Tamworth Blog

Cottage Walk (Photo TBC)

Tamworth Borough Council have made a decision about the Wincrest Sheltered Housing Scheme.  Back in April, the council announced plans to decommission the sheltered housing scheme (read the original story here).

Cabinet members agreed at a meeting that once the existing 9 residents have found residences of better quality.  The current residents though were consulted before the decision was made, as were residents in the bungalows linked to the scheme.

Councillor Mary Oates, portfolio holder for Quality of Life said on the decision:

“It is with great regret that we have made this decision but all other alternatives were not viable and this way we can make sure that the quality of life of our tenants is not affected.

“We continue to work closely with tenants to make sure all of their needs are being met. We are keen to minimise the impact on tenants and remain committed to working with tenants to deliver the best quality homes and services that we can afford to provide. All of the tenants will be offered help with relocation into one of our other schemes which are more than suitable to meet their needs. The Council prides itself on the quality of its sheltered housing and the move will ensure that the tenants of Wincrest house to have more interaction and activities than were available at the Wincrest House scheme due to lack of occupancy. ”

Once all residents have been moved, the council intend to demolish the properties.

An Amur Leopard - Pic: Deborah Bardowick

Twycross Zoo have appealed on behalf of the Amur Leopard to ensure that conservation projects in Russia can continue.

The Amur Leopard can only be found in the wild in the far-East temperate forsests in Russia and they are classified as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) with less than 36 animals left in the wild.

Twycross Zoo, which is home to two Amur Leopards have learnt about the lack of funds at Kedrovaya Pad Nature Reserve, in the Primorski region of Russia, due to a lack of agreement between state agencies and badly planned reforms, leaving the reserve without the vital funds to continue its work.

Staff at the reserve haven’t been paid since June 2009, with the director using his own funds to keep the reserve afloat.  24 of the 32 staff have been forced to take holidays and no patrols have been able to be sent out due to their being no fuel in the vehicles.  This means that the already endangered Amur Leopards are at greater risk as patrols can not protect the region from poachers, loggers of dangerous forest fires.

Twycross Zoo are appealing for assitiance to help them help the Amur leopards. Twycross Zoo has supported Amur leopards for over 3 years and is raising funds and awareness of this terrible situation in the hope that it can be resolved quickly. Help us to act today!

You can help by donating to our Amur leopard SOS fund, all of the proceeds will be sent directly to the beleaguered reserve to pay for fuel to resume patrols. Please spread the word and pass this message on to your friends and family. Together we can help save the Amur leopard.

To help this very worthy cause you can donate to Twycross Zoo’s Amur leopard SOS by calling 01827 880250.

Graffiti in Belgrave

A Belgrave resident who has tried to tackle the problem of Dog mess in the area has been asked to kindly not graffiti the area as it encourages more graffiti, is expensive to remove and more so, makes the area look worst.

Whilst the Council actively ask residents to notify them of any dog owners not cleaning up after their pooches, this is taking it a step to far and encouraging more damaging behaviour.

Councillor Danny Cook, Deputy leader of the Council and Portfolio holder for Community Cohesion said:

“I can completely understand the mystery resident’s frustration at the amount of dog mess being left behind, however the graffiti is a step too far.

“If he/she and like minded people are concerned about this issue then I would encourage them to contact the council and report any incidents where an owner has not cleaned up after their dog.

“We want people to tell us where the hot spots are in order to target education and enforcement activity and look at other preventative measures. We are able take action as long as residents report the incidents to us directly and can clearly identify owners and dogs. With sufficient information about times and areas enforcement officers are able to issue fixed penalties to deter irresponsible owners when witnessed. We are committed to cleaning up the environment in Tamworth and making the area as clean and pleasant as possible for everyone to enjoy. Clean neighbourhoods are a desire of the residents of our historic borough and we at the council will use all our powers to deliver them that. I would like to thank all of the responsible dog owners who continue to clean up after their dogs and encourage the mystery graffiti artist to contact the council directly about this issue in order that appropriate action can and will be taken against the dog owners responsible”

If you see a dog fouling incident in your area, you are asked to report it by contacting the council online at www.tamworth.gov.uk, phoning 01827 709 709 or you can notify your local area Street Warden.