Sadie, myself, and all at the Great Barr Focus Team would like to wish everyone a Merry Xmas and Happy New Year. Let’s hope the new government learns from its faltering start and 2025 is a better year.

Local campaigner, Mark Smith, joined dozens of other local residents in Sandwell and Walsall on the opening day of the Planning Appeal at Walsall Council House, yesterday (November 5). Here are our thoughts about the first day, and a summary of our comments. As many of you already know, this Appeal is due to Anesco […]

Following the long-delayed opening of the new A&E and critical care unit at the Midland Metropolitan University Hospital in Smethwick, the A&E Department at Sandwell General Hospital has been closed. It is now being called an Urgent Treatment Centre. As a result, we recommend that people call 111 if they need help after an accident. […]

Sandwell Liberal Democrats are calling on the Government to ban bonuses for Severn Trent Water after revealing they paid their company executives eye-watering bonuses, despite failing to fix leaking pipes ahead of this summer’s drought. Water company bosses from Severn Trent Water were awarded £5,566,500 in bonuses despite companies leaking billions of litres of water […]

Thank you to everyone who voted this May. And particular thanks to those of you who chose to support local Liberal Democrat candidates.Sandwell remains controlled by the Labour Party. We very much hope that they will take opportunities to work with the Commissioners the Government have sent in.Nationally the Liberal Democrats were successful, gaining the […]

Sad to see our Labour Councillors and Conservative MP playing politics with funding for local politics. The Council has never been good at applying for funding, and our Councillors often had to encourage them to apply for it. This resulted in funds for deprived areas going to parts of Hamstead and the Yew Tree estate, […]

A lot of discussion on Sunday’s politics programmes. And it has been a backdrop issue to discussion of the dreadful murder of the MP. I found Lisa Nandy and Gordon Brown talked a lot of sense. If their voices are listened to, then there is a chance that the outcome will be sensible. The world […]

West Midlands primary school wins appeal against academy statusThe current situation brings back memories of just how messy the reduction of education to a single junior school serving the whole of Yew Tree and Tamebridge was. Way before the Academy issue. It did leave the whole area badly provided. And an uphill struggle, not helped […]

Transport for West Midlands is proposing some changes to the 424 bus service, still affectionately known as the “Sadie bus”. The main change for Great Barr is that will be split into two routes to eliminate the existing routes tendency to double back on itself. A result of this is that the route that serves […]

Recently found this lovely picture of Martyn with Ian Garrett.