Mark That Disabled Green Party Guy

A Black Hole of Accountability What Telford & Wrekin Council’s Silence on Disability Safety Really Means Let’s cut straight to the chase. When a council proudly stamps its correspondence with “Protect, Care and Invest,” you’d expect a certain baseline of transparency, especially on a matter of life and death. Instead, what we get from Telford & Wrekin Council is a masterclass in bureaucratic evasion, wrapped in polite, redacted paperwork. The story is simple, and damning. A concerned disabilities officer writes to the Council Leader, Lee Carter, in March 2025.  His subject? The urgent, glaring, and morally indefensible lack of proper Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans (PEEPs) for disabled residents in high-rise buildings. He invokes Grenfell. He names local towers. He begs for action, specifically for Carter to lobby local MP Shaun Davies. It’s a cry for basic safety, born from a tragedy that should have changed everything. T...

A Well-Meaning Bill That Misses the Mark: Why SEND Families Are Right to Be Worried Let’s start with what’s good. The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill comes from a place we all share: a profound desire to keep children safe, support their mental health, and ensure every child gets a great education. Who could argue with promoting wellbeing, providing free breakfast clubs, or trying to stop children from slipping through the cracks? The intentions, at their heart, are noble. But as the saying goes, the road to a difficult situation is often paved with good intentions. For parents of children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), this bill doesn’t feel like a lifeline; it feels like a threat. It risks punishing families for a system’s failure, and the debate in Parliament this week showed that, thankfully, some MPs are finally starting to hear their cries. The "Lifeline" Under Threat For many SEND families, home education isn’t a philosophical...

Telford's High-Stakes Gamble: Our Council is Betting Our Future on the Property Market! Let’s talk about our money. Specifically, let's talk about Telford and Wrekin Council's finances. On the surface, the story is a political dream. The council boasts 16 years of balanced budgets, low council tax, and a knack for winning government grants. They’ve managed to navigate over £180 million in government cuts since 2010. It sounds like a miracle of financial management, right? But when you pull back the curtain, a much riskier and more concerning picture emerges. Our council isn’t just collecting bins and fixing potholes anymore; it’s behaving like a high-stakes property speculator. The Property Gambler The cornerstone of the council’s financial “resilience” is its commercial property portfolio. Through its ‘Grade Fund’ and ‘Nu Place’ investments, the council generates over £12 million a year. This money is used to plug gaps in services and keep our counc...