April 14th – Didn’t get far today for one reason or another. Slipping out for a quick scoot around town at teatime, I found myself at opposite ends of the modern development history of Brownhills. I noted that in High Street, at the corner of the Ogley Road junction, the second phase of the social housing project started a year ago has begun. Replacing the hated maisonettes that formerly occupied the site, it’s nice to see some housing development happening. We have so much land left vacant by the clearance of bad social housing, yet the pace of replacement is painfully slow. The 75-odd homes this project will create are next to nothing compared to the hundreds lost.
Meanwhile, littered with the detritus of drug use, forlorn and abandoned, the loading bay for what was Brownhills’ first Tesco at the rear of Ravens Court. Tesco have got cold feet on replacing this derelict structure with a new store, leaving the town in limbo. When will we ever learn?

