed you before made it clear that I understand your frustrations regarding the wildlife – I too am passionate about animal welfare and would dearly love all abuse to any animal to stop.  We started the Animal Welfare Taskforce to help improve lives of animals and we are working with the RSPCA on several issues including fishing. As soon as we adopt a new instruction on fishing I will forward it to you.

 With best wishes

Kerrie “

There is more on this “task force” further on in this post.

13/6/2025

Out of the blue, and obviously because he had been told to, I then got this from Ben Percival who suddenly wanted a meeting.

22/6/2025

I had not seen his email, I was busy catching birds and other matters in Sandwell parks but replied with caution and suspicion about the intentions of such a meeting.

23/6/2025

Percival replied and do note his reference to Huggins and the phrase below which I will also return to later on in this post.

“I’m keen to better understand the position of and background to a range of issues – including the draft Fishing Policy – before proceeding further. This was the purpose of the suggested meeting – you clearly have a long history of involvement with wildfowl welfare in Sandwell and I’d welcome the opportunity to discuss this with you to be better informed on how to proceed with the Fishing Policy and associated matters.”

I did indeed meet with Ben Percival and my concerns were well founded in that despite wanting to “learn” from me, he had already decided on a free fishing model with no enforcement. the big idea it seems is to get the environment agency to do licence checks, which if you know the vast area they cover, they are not going to visit Sandwell’s dogshit parks on any regular basis. He got both barrels, and he deserved it.

“Hi,

27/4/2025

Sandwell council replied to my request where it became clear that this taskforce consisted of Carmichael, Crompton, Jeffcoat and Hartwell as councillors. A couple of other council officers I believe are named and redacted RSPCA officials, I’m guessing none front line staff but PR agents.

Hides behind fake profile

Imagine someone caring about wildlife, instead of egocentrism. What a “Jimmy”

If a warden at the council is promoting something which is not true, they should be sacked

OPINION-Political class- Leave wildlife matters out of your divisive agenda

In recent weeks there has been intensive media coverage and related social media discussion concerning a video alleging swans being “eaten by migrants” and a short clip of an RSPCA inspector supposedly catching them in the act.

The genesis of this clip appears to be from posts from an organisation called “Turning Point UK”- an organisation started in the US which in itself has come under frenzied recent discussion concerning the assassination of one of its founders there. These appear to have been started in June, and yet only recently have they seen viral spread with eye watering views from the clickbait headline.

Nearly 2 million views!

The video itself at just over a minute can be viewed below, but I will give my take on this matter unbiased, and then detail my own experiences of issues over the last 28 years that I have been rescuing wildfowl and reach a conclusion about the allegations and this video and those promoting it.

I am aware of this clip and the programme it was from called “Animal Squad” being many years old, even before that was actually confirmed by the RSPCA themselves as 2010. This is Inspector Herchy Boal, for many years I know based in The West Midlands and from where this clip is from. She later appeared in other programmes such as The Dog Rescuers and has been an RSPCA inspector for at least 20+ years. THOSE ARE FACTS.

The full episode of this from which the short is taken can be viewed below for context, as that is important. This is from Series 1 Episode 4, but that video header also unfortunately claims “cooked swan”- which is part perhaps of the problem of memory as I will prove in this post. This video was not posted by the RSPCA, but by an apparently anonymous individual with their own made up title- I would also claim for clickbait as are many youtube videos to hit certain algorithms if you know anything about that.

In terms of this video, as well as the short shared by Turning Point UK it appears that a member of the public claimed that a family of individuals stole two swans from an unnamed park in Birmingham and took them home. It is unclear as to how the RSPCA arrived at the precise moment that this bird was allegedly being cooked with a camera crew in tow. That is also edited footage.

This is the first thing that I have a problem with, and the context of the heavily edited video story on the programme, the RSPCA have no right of entry– None and that is a fact. There are no police officers shown in the clips, so I would ask were they there off camera and on what grounds the RSPCA were questioning these people and whether this should have been under caution in the appropriate manner not on camera. To me this casual approach appears more like Gordon Ramsey visiting a kitchen and asking questions of the chef. It is to my mind absolutely bizarre television. I can see in this case as to why many people comment as though something does not seem right with this. 

The actual “evidence” is not strong at all, and hence concern has to be issued about whether reasonable suspicion thresholds were met and if they were, then why did the inspector leave without apparently taking any forensic evidence? WAS ANY TAKEN- THE VIDEO DOES NOT EXPLAIN? She appears to take a birds head with her, but not in  any labelled evidence bag, more like one you would get from a takeaway!

The three pictures above offer comparisons, and I have turned the video right side on which can easily solve this riddle, and the dead bird in question is certainly not a mute swan. The beak is longer in a swan, and also note the lack of concave upper bill, where as look at the same length of the beak for an Embden goose and the distinctive concave in the bill of that species.

I would state that some people that have called me in the past talk of “injured swans” which turn out to be geese, and I have also made calls to the RSPCA national Control Centre to report injured geese, only for the operator to then read back I had said swan. It may be the case that that happened in this case, and the inspector had been given the wrong information.

There clearly was evidence of something in the pot and white feathers- though this is not “proof” that this was even a bird in the pot and the white feathers could have been from a domestic goose or even Aylesbury duck.

I defy anyone to tell me that the picture above is of a swan- there is simply no proof of that. That is where DNA evidence should have been taken, the pot seized there and then along with the feathers. Did Inspector Boal actually have a warrant? Why was this evidence not seized under those circumstances and the individuals cautioned? 

What is not accurate is the claim that “RSPCA worker catches migrants eating swans “. That is simply disinformation, and a total lie- she clearly did not. This organisation, Turning Point UK having put their own logo on a video which is not in their own copyright then anchor this false claim with “Why are these people in Britain?” Clearly they have an pre-loaded agenda and are using false narratives to achieve that aim. 

And it appears to have worked for them in terms of views and no doubt monetisation if they have that. Unfortunately, I have come across many people who remember this clip and not only believe that the individuals were caught cooking a swan, but that it somehow is endemic in the UK, something which also is not validated with much direct evidence. In psychology this misremembering is known as “The Mandela Effect. “

What TPUK have done with this is to deliberately create a myth to serve their own purposes for purely political reasons. Typically it also invites racist commentators whose acumen and insight add wonders to the level of ignoramus discussion.

They then knock up memes, again so that their useful idiot followers can share that disinformation.

This is not the first time that garbage like this has been printed and promoted. The Sun newspaper in 2003 printed their “swan bake” front page headline with similar unfounded accusations. This also serves as a cue for people to add to the pot with their own ideas and misconceptions. It is not that well known that on this story they fell fault of the Editors Code and printed a rather buried clarification in a later edition. 

Other social media posts have taken clips and pictures which also cannot be verified as to what is happening in them, but they are also used for similar purposes.

Perhaps one can conclude that the programme makers of Animal Squad themselves were just looking for sensationalist angles, but this one has merely served to hinder animal welfare investigation and rescue rather than help it. 

THE CHANGING SUSPECT FACE AND THE URBAN MYTH

Originally, the claimed suspect swan eaters were “Eastern Europeans” and in particular Polish migrants who in large numbers appear to unfortunately enjoy fishing. There are many stories of fish being stolen, but these also appear to be largely anecdotal with British anglers at the front of the allegations. I am aware that illegal fishing and poaching and transfer of fish is rife and that many people I have seen or know have done this are not Eastern European but British. I have found many fyke traps which are used to catch crayfish, some are illegal and some are placed by the EA.

It is important to distinguish the difference between “migrant” and illegal immigrant , something which TPUK cannot appear to do. Migrants came here in large numbers as a result of free EU movement, and this was badly managed by the then Labour Government. Illegal immigrants who break the law and come to this country on boats from safe EU NATO France in my opinion should be deported immediately and never given entry into the UK. On that matter I would agree with TPUK. But it appears to suggest that this new wave of immigrants are now at the centre of the accusations regards the old RSPCA video.

There is a well known urban myth which goes something like this. Person A is on a bus ride home, when person B asks them for change. Person A gives them the money, and then getting off the bus person B says in an aside “you helped me, so I helped you. Stay out of “X” city on “X” date. ” The connotation is that person B knows and is hinting that a terrorist atrocity will be committed in that location on that date. Person B used to be Irish in the 1970’s, but then morphed into Arab or Muslim in the 2000’s. The story never happened and is made up bullshit, and yet people still believe this garbage is true.

MY OWN EXPERIENCES BASED ON 28 YEARS OF WILDFOWL RESCUE. 

I have two examples of real events where non British individuals were involved or accused of eating swans. In the first case I knew of a swan on a park that stayed as a juvenile into adulthood. On one day the swan was not present. Three days later I found a bin bag of feathers, and a separate bag containing a swans head, in tact, but with a cleaved off beak. The carcass had clearly been stripped of meat and this bird had not been predated by an animal. I called the RSPCA and the police and both came out with scenes of crime forensics. In the one bag amongst the rubbish I found a train/tram ticket from a station in Prague dated two weeks earlier. No one was ever caught for this, but on the balance of probabilities the evidence pointed strongly towards someone from the Czech Republic being responsible. I would stress that it was a one off incident.

In case 2 the allegation was that a swan was seen being put in a bag by two men who went to a house. The swan on this park did disappear and was never seen again. It was claimed by the witness who spoke little English that they were Eastern European. This house was a children’s care home in a semi detached house. The police were slow to visit but did so but found no evidence or so they claimed. One child was in the house but the care provider was a rubbish business provider of “care” as I looked up this at the time, as well as carrying out surveillance on the property myself as to who was coming and going. The witness would not give evidence and so it went no further.

In contrast, I see the depravity of the English white working class and their activities every single week harming widlfowl. Of course angling is the most destructive of these, and then of course the wanton vandalism with weapons that should be banned if the political class could be bothered or really cared about wildlife.

What made the TPUK story appear to soar is that Nigel Farage passed some comment on swans and then the “fact checkers” of the left started to seize on this as is their obsession with the political divisiveness and no interest in the issue themselves. I have no time for Farage because he is pro hunting and is not interested in wildfowl. On the other hand I have frequently pointed out that Labour are not “the party of animal welfare” as they like to self style themselves. They are continuity Conservatism and cull keepers , and of course started their own in Sandwell which was exposed.

Do not any of these smug bastards try to tell me that they care about wildlife when they have failed to ever stop hunting when in power, only as the monster Blair deliberately only partially banned hunting with dogs by design so it could continue. Recently we have seen David Lammy attempting to “steal” fish- he had no rod licence,  and so under the Theft Act he was committing this offence, and yet he got let off by The Environment Agency.

Hypocrites, liars, in it for themselves, this is the politician of the UK who will use anything and everything to promote something by pointing over there at something else. If you cannot see it for what it is and question the integrity of the evidence then they will keep on stirring the pot with you in it.

So in April, this abysmal environmental polluter were once again responsible for a faecal attack on another Sandwell Park- this time the upper pool at Redhouse in Great Barr. This has happened before at this “green flag” park, and to cut a long story short, a local resident has supplied me with bundles of letters he sent to this company over many years, the consumer council for water, and Ofwat about related matters. All of this has been forwarded to Sarah Coombes MP , who has advised me that she has still to receive an official response from STW after all this time.

Like all previous events , the pollution arose from a STW asset which feeds into the pool and serves a large catchment area. A penstock valve operates flow into the upper pool, and it was apparent that a billowing soup of shite was pouring out of here and spreading outwards, once again threatening wildlife, though STW like to pretend that this is down to something else.

Friends of Redhouse Chair, Dave Fisher was quick to post a video showing this which can be viewed below. He also contacted the council, and calls were put in to the EA from day one, including those I made myself.

Facebook

Unlike the dismally slow attendance at Smethwick Hall park in 2019, on this occasion more stops appear to have been pulled out, perhaps only because they knew that social media was watching. This however was not immediate, and there is some dispute as to when STW were actually informed and responded, with my location report being inaccurately plotted.

A boom was put in place around the offending stench and then pumps installed to oxygenate the water.

These pumps ran for some days with 24/7 attendance by contractors Adler and Allen. Following this I made communication with STW asking for answers. I eventually got a response, which was more inflated pr and denials. The full responses are set out below, STW response in red, my rebuttal in black, and their subsequent response to this in blue. Judge for yourself if you believe them.

#”We were first altered about a suspected pollution in this area yesterday when the Environment Agency contacted us.  We attended quickly to find all our assets operating normally and no environmental impact.  As with all pollutions, we reported this information back to the EA. “

And yet Sandwell council claim to have contacted the EA a week earlier about this incident- so can you confirm if you attended then and you also failed to identify the correct location at this time- thus the issue has been happening for at least two weeks? 

“This was first reported to us by the EA on the 17/03/2025 at 14:55 and we attended site at 16:27.

We are made aware of pollutions through a number of routes:

We identify them ourselves and self-report them.  This is formally measured by the EA, and we have been green on this measure since 2013, self-reporting 89% of our incidents.

·                     EA officers spot them and call us directly.

·                     Customers call the EA who then call us

·                     Customers call us directly.

All pollutions are picked up by our 24/7 control centre who dispatch a crew immediately.  We attend the majority of pollutions within 2 hours”

SO EITHER SANDWELL COUNCIL OFFICERS WERE LYING OR SEVERN TRENT ARE HERE. 

#“Following your mail and helpful videos and photos, we realised this was actually a different location but in the same area so we re-attended and found a blockage in our sewer.  This is quite common in this area, and we often find the cause to be third party – either damage to our pipes or things being put in the sewer that we are not bound to receive.  Sometimes these items alone can create a restriction, but it is often made worse by mis-use of the sewer (fats, wipes, nappies, etc).  We complete extensive CCTV work to identify the cause and then use our team of Network Protection Officers (residential properties) or ECAS (commercial) to help educate customers and hopefully prevent future incidents.”

This is very generalised PR spin and I have to tell you that my BS detection limits are calibrated to very low. Why is it common in this area? What frequency of surveying is carried out by STW in this area or catchment, when was the last occasion this was carried out and found to be no issues or clear and why is there only ever reaction to events like this? Why do you always blame the public, rather than consider if your investigations or even detection of the reported pollution location arisings are accurate, as was not in this case? 

“Across our network we removed 28,062 blockages last year and we survey 30,000-40,000 pipes per year to proactively cleanse and fix pipes where needed. The number of blockages is improving every year due to proactive inspections and cleansing areas where historical data tells us we have a problem plus the extensive work we do to educate customers through our network protection team and in local schools.  On average we clear 59 blockages a year in the B43 postcode.  

Last year, of the 1,256 pollution incidents we attended, 274 were caused by Severn Trent assets and resulted in a minor impact on the environment. Any pollution is one too many and we are investing in our assets and our response capability to significantly improve this.  We remain sector leading, but are constantly striving to be better.

In the B43 area we have attended 24 reported pollutions since 2017 and 1 was attributable to Severn Trent.  The rest were either confirmed as ‘no impact’ or 3rd party.”

I AM NOT BELIEVING WHAT STW CLAIM TO BE “MINOR IMPACTS” GIVEN THEIR FAILURE TO ADMIT THAT THEIR RAW SEWAGE CAUSES ALL AVIAN BOTULISM ISSUES WHERE IT OCCURS. THEY MAY NOT WANT TO MAKE THE LINK, BUT I WILL. 

“This particular blockage resulted in a minor trickle of discharge into the pond which has now been stopped and we have started investigations upstream to identify the cause.  I will personally review the outcome of these investigations and ensure all appropriate actions are taken to ensure we prevent further blockages.”

What volume of “discharge” as you conveniently describe human excrement and toilet flushings do you estimate went into the lake, and how are you able to measure this please? Is this a combined sewer overflow and do you have ANY discharge consents, yes or no will do. 

What were the oxygen readings in the lake on your first attendance? What were the ammonia/nitrate levels? 

What are they now, and what do you expect them to reach following this minor incident as you appear to claim it was, when pumps have now been operating for over one week by Adler and Allen? 

“In regard to this specific incident, it was caused by third-party misuse of a sewer on a nearby road. A circular concrete pipe cap (not related to any Severn Trent work) was removed from the sewer by our operatives which was causing a restriction on the line. The event did not take place on a combined sewer nor any combined sewer overflow as the sewer system is separated in this area – foul water and surface water is carried through different systems.

In terms of measuring the volume or flow of discharge, there is no monitoring in the area to be able to provide a specific number or total volume.

In reference to the oxygen readings and ammonia levels on the lake, these were collected at the time and over the subsequent days to help track the health of the waterbody. As we don’t manage the lake we don’t hold information in terms of background levels. As you mention, we did instruct Adler and Allen to support as a specialist Environmental Consultant to ensure our response was adequate and to leave the waterbody in an improved condition.

Whilst the incident was caused by a third-party, it is still under review with the EA as part of the categorisation process. This process is usually concluded relatively quickly so would be happy to share more specific readings and levels with you at that point.”

NB NO FURTHER INFO HAS BEEN SHARED WITH OR COMMUNICATD BY STW TO MYSELF. 

“We are proud of our Environmental performance.  We have been awarded the Environment Agency’s highest standard of 4 star status for the last 5 years.  Our teams are committed to not only protecting but improving the environment.  So, whilst on site, we carried out a further assessment and noticed the water body was being impacted by a clean water leak. which we have raised to South Saffs (SIC) Water who are on site currently. We also noted an algal bloom and whilst we wait for the EA to attend, we have instructed our own contractors to complete an environmental assessment.  We will also work with all parties to ensure the pond is left clean.”

I substantially beg to differ in opinion to yours on your company’s environmental -performance having reported dozens of incidents over the last 20 years- particularly in Smethwick. How convenient it is that you cannot find pollution when reporting back to the EA, and then only when people persist and keep ringing them do you come back and find it down the line. I wish I could mark my own work, but that is the state of how dire the privatised water industry is in that this is allowed to happen with weak political regulation. 

What does “clean water” have to do with this, it appears to be a rather desperate attempt to drag another water company into your pollution. One may take the view that clean water is probably doing good to combat your company’s sewage rather than causing harm? 

Algal bloom- do you think that people are that stupid that they do not associate this with raw sewage, and that this event has obviously bee going on for some time and has caused this bloom to occur, or is a substantive causal factor? 

“The Environment Agency (EA) measure our, and the other water companies’ Environmental performance using a set of 7 metrics. In addition to reporting the total number of pollutions that we’re accountable for, we also are measured on how many of our incidents we “self-report” i.e. we tell the EA about before they’re informed by anyone else. We have been “green” for this metric since 2013, self-reporting 89% of our incidents in 2023 and 89.7% in 2024.  We have achieved the highest level of performance against these 7 metrics – receiving the top 4* award for the last 5 years. 

In relation to the clean water leak that we’ve reported to South Staffs Water, the Chlorine used to make sure the water is good to drink, can disrupt ecosystems as it reacts with organic matter in the water to form harmful by-products and subsequently degrade water quality.

Whilst sewage escaping into a watercourse can create algal blooms (commonly known as sewage fungus), it’s not the only cause of algal blooms, other nutrient rich discharges also can create algal blooms (i.e. fertilisers) and that’s why we need to explore all contributors to this watercourse.”

“Thanks you again for raising.  I will be back in touch when we have understood the true cause of the blockage and will happily share the work we undertake to prevent this happening again.”

As those who signed a petition to ban catapults and their sale together with ammunition will know, the UK Government “responded” to this with a standard civil service pile of bullshit. In the past there have been petitions about controlling air weapons, only for this pro hunt blob of fucking lazy scum in Westminster to claim that it is the right of people to “enjoy their property”, or be unrestricted in what they do because of law breakers whom the token bacons that are not interested in wildlife crime should be arresting.

“Make the sale of catapults/ammunition and carrying catapults in public illegal.”.

So out of touch are these corrupt pro fox hunting pillocks that they have no concept of the damage that the weapons wielded by council estate white trash are having on wildlife- particularly urban wildlife.

The response to this petition is set out below, and I will offer my thoughts and experiences on this in rebuttal to the shit who wrote and prepared this. I just wish they had put their name to it, because I would call them a shit to their face, where no doubt the swill would soon be set upon me for offending the poor snowflake.

Government responded:

“The Government will keep this issue under review, balancing the concern over the need to protect wildlife from the minority who misuse catapults, with respect for their legitimate use by anglers.

In other words, “piss off”. Where does the petition mention “anglers”? The type of catapult being used by the majority are so called “vermin” catapults, hidden up the sleeve and carried around in the pocket, and not static at the waterside. The respondent to this is obviously a pisces stabber with a guilty conscience, as well as knowing exactly who are misusing them in relation to waterfowl being targeted, because they are of that mentality for their pathetic “sport” being ruined by a passing bird.

The Government shares the deep concerns raised by the petitioners over the appalling spate of incidents of swans and other wildlife being attacked with catapults, and we condemn the thugs responsible for such vile and cowardly crimes.

So how many more do we have to document, before you take action? Why do you task us with compiling this evidence, and yet at the end of that exercise fucking ignore all of it with crap blanket statements like this?

Catapults should never be used for illegal purposes, whether against wildlife, people or property, and there are already a range of laws in place to punish those who do so. For example, under provisions in the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and The Wild Mammals (Protection) Act 1996, the police have broad powers to deal with offences where unnecessary suffering and injury is inflicted on wildlife, including cases involving the misuse of catapults.

What a fucking joke. They are ONLY used for criminal damage, that is their purpose to fire projectiles like bullets at targets. The WCA is a joke, it protects farming and agricultural interests and that is what it was set up for. I looked at the history of this shite law HERE. The bacons are pro hunt supporters with no interest in wildlife crime.

However, it is also the case that catapults are also routinely used by members of the public enjoying legitimate pastimes, in particular for anglers when propelling fishing bait. In considering this petition, therefore, the Government has to balance the entirely legitimate objective of the petitioners to see catapults and catapult ammunition kept out of the hands of individuals who will misuse it, with the equally legitimate desire of anglers and others to continue using catapults for normal pastimes and leisure pursuits.

Who are “the others”. What “legitimate” pursuit are they carrying out, and what are they firing? These weapons can kill, and are not designed to be some type of fucking toy and used as a “pastime”.

At present, the Government believes the current legislation in this area strikes the correct balance between these two objectives, and we therefore do not intend to accept the petitioners’ proposal at this time, but we will continue to keep this issue under review, including all relevant legislation that applies in this area.

The Government is wrong. The legislation is none existent, and the enforcement of the law is not happening. 

In the meantime, the Government is determined to crack down on attacks on wildlife and other types of crime that have gone unaddressed for too long in rural areas.

Then enter “rural areas”. I could not give a fuck about rural crime. That is all they are concerned about, because as I said, they are pro hunt scum, where the pro hunt scum all live. Ironically of course, they do not care about the law being broken, but have filtered in loopholes designed by the liar and murderer Blair who allowed hunting to continue. THE MAJORITY OF WILDLIFE CRIME BY NUMBERS OCCURS IN URBAN AREAS- FACT. 

The Government is currently working with the National Police Chiefs’ Council on the new iteration of their Rural and Wildlife Crime Strategy, which is due to be published in the coming months, and we are also continuing to support the work of the National Rural Crime Unit and the National Wildlife Crime Unit, which provides intelligence, analysis and investigative assistance to forces and other law enforcement agencies across the UK to support them in investigating wildlife crime.

Could not care less what this bunch of freemasons are doing in rural areas. Until they enforce the law regards hunting, they will nit have any respect from me. The PCC’s in the wider Midlands area are known corrupt in office, members of the countryside alliance and have vested interests in keeping hunting going. 

The National Rural Crime Unit will receive £365k from the Home Office in the financial year 2025-26, the first new funding since the unit was established in 2023, and the National Wildlife Crime Unit, will receive funding of £450k from the Home Office in the financial year 2025-26, a 21% increase on the previous financial year.

Home Office

AND NOTHING FOR URBAN AREAS. 

Here below are a collection of just a few wankers with their weapons. Not one had any fishing equipment upon their person. I rang the police about every one of them, and most incidents had no attendance. They were sent the pictures after the event, and on most cases did not get back to me with anything of interest. DO NOT TELL ME THAT THE LOCAL POLICE ARE INTERESTED IN WILDLIFE CRIME. I HAVE 28 YEARS OF KNOWLEDGE IN THIS AREA. HOPEFULLY ONE DAY, THESE WILL BACK FIRE AND KILL THEM AND THE CHILDREN THEY ARE WITH. 

Not for the first time have this council been complicit in the destruction of living things and their habitat. This post serves as another reminder of that on the border of a local nature reserve, and is being shared here for informative purposes. 

It is with a very heavy heart, that our worst fears about the Sandwell Plan are now arising and a sense of Deja vu on the former Duport’s Tip and surrounding roads has seen the mass destruction of hundreds of mature trees and the associated wildlife that lived there.

The previous operations and planning saga on this site were outlined in this post, but this perhaps serves as the direct sequel as to what is to come, and so we all must fight on to try to stop that from happening.

By way of history, the article below was written in 1995, and confirms that the area planted that has now been wrecked in just two weeks was a publicly funded urban forest that at this time was used as a propaganda tool by the then Black Country Development Corporation. This body were a despicable shill organisation for new build development, but used token planting like this to try to attempt to convey green credentials using our money. We can now see this fraud for what it was and that of their successor – The West Midlands Combined Authority.

BCDC-forest-Sandwell Chronicle -3rd-Feb-1995

I was contacted by a local resident who alerted me to the presence of diggers on the site in a Pearl Harbour style attack on the areas wild space. I visited on 11/1/2025 on a cold foggy morning, and in the mist I could see and hear the clattering of fallen trees as two diggers were on site. The video below captures some of this. Trees were piled up and they had obviously gained access from Gladstone Drive- the new front line of the war on wildlife.

Digger in the mist

(1) Video | Facebook

By the afternoon, the two vehicles were parked up at the entrance, and it was clear to see that both were branded “DSM”. This was quickly found to be a company called DSM Demolition based in Saltley Birmingham.

It was clear to see the destruction that had been wrought on the site from above on the mound. I observed no site safety notices nor anything to prevent the public from accessing where I walked from off the canal- indeed this site has been used regularly by residents, dog walkers and the general public for many years after the Hurst family had abandoned it- save of course for their tatting for metal exercise in 2010 which I looked at in this post. Trees were piled up, and it struck me that it was their intention to remove any trace of ecology off the site so they could attempt to claim there was nothing there.

(1) Facebook

Also piled up at the entrance were remains of the butile lining of the French Drain, installed as a planning condition on account for the landfill gas associated with this site. One therefore ponders as to what pre application advice or guidance had been sought from Sandwell council- of course they had questions to answer?

Local residents had started to contact me about the work, and I immediately put in an email and contacted those in the council, including the deputy leader and Oldbury ward councillor for this area Suzanne Hartwell. Needless to say, I have yet to get any answers or even the courtesy of a response from this individual. 

Over the course of the following week, the destruction continued daily after the Sunday rest. Where was the recent tree survey, where was the recent ecological survey for protected species, let alone the recent soil tests bearing in mind that this is a contaminated former landfill site and that earth is being moved around by the vehicles on site? In fact, what type of site even is it, bearing in mind that it is not a site that has had any planning permission granted and no conditions to safeguard the public or the environment?

Looking across the lagoon, and the invasive filth on the hill

They were visible from the lagoon side just plucking trees out of the ground without a care.

(1) Facebook

Also exposed were remnants of waste packaging and scrap that had previously been unearthed then reburied during The Hurst family tattaphon in 2010. 

The sun sets on the Tividale Urban Forest, as a darkened shadow malice descends

A rotary cutter destroys some more vegetation

The site now resembles a Viet Cong garden circa 1968 after being sprayed with agent orange, or perhaps the analogy of an Irish garden during potato famine may be more appropriate in this case. 

View from The Rattlechain Bridge canal basin

This desolation

The new barren landscape off Macdonald Close.

Sandwell council- treachery, Public relations lies and complicity. 

It is clear to see that the landowners, whom I will be scrutinising in an upcoming post had a clear intention of removing natural habitat and known and recorded species from their soiled “development opportunity” “brownfield” site. I have said in the past what this term means and it is political doublespeak for where the poor people can live, and “greenbelt” is doublespeak for where the rich people can live in splendid isolation. Anyone who wants to protect the so called “greenbelt” and who lives in urban areas does not have a fucking brain, and is so clueless it is not worth me even trying to explain concepts like this and the gaslighting of the political class who of course live in their splendid “greenbelt” isolation oasis.

The Birmingham and Black Country Wildlife Trust also objected to the loss of open space and this area is still within the area known as “The Local nature area recovery network.” It is difficult to see what opportunity there is now, but certainly we know what was there, and this has been recorded. If the landowners come out with some latter day report written by a claimed environmental consultancy, that consultancy and their professional credibility will be put to the sword.

The forest may be gone, and the wildlife for now, but earth works, not sanctioned by any valid permission is a direct threat to public health. The council know this, and are obliged to protect us, even though they have failed miserably in that regard over many years.

OPINION

Or maybe names of people who are full of shit!

We have of course for a long time now been attempting to get answers as to the state of Smethwick Hall Park and the pollution to this and other local water bodies caused by the scum water company Severn Trent and their failed under invested network. Sporadically, and coinciding with visible pollution entering the site in Margaret Gardens/Londonderry Lane , we get botulism bird deaths which disappear when the pollution disappears. This was the case in July 2024 when I last wrote about the issue, and please do read this for the context of the saga which explains how botulism is created by dirty contaminated water. 

Numerous emails have followed these events as well as telephone calls- all to fuck all avail when the powers that be do absolutely nothing to stop it- either flat denying there is a problem or failing in regulation to take action. I set out here below these communications in full and the responses from the first two individuals so that everyone can see what we are dealing with here. It is dishonesty, lies, apathy and gross incompetence. Above all however it shows the disastrous failure of Thatcher in privatising the water industry and creating a free for all profit for shareholder fucking filth whilst the environment is poisoned by corporate greed and shat into rivers, streams and pools. 

LIV GARFIELD

The bloated fat cat CEO of the Coventry cunt flush mafia.

Garfield has openly lied to Parliament. I made several calls to this scum company who failed to get back to me. Reference numbers were taken and yet still no response, so I copied in the fat cat setting out my stall.

“Ref

4002759657

4002766413

I have spoken numerous times to customer services about the continuing pollution and botulism issues caused by your companies failure to stop pollution misconnections going into Smethwick Hall park. Each time I am told that someone called James is aware and is going to contact me. HE HAS FAILED TO DO SO AT ALL. Birds are dying on this lake and you have failed to communicate anything whilst also lying about the continued pollution. Your company are a bunch of lying scum, and do not care about the birds you are killing. This email is not confidential and neither will be your reply.

Ian Carroll swanwatch”

This drew out a response , obviously written by her PR, and I make comment in my follow up regards the bullshit being spewed from the Coventry network.

“ST Classification: OFFICIAL PERSONAL

Dear Ian,

Thank you for getting in touch and for raising your concerns about Smethwick Hall Park.

Firstly, I’m extremely sorry to hear of the recent bird deaths – this is of course absolutely awful, but I need to be clear that this isn’t as a result of Severn Trent activities or our assets in the area. My teams are constantly checking, sampling and monitoring in and around the pool.

When we were made aware of the bird deaths, we immediately took further ammonia samples, which all came back as normal, indicating there was no sewage pollution. We are committed to making sure we’re doing everything we can to improve the water quality in the lake and will continue our monitoring and sampling programme. This includes regularly checking all our assets in the area. We will also work with everyone involved to support their efforts to improve the health of the pool.

Following issues at the pool over five years ago, we worked closely with the Environment Agency to help improve the water quality by pumping clean water in to improve oxygen levels. We also made improvements to our network to prevent future issues and our work has helped to improve the water quality in the Park.

Thank you again for getting in touch – I hope I have been able to reassure you that the recent bird deaths are not connected to any Severn Trent activity.

Best wishes

Liv”

I responded below, also copying in Kerrie Carmichael leader of SMBC.

“Dear Liv Garfield,

Thank you for at least responding to my concerns about pollution in this lake, but I note that neither customer care or your frontline operative have bothered to do so to date.

There is undeniable pollution entering this lake. This is in the form of misconnections as I pointed out during every report I have made to the EA and your company. The smell of washing machines and white water is clear evidence of this, and this issue is well known to your company at this site, entering the pool via the brook course which is very much your asset. The sanitary towels in the lake come from where exactly?

I understand that Sandwell council employees have independently of myself taken pictorial evidence of the white water, and it is after these events that birds are becoming ill from botulism. The condition and environment of the lake are very poor, and in truth have never recovered from years of pollution caused by your company, sewage releases and these uncorrected misconnections. There is a direct connection between this awful water quality and the bird deaths and illness. You do not reassure me at all that STW activities are unrelated to the bird deaths, indeed in 2019 following the sewage pollution your company also denied that the bird deaths had anything to do with that, which is totally dishonest and risible, as are your claims now that the water quality of this lake has been improved. Have you visited the site yourself?

Can I therefore ask if your company monitor this site as you claim as to how many misconnections they have identified still entering the lake? Previous claims by your company as to how many there were are supplied for your information.

I was keen to get this figure from James your catchment lead as he is mentioned in the 2019 NIRS report from the EA for your information. This stated “The crew have been out and confirmed that there is a misconnection at the location. The property in question, Margaret Gardens. Approx. 20 properties which connect to a foul line which then leads to a surface water line that then leads to the outfall. There is a lot of misconnection work to be done.”

NATIONAL INCIDENT REPORTING SYSTEM (whatdotheyknow.com)

The email from Amy Robinson of SMBC was relayed to me in 2021 from information from STW, but with no further updates. This stated that there were still 11 identified misconnections at this point, so can you tell me how many of these were corrected and are now not misconnected to your assets and therefore not causing pollution? Can I further ask how many properties you have surveyed following this recent spell of pollution, and how many misconnections you have since found? How many more properties have you still to survey?

If you do not consider it your company’s remit to prevent these misconnections or identify them, then who do you propose its remit it should be? The EA appear to send your company out every time to check pollution, leaving you to mark your own work and claim there is no pollution. This stinks and it cannot continue when there are denials at every stage following environmental sentinels dying from polluted water. Can you confirm what tests were actually taken, including oxygen levels and PH, , where on the lake they were taken and give these in actual figures that can be scrutinised please? The area of most concern is the inlet tray that first enters the pool from your asset, where you have a sign asking people to report pollution they see to your number. I would ask if you do not consider that dirty water entering this pool is not your problem, then why do you have these signs stationed at this point?

Can I therefore for one last time reach out to you to personally intervene in this issue and fix it. Otherwise I hope Sandwell Council will take whatever appropriate action is necessary to force you to. Perhaps you can outline your concerns Kerrie, as leader of SMBC as to how you see the issue putting pressure on your staff and the third sector in Sandwell like myself trying to help ill and dying birds?

Regards Ian Carroll

“Dear Ian,

We have firm commitments (Get River Positive pledges) to transform the health of our region’s rivers and we believe that is important for everyone to play their part to protect the environment.

We haven’t found any high ammonia levels recently but will continue to take samples of the water quality at the lake.

Although we are not responsible for the bird deaths. We appreciate your efforts to reach out to inform us about what you have seen recently at the park, especially the water colour changes and smells.

As part of the 2019 investigation, we did find several private properties which we believed were responsible for the misconnections.

 We were not responsible for the bird deaths then, but we decided to further improve our network for the future alongside working with the Environment Agency to improve the park’s lake.  As you have correctly identified, misconnections are commonly from faults as part of connecting equipment such as washing machines or toilets to the surface water drain.

 Unfortunately, we cannot control what individuals choose to flush down their system,  but we have been strongly campaigning to raise awareness on what should and shouldn’t be flushed down (3 P’s: Pee, Poo & Paper).

We have been supporting more recent campaigns on stopping Microplastics and wet wipes being flushed down as well. The misconnections exacerbate blockages and result in items such as sanitary products ending in the water course.

Resolving misconnections are more complex when it is located on private properties, because we do not have the legal power to force the private property to make any changes – we can only inform them of the issue and provide recommendations.

 At the time of the investigation, we notified the properties so that they were aware of the issue, why it is a concern and how they could fix it.

 We provided the relevant authorities (EA and Local Authority) with all the details of our investigations and have continued to support the work they do to help protect our environment.  

 Thank you again for your email and I hope to reassure you that we have a passion and drive to work alongside others to reduce harm to the environment.

 Best Wishes,

Liv”

Liv Garfield (Pronouns: She/Her)

Chief Executive

As can be seen here, this “she/her” failed to answer my questions. I did not respond further as I am dealing here with a pathological deluded liar who is on personal bonuses for telling untruths and obviously revels in shit mostly emitted from her own posh gob hole. #TURD

KERRIE CARMICHAEL

The redundant and increasing clueless leader of Sandwell Council.

I will always give people a fair crack of the whip, despite what opinion they have garnered of me from others, but when they fail to engage, respond to emails or give me any type of courtesy or respect, I will call them out as a fucking waste of space.

After the abysmal replies of the scum, Garfield to the issue, I copied in Kerrie Carmichael in the hope that she would finally instruct officers of the council to take legal action against the liar from Coventry and her network of turds.

“Dear Kerrie,

You are aware of the situation at Smethwick Hall Park and the involvement of council staff. This is a time constraint on them, and an expense to tax payers which is regrettable in that a privatised water company are causing the problem.

I am well aware of Labour’s condemnation of how these privatised water companies have been acting, and agree with the line stated in the manifesto and the talk leading up to the election. What I am not clear on however is the politicisation of this and then the silence when Labour is in power. Why is that? I heard nothing in the public domain condemning Severn Trent from Maria Crompton or Yvonne Davies and I have also heard nothing, seen nothing from the three ward councillors, or from John Spellar on his own patch.

This is disappointing, and I wonder if you will now address my direct concern and practice condemnation of the source rather than politicking?

This situation is a disgrace and cannot continue. Birds can be saved, and we have saved a coot and duck from the pool who have made a full recovery. Many others however have perished. I am grateful to what the council are doing, but this is now in your hands and I am not going to ignore another political silence without criticism on my blog about this very fact.

Can you therefore give me your thoughts on this matter and how they affect you, and what action you intend to take against Severn Trent and what discussions you are going to have with their CEO Liv Garfield? She is remember paid millions in personal bonuses for her failure to prevent pollution.

I would like to see her visit this site, and be summoned to do so by the new MP, whom I do not know or have had any dealings with. Perhaps you can brief Gurinder and as he is not my MP initiate a meeting at the site where I can explain the situation and he can see and smell the dirty water entering the pool from the Severn Trent asset, for misconnections they appear incapable of stopping. I enclose the situation as it stood in 2021, but wonder what progress they claim to have made since then, when the problem is evidentially still there, as your officers will hopefully have told you, separate to my concerns which do back up my claims.

Regards Ian”

NB, This email was sent on 17th July 2024.

She responded on 26th July 2024. There was not much to this as can be seen, but she did promise to get back with a more substantive response. 

“Apologies Ian for my delayed response.

I will definitely look into this and sort some correspondence out – I agree that it is not good enough that our wildlife and natural flora is being depleted.

I will get back to you.

With best wishes

Cllr Kerrie Carmichael

Leader of the Council”

Despite this, I heard nothing except from whoever Joanne Davis is at the council on 1st August 2024. This response sounded more PR than anything, but again promises were made to get back to me with a fuller response.

By the 29th August 2024, and well after the 10 days that Joanne Davis had stated in her email, I had still had no official reply so sent a chaser.

This was again ignored, and so I also copied in Joanne Davis on 1st September 2024

Imagine my surprise therefore when I got two pingbacks from this. The first from the leader claiming she was unavailable! WTF?

And more bizarre still, Joanne Davis claiming that she had already left Sandwell council altogether!

On 3rd September 2024, and after posting something on social media, which obviously promoted a hasty response, Carmichael claimed that she had written to Severn Trent and was awaiting a response. I have no idea of the contents of that communication. I am also baffled that she did not appear to know that Joanne Davis had also left the council by this time!

I HAVE HEARD NOTHING FURTHER FROM HER SINCE NOR FROM ANY OFFICERS OF THE COUNCIL ABOUT THIS MATTER!

I last sent a reminder and asked what the response was on 27th November 2024. 

Despite being briefed by officers who told me they were briefing her, the council have done nothing about this issue, as they did nothing in 2019 with the initial pollution. I have been told that some group within the council has been set up, and yet the elephant in the room appears to have ignored the issues of Severn Trent and be more concerned about people leaving plastic bags on the railings along Londonderry Lane. There have also been new signs put up warning people of being fined for feeding birds. Pity they don’t think about taking action against real polluters.

The last time the council tried to threaten bird feeders, it made the national press after fining a single mother with a toddler.

The issue of feeding has continued throughout the year, and yet when the pollution into the pool stopped, so did the bird deaths. Do you therefore Sandwell council/Kerrie Carmichael think that there is a causal link between the pollution and deaths or feeding and no deaths when the pollution stops? If you or your officers are really that fucking stupid in not making a direct connection, I really do think that I am wasting my time. 

But not resting on her laurels, the leader it was announced during her long silence on this matter “won” an award from the RSPCA.

Sandwell Herald propaganda.

There’s more to the “award” for Sandwell council’s leader than meets the eye, and five minutes of internet search reveals that. The pawprints award scheme is basically a self nomination award scheme run by the RSPCA for their own PR and that of public sector bodies. The “Massingham award” named after Gertrude Speedwell Massingham, nee Black is an opportunity for mutual self promotion. Massingham was NEVER an MP as falsely stated on the RSPCA website, she stood for election in 1929 Petersfield constituency finishing last as a labour candidate. She was taken in by trade unionist Clementina Black, her aunt after her father murdered her mother and brother and then himself. Perhaps these abandonment issues stirred some instinct in the lady in question?

What work she did for the RSPCA, and for animals I do not know, and there has to be a ring of Rachael Reeves about her CV given the lie about her career but at least tell people factual info and not bullshit RSPCA “public affairs”. In fact, and as further evidence, there is not a single mention of this lady in Hansard, so what she actually did for animals is not even recorded there. Fuck, even I myself have one more mention in Parliament than this woman. 😆 😆 😆

Carmichael is not the sole “winner” but actually one of four “winners” of this award this year, and I wonder how many entries there actually were and how many were unsuccessful? Public relations is the action of telling people lies and dishonest statements dressed up with a cherry on top.

KIER STARMER

The useless tool Prime Minister

I can not in my lifetime remember a Government that has entered power becoming so unpopular in such a short space of time as this arseholes! The tragedy is that people believe that voting for the other party, only two will ever get in of course in this “democracy”- , will bring “change”. There  are in reality a choice of two dictatorships where billionaire corporations and the civil service retain their power.

Starmergeddon has already failed people and his minions are liars and make up personal boasts on their cvs whilst emptying your bank balance. The biggest betrayal when it comes to the theme of sewage is the failure to reverse privatisation of this corrupt industry, so that lying scum like Garfield can retain all of their bonuses as well as paying dividends to the cancerous vermin who own the shares.

Labour has not got tough on sewage pollution, it has failed. It has failed to stop the pollution, and now it appears that instead of getting Garfield and co to cough up, it is the taxpayer who will foot the bill to repair networks that are decades out of date, as a result of Thatcher’s privatisation failure.

The buck stops with Starmer and no one else. #TURD

WHAT THREE TURDS

LIV.KERRIE.KIER

It was with some sadness that I learned of the closure of Wychbold swan rescue after nearly 50 years of rescuing and rehabilitating wildlife. I first had dealings with Jan Harrigan after a number of birds were hitting powerlines at my local nature reserve, with some of the survivors going there to have their broken wings amputated. She was lucky to have two main vets, one Jason Waine who was one of the top avian vets in the country and the other Barstow who specialised in wing injuries. This second chance for these type of man-made casualties was so different to the eugenics of the RSPCA and other organisations I could mention. Swans that were put back into the wild CAN have a good life and have bred again.

When I first met Jan and going to the centre for a day to volunteer, based in her own farm and business setting, I somehow ended up going shopping with her to the local supermarket and she was welcoming and maybe a little probing into why I was interested in birds. I got the impression that she liked to size people up and know what they were about.

Birds from a very large area of Worcestershire, Warwickshire, the West Midlands and even South Wales were patients at Walkmills Farm, with Worcester having its own river “sanctuary” where fishing was not allowed, and many birds were released here.

Wychbold were also involved in the casualties from Rattlechain lagoon, and at that time we were all still clueless as the cause of death from that place, which we later would discover, though without any thanks to the liars from Albright and Wilson/Rhodia as to the systemic poisoning from white phosphorus in the waste that THEY put there.

She attended several meetings that were held at the Oldbury offices, and even though the liars never gave away their secrets, it was good to have an ally of such formidable experience and knowledge in your corner.

A swan taken in that had been on rattlechain, and whose mate had died after being poisoned on there.

Jan’s major campaign was about lead shot from fishing where she would give talks about the issue and was involved in a pioneering blood lead test funded by the Environment Agency in partnership with Keele University. Unfortunately, this quango body is an angling funded waste of space, and so whatever results were shown, whatever changing new targets they set, those at the top would not reach any conclusions put before them, and eventually the study was dropped despite the efforts of many who tried to expose the truth and not the avarice protection of the angling trade.

Jan was also a vociferous voice for mute swans at many swan convention meetings at Stratford which were interesting, and the same issues frequently came up there with regards to the impact of lost and discarded tackle on wildfowl.

Many a time a call to Jan was made in relation to contaminated swans on the millpool, birds that had been shot or attacked by dogs, and sometimes the usual glut of fishing related problems- Wychbold dealt with them all when arrangements were hastily made to get them down to Junction 5 of the M5.

Not everything went well at Wychbold. Aside from the outbreaks of DVE and more latterly “avian flu”, I did sometimes feel that she had taken too much on and the facilities were looking dated and not large enough- especially the hospital pen. These were however greatly improved and a new “Pershore place” pool housed many birds that we took in there for short periods.

Jan was awarded the MBE in 2004 for services for the protection of swans, and I think that she would be the first to say that keeping the swans and other birds afloat and the arduous work of cleaning them out and giving treatments was not a “one woman’s battle”, but the efforts of many who shared her passion for helping these creatures, including some who are no longer here.

Worcestershire Weekender July 2003

I first met John Stewart and his wife Phyl, the long term lieutenants at Wychbold on a rescue at Trittiford Mill in Birmingham that involved botulism in 2001. There would be many more outbreaks of this in this pathetic run local authority on many of its pools, and unfortunately they still occur. They have passed on their knowledge of swans to others and it is fair to say, that in the last few years, they have kept the place running.

I am perhaps not surprised by the closure given Jan’s age, though still spritely, but the pressures of the draconian Defra and APHA diktats and control of wild birds with their “pandemic” human hoax nonsense have made it more difficult for people who care to operate to save wildlife. Bureaucrats and civil servants are only in it for themselves, or backhanded by corporations to pass through legislation to profit their aims. They will never get that some people are in it altruistically, and they have no concept of the struggles of those who try to help others. 

The future without this centre looks increasingly bleak for wildfowl, given that other wildlife centres are not focussed on specific species but many other wild animals as well as birds. The West Midlands County is barren of any wildlife centres of this scale and it will be increasingly difficult to cater for injured birds that need specialist treatment.

This is where someone will hopefully step in to pick up the baton where Wychbold lit the flame of hope. If only those lottery numbers came up eh……..

With just two countryside rangers managing nine local nature reserves in Sandwell, you can see how highly this local authority values its designated sites. You can also see that in planning policy terms, and planning officer terms, they have also demonstrated that they do not even know where these areas are located or following relevant policy of material planning considerations when delegating reports in that regard.

The Sandwell Local Plan (SLP) is a manifesto for house building and offers nothing for wildlife or its remaining fragmented habitat. Unfortunately it mirrors a national policy made by corrupt political scum of all main parties who have made it this way by classifying wildlife in terms of “units” and “credits” which are transferable to tick a box. We are therefore introduced to the terms “biodiversity net gain”, “biodiversity credits” and “nature recovery strategy maps” which are meaningless theoretical bollocks allowing desk jockeys for environmental consultancies (planning enablers), with not much time on their hands to spend outdoors, but plenty of time to drink their lattes in a cosy warm office preparing  shite like this.

Two terms are defined and are important to this post,  but they are largely theoretical and wordy . I have underlined the statement below which is crucial.

Biodiversity net gain definition

“An approach to development and land management that aims to leave the natural environment in a measurably better state than it was beforehand. The objective requires the biodiversity value attributable to a development to exceed pre-development biodiversity value by at least 10%. Post-development biodiversity value may comprise onsite habitat, offsite biodiversity gain and biodiversity credits.”

Nature Recovery Network definition

“An expanding, increasingly connected, network of wildlife-rich habitats supporting species recovery, alongside wider benefits such as carbon capture, water quality improvements, natural flood risk management and recreation. It includes the existing network of protected sites and other wildlife rich habitats as well as and landscape or catchment scale recovery areas where there is co ordinated action for species and habitats.”

The SNE2 policy that the council have produced in the SLP is shown below and explains their rationale.

I put in an FOI to Sandwell council regards the nonsense they had spouted about certain sites they had considered in a cabinet report prior to the publication of the current plan out for consultation. I wanted to know which consultancy had drawn up the garbage as well as the methodology used to produce the eight listed sites.

The council replied and gave me a link to the study below conducted by an entity called “Lepus consulting” who also are behind the sustainability appraisal for the SLP.

Sandwell_Biodiversity_Net_Gain__BNG__Strategy__September_2023_ (2)

So let us interrogate this document and see it for what it is, which is a very weak report full of theory, very little practical surveying and omissions of certain sites which do not make sense.

“Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council (SMBC) has commissioned Lepus Consulting to undertake a study to identify and undertake an assessment of habitats within council-owned sites in Sandwell to establish their suitability for use as potential habitat banks for the delivery of BNG.”

The first thing to point out is that SMBC ignore privately owned sites- the ones that are most likely to be built upon and which are also the most likely to be destroy wildlife habitat that has naturally re-wilded, like the ones off Rattechain SH35 and SH36.

“In the State of the Nature Report in 2019 headline data indicated that the abundance and distribution of the UK’s biodiversity has, on average, declined since 1970, with a 13% decline in average species abundance3 . This is attributable to a number of pressures including intensive farming, climate change and urbanisation which have led to pollution, habitat loss and degradation.”

3 State-of-Nature-2019-UK-full-report.pdf

I do not argue with their opening statements, but the threat of “urbanisation” is exactly what the SLP is proposing in real terms.

We learn that Sandwell has nine nature reserves, including Sheepwash which is also a SINC but looking at a map of these sites on page 32 of the PDF  you can see how grossly disproportionate nature reserves are in Sandwell with only one in Tipton and none at all in Wednesbury, Smethwick or Oldbury- this makes up four of Sandwell’s six towns!

The meat on the bones of this pathetic report is revealed at 6.2 onwards.

• They only visited sites once due to “time constraints” Why is time a factor in this report, as it seems that this was done by the council on the hoof to attempt a hurried justification of coming up with random sites they could use.
• They visited in the summer months when nature is probably at its most secretive with increased footfall of people. Different species are obviously present at different times of year, and passage migrant species do not appear to have even come into the equation of “biodiversity”.
• They do not appear to have used any Eco record reports, or local information of groups like sandnats, or certainly Friends of Sheepwash to inform their observations or knowledge of sites. They undertook no “bio-blitz” of any site.
• They could not even map some areas

• They do not even attempt to investigate water habitats at all, again due to “time constraints”.
• “Further assessments” needed- because theirs was not good enough.

• The worst part about this whole “strategy” is the failure to even look at privately owned sites. These are the ones of course like SH35 and SH36 on the doorstep of Sheepwash and in the nature recovery area map that the council expect will be boosted by a 10% increase in on site biodiversity. Has it not occurred to these idiots that they do not have any knowledge of what nature exists on these sites but they expect developers will be honest about what is there so that their paid liars of environmental consultants will produce a report claiming that they can boost BNG by 10% by creating a token hedge or swale (dirty surface water ditch ) like the one on the picture below?

• The cracker can best be described a “a pikey horse and car dumping shithole”. There is no point boosting biodiversity in such a place as the frequent weed dumping disposal in buckets is the only thing growing there,  and they have only created this for political reasons due to Princes End ward being a swing seat area.
• The Menzies open space contains the contaminated Millpool or Milky- contaminated by Bitumenous waste that was not prevented from being further polluted ironically when the site was turned into housing! The remediation fraud of the developers were not protected by any body including the EA and the useless officers at Sandwell council, harming wildlife and causing significant pollution to an already contaminated water body. The cover up by all concerned was massive and a disgrace. 
• I set the Millpool story out in four parts which offer definitive proof of why post reclamation of industrial sites and brownfield land destroys nature and habitat.

Millpool West Bromwich#1 The Major Bitumen dumping ground of W H Keys | What Lies Beneath Rattlechain Lagoon?

Millpool West Bromwich#2 The Meltdown of W H Keys | What Lies Beneath Rattlechain Lagoon?

Millpool West Bromwich#3 MARred by historic pollution and fake “clean up” – Part 1 | What Lies Beneath Rattlechain Lagoon?

Millpool West Bromwich#4 MARred by historic pollution and fake “clean up” – Part 2 | What Lies Beneath Rattlechain Lagoon?

• Of course Lepus know nothing of this as they do not have time, but do not even look at improving the water habitat at the pool either!

• There has to be concern that this very point has already surfaced with the planning application at the Coneygree site in Tipton- owned by the same entity who now proposes sites SH35 and SH36 and previously by the conmen foundry sand dumpers who abandoned it and left both sites in the state they are in and future dependent on money from the public purse.

‘Wildlife buffer zone’ to be removed to make way for industrial warehouse in Tipton | Express & Star

The council had no policy when this farce unfolded due to national policy failure, but they do not appear to recognise they will have no basis of knowledge as to the real nature value of these private sites.

As it is, we are aware that the former Duport’s Tip area next to Rattlechain contains a rare butterfly- the small blue, (Cupido minimus), Britain’s smallest butterfly as well as the associated kidney vetch which its caterpillars eat. It is protected in the UK under the Wildlife and Countryside Act, 1981 and a priority species under the UK Post-2010 Biodiversity Framework. I had a site walkover with naturalist Darrell Harrison who found the butterfly and several unusual plants on the site of local rarity.

Of course such sites already connected to Sheepwash and the wildlife corridor of the canal could be used as habitat banks, but if only someone would tell Sandwell council that instead of wanting to shove more trees into dog shit parks like Tividale to tick a box.

It is also interesting that just this week the leader of Sandwell council has proposed an animal welfare taskforce policy. I have concerns that this will be nothing more than a pontificating talking shop like the unsound policy SNE2 above, but what is interesting is one of the claims in the new vision Notice of Motion – 29 October 2024. 

Animal Welfare

“Council notes that:

Protecting wildlife and natural habitats is crucial for maintaining biodiversity and ecological balance.”

Words are cheap eh when your planning policy overrides it! 

This blog originally appeared on our sister blog What lies beneath Rattlechain lagoon. 

Earlier this week there was an announcement that read like an apocalypse had befallen The Walsall Canal with a “chemical spillage” considered so dangerous that 12 miles of surrounding connecting canal towpaths were closed and boat traffic shut off, effectively stranding anyone on a narrow boat from moving up or down three sets of locks.

As someone who is obviously acutely aware of the damage that chemicals can do in the environment and how these incidents destroy wildlife, I was very concerned about what had happened and feared the worst due to the measures being taken that the authorities were considered necessary. Other people were contacting me about the situation and were concerned about the effects on bird life on the canal system in the area.

What transpired was very poor information being released, particularly about WHAT chemical had been released into the canal, the circumstances and the QUANTITY and SOURCE, and the PATHWAYit had taken to reach the water.

It was all a bit vague but it appeared that multiple agencies were involved including Walsall Council, the CRT and EA as well as The bizarre UKHSA- formerly Public Health England. For some reason, they were very keen that people did not touch the water, eat any fish from the canal or walk along the towpaths.

Eventually it was claimed that Sodium Cyanide had entered the canal, but no source or company named. This chemical obviously rings alarm bells with the public as a deadly poison, although it is actually less poisonous than white phosphorus found in Rattlechain lagoon, and which of course was spilt liberally into the canal system on route from Trinity Street to Rattlechain via the upper BCN toxic trail route. Were the canals closed then, and the boats stopped? NO THEY WERE NOT AS BRITISH WATERWAYS AS THEY THEN WERE WERE TOTALLY COMPLICIT IN CAUSING THE POLLUTION AND ENCOURAGING IT, EVEN USING ALBRIGHT AND WILSON’S VILE SHIT HOLE THEMSELVES AS A MEANS OF DUMPING THEIR OWN DREDGINGS TO CONTINUE THE GHASTLY BOAT TRAIL POLLUTING SPECTACLE. 

As for protecting public health, what a fucking joke when people involved in carrying the toxic waste by canal boat were harmed in the process, so what hope for any other bugger that touched or came into contact with the water, let alone any wildlife or fish?

Fast forward to 2024 and the Canal and Rivers Trust are now a charity and corporate PR brand. They are largely funded by fishing licences or fishing rights being sold and of course boat licences. The latter regularly cause widespread damage to wildlife with their toxic snail diesel and hydraulic oil releases- particularly in the Walsall area. Even recently this occurred and many birds died and yet no boats were stopped from moving by the CRT on some bloody “explorer cruise”- basically a jolly for elder people along a stretch of canal ending with a fish and chip supper at some pub. The hypocrisy could not be more stark, given that this particular incident did not effect any fish in the canal, just wildfowl. 

The EA are of course a longstanding joke also, as I regularly evidence in my unfortunate dealings in reporting issues to these hapless, unknowledgeable and talentless individuals. They were and are happy with a bunch of wankers dumping toxic waste under water under a useless licence auspice, even pumping it back into the canal blissfully unaware that they were doing so given they have no means of testing the water for the toxic chemical, but when some fish deaths occur it is suddenly a red alert for them.

Enter the bullshit classification system they use, which I looked at HERE. Of course when fish die they claim a “category 1” incident. For other areas that have no fish and no fish deaths they don’t care- hence Rattlechain and also Smethwick Hall Park caused by Severn Trent Water’s sewage pollution and failure to trace and stop misconnections entering the water. The hypocrisy and interest over the money making source for the EA and CRT could not be more stark. Fish matter because they are keeping these individuals in jobs, birds are not, and that is the bottom line. 

SODIUM CYANIDE- AN INFAMOUS POISON FROM THE PAST. 

I have previously looked at this chemical and how “deadly barrels” of it were dumped in the early 1970’s leading to the authorities starting to take environmental dumping more seriously. The West Midlands served as a particular hotspot with National news running a series of scares about what had in reality been occurring for too long. Marl holes and tips and brooks were easy dumping grounds for “people of the road” paid by scum companies to deposit their waste with no questions asked. Tatters with tippers were a common menace.

Both Rattlechain and Gower Tips had dumpings, with Albright and Wilson feigning ignorance which I frankly do not believe.

The following information is given by The UKHSA.

Sodium/Potassium Cyanide General information.

Sodium/Potassium Cyanide Incident management.

The properties of cyanide mean that it produces highly toxic breakdown chemicals when in contact with water.

Anochrome Limited- who are they?

Eventually and after an uncomfortable lack of information on the source, an electro plating company based a scant 100 metres from the canal were named. This industrial concern based in Reservoir Place, Walsall claims to have been operating on its website since 1946. It has three current directors, at least two of whom appear to be successors of a family line. Managing Director Mark Jones appears to have taken over from his father Andrew. Secretary Andrew Keery, and Robert Gray complete the triumvirate.

They have a number of subsidiary companies, including Wolverhampton Electro plating Limited based in Wolverhampton. It is of note that all three directors are now giving a care of address for this company rather than the one in Walsall. I take some interesting observations from this concerning the state of their finances and the future of “Anochrome limited” as an operation.

Historically, this company have form for polluting the environment via criminal negligence.

The 12th December 1978  Wolverhampton Express and Star reported how they had been fined a rather paltry £245 for cyanide and toxic metals going down the drains

In 1981, and via The Sandwell Evening Mail  of 27th June , we see a repeat performance of this , on this occasion a whopping £280 for illegal trade effluent discharges including zinc. This particular metal is of concern as it is a neurological poison to wild birds and people and is very similar to lead poisoning in high levels in this regard.

In 1992 there was a fire sparking another chemical alert with two staff needing treatment.

A more recent event reveals this company were fined by The HSE for breaches under The Health and Safety At Work Act. This was in 2018.

Of course, the three directors are ultimately responsible for all that goes on here, all that goes wrong on their site and anything that occurs illegally or by “accident”

Their parent company in Wolverhampton also has form for health and safety breaches. 

I am not certain if they are the electroplating company mentioned in THIS article concerning cyanide dumping, but it confirms the absolute lack of integrity of this industry at large in terms of failing to protect the environment and adhere to laws. Ultimately, they argue about quantities within “legal” limits. THE LIMITS OF COURSE SHOULD BE ZERO.

MY DIRECT OBSERVATIONS AND HEAD SCRATCHING ABOUT THIS INCIDENT BASED ON EXPERIENCE AND KNOWLEDGE OF THE ISSUES. 

There are some questions and issues which do not make sense to me about this incident which almost made me question as to if it is a hoax and a multi agency training exercise, just to keep the public under fear about something which is not really there.

• Police tape and plastic barriers stopping people from going down the towpath. If there was some deadly gas being given off or prospect of such then fair enough. BUT the road in Reservoir Place remains open to the public.
• Businesses in this road near to the canal were carrying on as normal. People were at work.  People stationed above the bridges stopping people going onto the towpath were not wearing any breathing apparatus, PPE or gloves. There sojourn there for a length of time is similarly puzzling if there is some major danger in this “epicentre” area. How were they measuring levels of gas being evolved- I saw nothing to monitor this.
• Work on the highly contaminated former Copper Works immediately next to the claimed effected canal continues apace with vehicles and staff coming and going from John Hunt who are carrying out the work to facilitate industrial units on the reclaimed “brownfield” site. Of course, what fate the canal has when these industries move in next door we will have to wait and see. Hopefully they will not be dealing in chemicals, FFS!

• The Anochrome building appears to be being decommissioned. This ties in with the change of C/O address on the Companies house website for the directors. There is Heras fencing blocking the site, and people again wearing only  basic PPE and not hazmat suits, including a security guard obviously there to stop journalists asking pointed questions of anyone there. Crap was being loaded into a skip, and I do not believe that this had anything to do with any spillage of a company still at work in this building.

• There were the press and people from CRT giving interviews on the bridge without any apparent danger to health, and certainly no adverse health effects were observed by myself when I was there.
• A few dead fish. I have seen major fish deaths along canals- caused by boaters stirring up silt and by pollution from Companies like Robinson’s– again this was The Walsall Canal. Having cycled from  Walsall town centre I saw no dead fish, and none in any distress. Only on reaching Reservoir Place were there any dead fish, and these were small. To suggest that this has been a “major” fish kill as it stands is not supported by factual evidence, is misinformation and a made up lie. 

• I observed no dead or ill birds, either on route to the epicentre or at it itself. Indeed, ducks were dabbling right next to the few dead fish, making me question if the spillage is one of bullshit and little else?

• It was stated by someone from the CRT that they had been told they could not remove the fish because of the toxicity of the water and the fish themselves. I asked if any dead birds had been seen or removed and the answer was in the negative. This is of concern and questionable, as would not fish eating birds be poisoned if they eat the “poisoned” fish?
• Compare this to the rather slow testing they claim to be doing on the canal at various locations. Surely if they thought there was imminent risk they would have a much quicker turnover of results now days later?
• The only gas I could see being emitted is one of gaslighting the public that something major has occurred here affecting such a wide area. That is not my direct observation and the evidence does not support that it has.
• Just to state that any pollution issue like this is a disgrace and the book should be thrown at Anochrome and its directors for their failure.
• Is this an opportunity for certain players to blow their own trumpets, like the covid 19 hoax frit civil service, who for the last 4 years hiding under a rock and shirking from home pop up to attempt to justify a pay increase that they have some actual importance in society when a magic money tree Labour Government get in? Of course, good socialists , junior doctors and anyone involved in the mysterious world of fake doctor “public health” want everything you have in the private sector on top of their gold plated pensions- that is except your job which would involve them doing some actual fucking work where they might be sacked if they had the amount of time off that they  have on permanent maternity leave or some other stubbed toe or bad back/”long covid”/mental elf made up condition excuse.
• I’m just waiting for some fucking clown to link or attempt to link this incident to “climate change” Give it time- they usually find some bizarre and irrational means of doing so to justify their warped insane cult of doom and “faith” in scientists and academia saving them.

We live in an age of fear mongering, of “forbidden zones” and scenarios like the film The Village where instruction not to do something appears with asinine bellows of “you shall not pass”. It is the liberal left – those in the civil service, who appear to think we are fucking stupid and should not question their bizarre nonsensical diktats like not crossing a line of tape because The Emperor’s new calamity will befall us and to “trust the science” because that is unquestionable. Well it is questionable and I question it for the reasons stated above which do not add up. This is not “conspiracy” it is common sense, something which appears to have gone out of the window of late and is fuelled by a media clamouring for such events to report on. They should be questioning this as I am, but they don’t because they are crap and parrots of the New World Order that is being forged.

Many sections of the canal have now been opened back up, and it remains to be seen what will happen with the area still closed off and under scrutiny. 4,000 litres of chemicals were spilt according to the latest EA update, which is roughly about 22 baths worth. For the birds, they will carry on probably affected more by the boats that will now be moving again and spreading their shite as rainbows on the water. Will the CRT or EA care about that? So long as no fish are affected will they fuck.