A showdown meeting is set to see the latest round in a row over the shabby streets of Dudley borough, which Reform UK councillors describe as the worst they have ever seen. The deputy leader of Reform UK in Dudley, Cllr Shaun Keasey, has called for action plans to tidy up the borough ahead of an extraordinary meeting of Dudley Council.
Reform UK's criticism
Cllr Keasey said: "I've never seen Dudley Borough look so uncared for, the cabinet member responsible should be utterly embarrassed." Reform UK says things have deteriorated in recent years and they are demanding answers from the council's ruling Conservative group. Among the items on the agenda is what Reform UK describes as a 'visible deterioration' of environmental standards, including grass on verges, weed growth, 'poor street scene maintenance', and flytipping.
Council's response
Dudley Council argues that it had to hold back on spending for street scene services over the last two years to keep spending under control while the council's finances were in difficulty. Cllr Damian Corfield, Dudley cabinet member for neighbourhoods, said: "Tough decisions had to be made, things would have been different if we hadn't made tough decisions and got the council's finances back to a more secure base. Now we can invest in those services and we are; extra funding for street scene was agreed at the full council budget meeting in March. We will be delivering the new street scene service that we intended to do two years ago but we couldn't because of spending controls."
Another councillor's concerns
Another Reform councillor unhappy with the state of the streets is Cllr Sat Sherwani, who represents Coseley. He said: "This is a problem that has only erupted in the last one or two years. The issue is overall standards, they have deteriorated and why and what can they do to improve that. I want to know how they are going to change things next year."
Next steps
A meeting of the full council will debate the issue on June 26. Reform UK is calling for a comprehensive report within 60 days on the 'current state' of the authority's environmental services.
