THE BATTLE FOR THE BLACK PATCH 26-01-2007 Despite it's name, Black Patch is actually a neglected patch of green on the Birmingham/Sandwell border, but it's got a fascinating history and was the place the ex-Baggies hero Darren Moore learned to kick a ball. Now though, as Simon Baddeley reports, it's future is uncertain. “So we will live out our days in the cracks between the concrete. And then they will pour cement on top of us.” Jack Hargreaves 1993 Rail passengers on the West Coast Main Line would know it only by a sudden cluster of trees seen through the train window among the factory roofs lining the run in to New Street. They've glimpsed the green canopy above Black Patch Park - a tree filled space on the Birmingham-Sandwell border in an area notoriously short of green space. And that's where the problems of Black Patch Park began. The park belongs to The plot thickens. In an age of multi-agency partnerships, Sandwell Council is just one of several bodies agreeing a regeneration formula for Smethwick that will involve building on the Black Patch. The key player is RegenCo, based in a multi-storey office block at Intersection House off the M5, where the citizen who's learned of RegenCo's existence, will look in vain for a public debating chamber. The deed that legalised the disposal of Black Patch Park was done discretely. Requirements for transparency were met by placing a small add in a local paper inviting consultation on the Smethwick Local Plan. Black Patch Park wasn't mentioned, but Sandwell, the public face of the regeneration partnership, could claim it had consulted the public over its decision to re-zone the Black Patch including its adjoining allotments for industry. Sandwell continues to reduce its park maintenance. In early 2006 it closed down the park's community centre, so local soccer players are without changing rooms or toilets. It has ceased maintaining the car park allowing vehicles to rut the park's grass, though a few months ago unsightly earth mounds were raised round the car park to discourage travellers as well as excluding the cars of visiting soccer players. Typical of this neglect is the attitude of Sandwell's Cabinet member for Urban Form, and, more recently, Board Member of RegenCo, Councillor Robert Stanley Badham MBE. Badham refuses to acknowledge the existence of the Friends of Black Patch Park (now in our fourth year of campaigning) or its proposal that a restored Black Patch Park could complement other initiatives to regenerate the area rather than being their victim. When in 2004 an invitation was issued to consult on the ‘Smethwick Town Plan', the Friends did just that. Our Hon. Secretary received a dated receipt for the arguments we'd submitted for saving and regenerating the park. Cllr Badham refused to accept these thoughtfully composed proposals because, he said, they arrived “too late”. This is a local politician barely in control of a brief driven by an unelected partnership for which he is little more than a willing frontman helping to give a veneer of democratic respectability to the plans to demolish Black Patch Park. The aims of the Friends is to protect, celebrate and enhance the 20 acres of
Black Patch Park - as originally created by public subscription in 1907 - as
a place of historic importance and indispensable green space for future As well as its legacy as an traditional Romany camping ground, the park's current value is as a wildlife oasis, a place for quiet walks and relaxation and an essential site for a large number of young people from diverse backgrounds to practice sport. http://www.flickr.com/ We believe we are slowly winning hearts and minds in ways that will bring a happier ending for the park than the one planned by Cllr.Badham and his partners. We might even change their minds. More about the Black Patch, the Friends and their
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©2006 The Stirrer