We’ve just spotted in the Essington Fruit Farm Newsletter:

At last the pick-your-own season has started!

We have lots of lovely strawberries, the recent rains have swollen them nicely and plenty are now ripening up. Other fruit crops will soon follow: gooseberries may be picked now but will benefit from a week or two to grow some more, raspberries and currants should be ready by the end of the month.

We also have lots of fresh vegetables ready now: cabbage and broccoli are ready at the moment, with caulis not far behind. We have beetroot, lettuce and sugar peas ready now, with traditional garden peas coming on shortly. Spinach is just starting.

Log on to our website to see our Summer Newsletter!

We look forward to seeing you regularly as you make the most of summer on the farm.

Best wishes from,

Richard, Mary and Will
Essington Fruit Farm

Older tenants of Wolverhampton Homes are being urged to take advantage of a new gardening service, called the Tidy Garden Scheme, launched this week.

The new gardening service is launched in partnership with grounds maintenance supplier Continental Landscapes and will cost £7 a week.

In the spring and summer, the service will include fortnightly lawn mowing and twice yearly hedge cutting. During the autumn and winter months, the gardener will visit monthly to prune shrubs, edge lawns, weed and generally tidy up.

Tenants were heavily involved with choosing Continental Landscapes as the grounds maintenance contractor. They specifically requested that a payable gardening service be set up for those people who have difficulty maintaining their gardens.

Mark Henderson, Director of Housing, said: “Wolverhampton Homes is delighted that we have been able to offer the Tidy Garden Scheme after tenants and leaseholders told us they wanted it.

“Well-tended gardens can have a real positive impact on the feel of an area and we hope residents will take up this service.”

Communal gardens will continue to receive a gardening service covered by the service charge.

Tenants and leaseholders with private gardens are now being asked to let Wolverhampton Homes know if they are interested in the service. Priority will be given to older customers at first, but it may be extended further, if it is successful.

For more information on the Tidy Garden Scheme and to register interest call Wolverhampton Homes on 01902 556789.

(Information taken from Dash24.com)

Once the tenant has been evicted the garages will be demolished and it is hoped that the site can be used to create additional free parking for local residents and shoppers.

Mark Henderson, Director of House for Wolverhampton Homes told us:

“Wolverhampton Homes is taking legal action against a former tenant who is refusing to vacate the garages at Griffiths Drive, behind Ashmore Park, in Wolverhampton.

The row of near-derelict garages has been an eyesore for people living and working nearby for three years. During that time Wolverhampton Homes has helped all the previous tenants find new garages to let and served notice that the garages are to be demolished.

We have written to the remaining illegal occupant advising that we are requesting a court order to take possession of the garages. Despite repeated contact and offers to let similar garages just minutes away, the former tenant has not responded.

If the request for a court order is successful, the illegal occupant will be evicted, and the garages will be demolished. It is dependent on the court order when the demolition could take place.

Wolverhampton Homes will consult with local people and businesses about the future use of the site, but one suggestion is to establish free parking spaces for residents and shoppers.”

We’ve just reported this problem to Fix My Street.

If you know of a similar problem (or any other problem you think the council may be responsible for), report it to Fix My Street and they will send it to the correct council department.

Google has today extended it’s Street View service to cover 95 per cent of the UK, making an extra 210,000 miles of detailed mapping images available online – including Wednesfield.

As you can see by clicking on the street view image above, the majority of Wednesfield is now available to explore and you can literally ‘drive’ around the town.

There’s sure to be some interesting local sights that have been captured by Google, so if you spot something email us and we’ll most likely post about it. You might even spot yourself!

Whilst Street View has faced criticism from privacy groups, faces of members of the public are blurred out, as are car registrations. If however you feel that a Street View image has violated someone’s privacy, you can click here for instructions on how to report the image.

Happy street viewing!

WV11 recently reported on the fate of a set of derelict garages which border Ashmore Park and Wednesfield Aces Cycle Speedway Club after reporting the problem on Fix My Street.

After being contacted by Wv11, Wolverhampton Homes Communications Manager, Kate Hughes told us: “The Garages are set to be demolished soon and we are currently negotiating with the 2 remaining tenants, but until alternative locations are found we can’t demolish them”.

Since our original article, the story has been picked up by local paper the Express & Star and today we were contacted by Wolverhampton Homes who told us that vacation notices have been served to the two remaining tenants. These orders are due to expire on the 25th March and once this has happened a demolition order will follow.

We have asked Wolverhampton Homes for more information on what will happen to the land the garages currently stand on as they form part of the perimeter fence of the park and will report on any news we receive.

A local eyesore which is attracting vandalism and anti-social behaviour has taken a step closer to being demolished.

Several long-term unused garages bordering Ashmore Park (adjacent to Wednesfield Aces Cycle Speedway) have been broken into, leading to damage, fly tipping, and graffiti.

The garages, which have been in a poor state of repair for a number of years have been boarded up to little affect as they are regularly broken into and used to dump rubbish and industrial waste. Drug paraphernalia can also be found on floors and fires have been lit inside.

After being contacted by Wv11.co.uk, Wolverhampton Homes Communications Manager, Kate Hughes told us: “The Garages are set to be demolished soon and we are currently negotiating with the 2 remaining tenants, but until alternative locations are found we can’t demolish them”.

She went on to say: “However, our maintenance team are going out to make the site more secure soon and I will post a picture to Fix My Street after this has happened”.

As you can see from our photos above, the garages are hardly a welcoming sight to those visiting the park and cycle speedway track – we hope the issues is resolved ASAP.

Whilst Wolverhampton City Council has taken steps to make kerbside recycling relatively easy for residents, it can still be rather complicated when it comes to what you can and what you can’t put out for kerbside collection, along with what should go in the different containers we have.

www.recyclenow.com is a useful resource which allows you to enter your postcode to find out what you CAN put in your kerbside recycling – and if you have something that can’t be collected at the kerbside the website will provide a list of your nearest recycling banks and display them on a map for you.

For more information on recycling services in Wolverhampton including collection dates over the Christmas period, visit the Wolverhampton City Council website.

]]> http://www.wv11.co.uk/2009/12/21/useful-recycling-advice-for-the-christmas-period/feed/ 0 http://www.wv11.co.uk/2009/12/18/bentley-canal-past-and-present/ http://www.wv11.co.uk/2009/12/18/bentley-canal-past-and-present/#comments Fri, 18 Dec 2009 09:30:56 +0000 James http://www.wv11.co.uk/?p=1262 Blogger ‘Captain Ahab’ has written an in depth post about Bentley Canal which passes through Wednesfield.

The blog post not only contains a detailed history of the Canal and it’s origins, but also includes ‘then and now’ photos of the Canal from 1992 before much of the re-development work in the area began.

One such photo shows the Wednesfield Junction (next to the Nickelodeon Pub) shortly before the pub and Bentley Bridge Retail Park were built.

Visit Captain Ahab’s blog for part one and part two of his fascinating article.

Over 20 members of staff were evacuated from the Corus Steel plant in Wednesfield last night after a major fire destroyed a sheet blasting machine.

Six fire crews attended the blaze around 8pm and one crew from Fallings Park remained at the scene until the following morning. No injuries were reported.

Read the full story at the Birmingham Mail.