Monthly Blog Summary - November

📌 Monthly Blog Summary – November 2025

November was… busy.

From patient voice and housing failures to green spaces, bins, budgets and the state of civic standards in Sandwell, this month’s posts share one theme:

👉 Systems that look good on paper – and collapse in practice.

Please note some of these blogs are long because they are written to be "Foundation Blogs/Docs" which will be used for future investigations, research and articles.

Here’s the full round-up, please view archives or scroll down home page for link and full content of each individual blog:

1️⃣ Patient Voice in Sandwell: Heard, Filed, Forgotten

A searing look at Sandwell’s NHS “engagement” circus – endless consultations, surveys, workshops and glossy PDFs while access, continuity and basic humanity go missing.

Patient voice is everywhere on forms and flipcharts, nowhere in decisions.

2️⃣ A Borough in Breakdown: Housing Failures, Safeguarding Gaps and the Collapse of Sandwell’s “Customer Journey”

Using one serious resident case as the trigger, this piece pulls back the curtain on a much wider failure: housing, adult social care, safeguarding and customer contact systems that simply don’t join up.

Governance may look “improved” on paper, but on the frontline people are processed, not supported.

3️⃣ Friar Park Millennium Centre, FPUV & Sandwell’s Levelling Up Machine — The Conflicts They Don’t Want You to See

An investigation into Friar Park Millennium Centre’s political links, funding streams and its central role in the Friar Park Urban Village and Levelling Up programme.

As tens of millions flow into regeneration, the post asks hard questions about conflicts of interest, transparency, declarations and whether a “non-party political” charity is really operating at arm’s length.

4️⃣ What The Sandwell Skidder Has Said

A structured summary of public allegations, FOI battles and commentary from The Sandwell Skidder about Friar Park, Simon Hackett and Labour’s patronage network.

It doesn’t claim to prove every allegation – it lays out what’s been reported, what’s been investigated, what’s still hidden, and why it all matters now that more public money is on the line.

5️⃣ Budget 2025: Sandwell Gets Shafted (Yet Again) by Labour’s Stealth Taxes and Empty Promises

A full-blooded takedown of Rachel Reeves’s Budget from a Sandwell viewpoint.

It covers:

frozen thresholds and stealth taxes,

the two-child cap U-turn and fraud risks,

the impact on disabled, elderly and low-paid residents,

and the silence/complicity of Sandwell Labour locally.

Addendum 1 dissects the spin graphics and slogans.

Addendum 2 looks at OBR rows, “black holes”, leaks and the wider credibility crash.

6️⃣ Litter Watch: Nearly 40 Years of Graft, Goodwill & Getting On With It (Even When Others Don’t!)

A tribute to Litter Watch – quietly delivering environmental work across Sandwell for nearly four decades while others chase photo-ops.

It celebrates their education work, Eco-Bus, allotment, volunteer wellbeing impact and long-term graft – and asks why genuinely effective, apolitical groups so often end up sidelined or under-valued.

7️⃣ “Sandwell Labour Cannot Preach Protection While Denying Justice”

A challenge to the sheer hypocrisy of loudly promoting violence-against-women-and-girls campaigns while previously refusing to back a full national grooming gangs inquiry.

The piece contrasts White Ribbon PR, survivor experiences, political cowardice, smears about “far-right dog whistles” and the ongoing shambles around the national inquiry – arguing that safeguarding without accountability is just branding.

8️⃣ Dirty Chains: How Sandwell Labour Turned the Mayoralty Into a Badge of Shame

A blunt assessment of the decision to make a councillor with a recent assault conviction the public face of the borough.

It looks at what that says about standards, safeguarding, youth engagement and Labour’s internal culture – and makes the point that you don’t need to be a saint to know you shouldn’t wear the chains after that.

9️⃣ “Sandwell’s Green Spaces: Partnerships on Paper, Chaos in Practice”

This post dissects the collapse of Sandwell’s supposed “partnership” with Friends Groups and volunteers.

No Friends meeting since March 2024, no works programme, no visible Water Bodies Team, weak environmental enforcement and volunteers left carrying responsibility without proper support.

On paper: partnership.

On the ground: silence and chaos.

🔟 Sandwell’s Broken Basics – And the Complaint They Couldn’t Ignore

A borough-wide residents’ complaint about the stuff that should be simple: bins, blue bags, pavements, drains, streetlights, verges and civic pride.

It sets out how services have slid into “managed decline”, calls for practical fixes (like proper recycling bins and routine inspections) – and notes the sudden arrival of “Deep Clean Hit Squads” shortly after complaints went in. Coincidence, of course…

1️⃣1️⃣ ✅ Ridgeacre / Black Lake: The Forgotten Lake Where Accountability Goes to Die

An environmental and governance deep-dive into Ridgeacre / Black Lake – one of Sandwell’s most neglected water bodies.

It explores long-running pollution, wildlife impacts, multi-agency buck-passing and the lack of a coherent water-bodies strategy, using Ridgeacre as a case study for how not to manage blue-green assets.

1️⃣2️⃣ Legal Notice & Disclaimer (Site Update)

A formal legal and editorial framework for the blog.

It explains:

how facts, opinion and sources are handled,

rights of reply and corrections,

notice-and-takedown routes,

and the public-interest basis for much of the content.

In short: the boring but important bit that underpins everything else.