A Burntwood councillor says the town is continuing to be treated as the poor relation to surrounding areas.
The town is still without its long-promised new health centre and has seen many of its independent shopping units close in recent years.
Labour councillor Di Evans believes that with Cannock seeing new developments springing up and the Friarsgate plan in Lichfield starting to come together, Burntwood is in danger of being left to feed off scraps once again.
“We have always been the poor relation and it seems we’ll continue to be that,” she said. “There always seems to have been an attitude of ‘don’t worry about Burntwood’ and ‘protect leafy Lichfield’.
“We missed out on our health centre and other developments that Lichfield District Council have not pushed hard enough for. Then The Brendewood Suite at the old leisure centre went and we were promised another one but all the money went to the Garrick instead.
“Because things are going on elsewhere in Cannock and Lichfield we’re in danger of missing out again. What we need are smaller shopping units. When we had Kwik Save and the market we had all the smaller stalls that people used. But of course all that went and here we are now with hardly anything.”
The Conservatives retained Lichfield District Council and took control of Burntwood Town Council at the elections in May and Cllr Evans believes residents will not feel the benefit of two Tory controlled authorities.
“As a Labour group we’re in a much weaker position than we were before the election,” she said. “Previously we could fight our corner much harder, but we’re not going to be in a position to do that anymore. Unfortunately, Burntwood Town Council will do what the Tories in Lichfield tell them to do.
“I fear it will now be a case of them making cutbacks and offloading them onto us in Burntwood. But they really need to ensure facilities are kept – after all, they even talked about closing our public toilets.”
