W.C 16th February

Monday

Well it seems that residents in All Saints Road and Abbots Road have taken matters in to their own hands again, by parking cars on the road, legally I must add, to prevent TWM using these residential roads. TWM then decided to divert buses down Colmore Road, which is just as bad.

Sooner rather than later, I'm sure, TWM will realise that these roads are totally not suitable for them to run as bus routes.

Link to residents blog site; Http://www.busesallsaints.blogspot.com

Here is a link to the latest planning applications received by last Friday, look at them it does seem that the purse strings have been pulled very tight, with only three applications and then only small works, so to speak. Http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/media?media_id=282008

There are still serious problems with Dawberry Fields Park, this time, not the skatebowl, but land drainage, where rainwater is lying on top of the soil ( which has a very high clay content), but after persistent rain starts to run off and threatens to flood near by homes. With the amount of Council money spent on this park, one would have assumed that they could have got it right.

Had a session in the Labour Members room this afternoon, discussing campaigning and preparation for next years elections, how we should proceed and what we're already doing, how effective and target setting. I thought it was quite a proactive session.

Tuesday

Attendance at Housing and Urban Regeneration Overview and Scrutiny Committee, was in order, on the agenda were a number of key items affecting the private sector housing area. However the one in to which I got my teeth, was the support from the Housing Department towards "independent Living", this is when older residents, both Owner Occupiers and Council Tenants, ask to have things done in their homes to help them remain there, rather than being pushed or shoved in to care homes. I questioned officers about the lack of support and that original documentation from "Occupational Therapists" detailing what was necessary, was being ignored by "non-professional O.T's". It seems that I hit a raw nerve, as Councillor John Lines, the Cabinet Member for Housing, came out with a diatribe of abuse, so much so, that The Committee Chair had to tell him to shut up, to which he stormed out of the meeting, taking several of his key officers with him. He really is one hell of a bully, or at least tries it on with me, but he's met his match here.

Later in the day I sent out a press release calling on The Government to relax the controls on Council House building and I'm sending an invite to Margaret Beckett to come and see for herself, talking to council tenants and some of the 30,000 on the Council's waiting list for homes.

On the Evening I attended Druids Heath Housing Liaison Board, who are a group of residents living in the area, both Council tenants and owner occupiers, all of whom care deeply about the area. We heard that a number of litter bins paid for by the HLB have been installed and quite soon up to ten planters will be located around the area, to brighten up the place.

Wednesday

Just been reading what Council Officers think should be done to rejuvenate the whole of south west Birmingham, with some of the tens of millions of pounds given to this council to create jobs and training opportunities, by The Government. It amazes me the time it takes to get things moving with officers and reading this report, it will take even longer. Is it a case that those in employment, don't see the importance of timing and getting people back in to either employment or training.

I've been invited to participate, with a small number of other Councillors in "The Comprehensive Area Assessment" peer review, being undertaken by the Improvement and Development Agency, to see how effective Birmingham Council actually is.

Thursday

Contacted by a couple of residents from All Saints Road area again this morning, to see if I knew anymore about what TWM are doing regarding buses down their road. I do have a planned meeting next Wednesday (25th February) to discuss further any new proposals they may have on this matter.

Just been notified that The Government is taking a dim view of Birmingham Council's devolution measure, whereby residents are able to strongly influence decisions. Unless things change soon, I can see them imposing measures to ensure that residents do have more say in what gets done and how it's done in their area.

Spent the afternoon, working on behalf of residents at my advice centre at the Dell Meadow Centre and not everything is Rosy in the garden for this council, with damp and mould in houses, people threatened with eviction, because one department is incapable of talking to another.

Friday

Today is anti-graffiti day, or at least it is in Druids Heath. A large squad of adults and youngsters from bells farm Community Centre set off in teams, I was in Team 1, to litter pick and remove graffiti from specific areas. Not quite all of Druids Heath has been covered, but nearly three quarters.

The team I was assigned to, Team 1 was sent to the Manningford Road area, around Manningford Road, Eagle Croft, and Bicknell, whilst some of the team set about litter picking we started on removing graffiti from the play area, then moved to gable walls, telecoms boxes and finished off over painting fences, covered in graffiti. Although I wasn't able to stay the whole day, having to leave at 2:00 O'clock, a great deal was achieved by then.

I would like to put on record my thanks to Sgt Markham, her team and all of the adults and youngsters who worked really hard at making a tremendous impact.

As I said previously I had to leave Druids Heath early to attend a meeting of Labour Party Spokespersons at The Council House, to dissect the proposed budget at next weeks Council Meeting. While Mike Whitby may well be talking about the lowest Council Tax rise in the country, he forgets to mention the significant cuts in service that goes along with it. Remembering though The Labour Government has handed over probably the highest "Rate Support Grant" in decades to this Council, more than £70million than last year. If only they used that money to provide services than spend on "Business Consultants" all residents would be better pleased at what they were achieving. I'm still adamant that this years council tax rise should be ZERO, particularly given the current climate and that The Government has given an additional £70million to spend on services, that's an increase of more than 3.3% in "Rate Support Grant", this along with money spent on Consultants would enable them to continue to provide Day Care Centres, Children Services, where too many have either died or been injured, assist some owner occupiers with essential building repairs and allow older residents to remain in their own homes.

W.c.9th February 2009

Monday

First thing I opened the planning website at Birmingham Council to view what plans had been submitted and found nothing to worry about in my ward, as can be seen from the link below.

http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/Media?MEDIA_ID=280744

After taking a phone call from a very irate resident in Brandwood Park Road, over the way Severn Trent contractors had parked up a shed and several service vehicles, whilst installing new water mains pipes. I quickly arranged a site meeting with Highway Officers.

On arrival at the site, we found that my resident was right, valuable parking spaces had been taken up and the trench work was in excess of 100 yards contrary to good working practices, assurances were asked of and given by the sites contract manager that matter would be taken in hand and put right. The shed was moved while I was there, on to the frontage of a disused shop front, vans relocated too.

Tuesday

It's February so we had the second Druids Heath Festival meeting, we've planned for it to be on June 20th, so make sure you all put this down in your diaries. Came away with a few tasks, but no where as many as the others present. The only disappointed thing about the meeting was the lack of local residents, which will be remedied by our next meeting in March.

In to the Council House, had to read up on reports going to Cabinet on Monday and start putting a briefing paper together for Sir Albert to have at hand, for when Housing matters are being discussed. Normally I would have attended the meeting next Monday but I have something already planned.

More problems with Travel West Midlands using All Saints Road and Abbots Road. Had a really good telephone call with another irate resident in All Saints Road, she was informed by our local police, that parking her car outside her home was causing an obstruction, I asked her if there were yellow lines outside (knowing there were not)? Was there a fire hydrant? Had she parked across a foot-way crossing of any sort? which it wasn't to any of these questions. I went on to ask, was her car, road taxed, insured and did she need and/or have an MOT, which she answered affirmatively.

With this information I told her she could continue to park on the Queens Highway as she wasn't causing an obstruction and if she was harassed again by ANYONE to phone me immediately as I'll sort them out, no matter who they were. It does annoy me when people become heavy handed over issues which don't belong to them, whoever he is, this police officer needs taking to task.

Thursday

Routine day as a Councillor, with the exception that at tea-time I was invited to a house meeting, where along with a sizable number of Labour Party supporters we had a talk with David Blunkett MP about The Government and Labour Party policies and tactics for the next General Election.

What was very interesting was that we managed to sign up new members. Whoever said The Labour Government and Party was unpopular?

Friday

Attended Co-ordinating Overview & Scrutiny sub-finance Committee, where I was able to have a go at the Tory & Lib-Dem leadership about the extraordinary high levels of "Prudential borrowing" they have been embarking upon. Last year the level was at £2:18p per Council Tax household, next year it rises significantly until 2010/11 it will stand at £25, which is totally unacceptable.

Well it has just been announce that The Council later this month will be deciding how much we all need to pay in Council Tax, to keep our Council working. They are set to rise Council Tax by 1.9%.

In my opinion, such an increase is intolerable, particularly when The Government has increased the amount of money it has provided the Council with in "Rate Support Grant", 3.3% or around £60 million.

With so many households in Brandwood and Birmingham as a whole having to tighten their belts, due to the global economic downturn, The Council should be doing the same
I have been lobbying my colleagues in The Labour Group to go for a ZERO increase and claw back some of the unacceptable amounts of money currently being spent by this Council on Business Consultants, somewhere in excess of £67million this year alone.

Some opposition councillors will say this is being opportunistic, that could may well have been the case if there was elections this year, but there aren't any elections and someone needs to take a lead.

Saturday

After my morning advice centre session at The Maypole Library, I went along to give my support and a helping hand to local residents working in Jasmin Field, cleaning up Chinn Brook and the surrounding land. The number that turned up on a cold February day was quite pleasing and the amount of litter and dumped items unacceptable, the sooner we are able to fence off this area to prevent dumping the better.

W.c. 31st January 2009

Monday

Here is a link to this weeks planning applications for the Brandwood Ward.

http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/Media?MEDIA_ID=279769

I don't see anything contentious in these, nor any plans in adjoining wards which would impact on my residents.

After spending most of the morning at the Council House, sorting case work and preparing for tonight's Labour Group meeting and tomorrow's Council meeting, I'm informed that senior Council officers have instructed managers to inform their staff, that because we are expecting snow, they should go home early, that is about 2:00pm. It seems that the THREAT of snow brings our City to a standstill, thank heavens we don't live in Scotland, otherwise Birmingham would be closed from October through to March every year.

Needless to say all appointments for later in the day have been cancelled.

Tuesday

It did actually snow, but not much and they've closed all the schools in Birmingham!!!

I remember as a youngster traipsing to school in short trousers, knee length socks, wellingtons with "pumps" in my satchel, I can't ever remember having a day off school because of snow.

Full Council Day

Today Councillor John Lines presented his report on Housing in Birmingham and as Labour's spokesman on Housing I had the opportunity to blow a hole in his report.

It seems to me that John Lines says one thing and does another. As the largest controller of land in the City, he should be releasing some of this over to Housing Associations for them to build homes to rent in the current climate, but he remains adamant that the land SHOULD be sold to the highest bidder.

Another serious issue is that he and his team are continuing to neglect tens of thousands of owner occupiers, who struggle to maintain their own homes, nearly 54,000 are pensioners and another 30,000 are disabled owners. The most annoying thing is that the average cost of essential repairs to each home is £2,700 according to his own departments report.

http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/Media/Private%20Sector%20Strategy%202008+.pdf?MEDIA_ID=260536&FILENAME=Private%20Sector%20Strategy%202008+.pdf

Within the report he and his team say they are proud of repairing 1,100 privately owned homes last year, at this rate it will take until the year 2081, before they have sorted out the 84,000 homes in need they know of today. If something isn't done soon, large parts of Birmingham will have to be demolished within twenty years, repeating what had to be done in the 1960's/70's. Braking up communities by doing that was and remains wrong. Link to Birmingham Post.

http://www.birminghampost.net/news/west-midlands-news/2009/02/04/birmingham-city-council-urged-to-help-elderly-and-poor-homeowners-65233-22848821/

Wednesday

Read a report in the Birmingham Mail that Councillor John Lines intends to build 500 "Council Homes", but they won't be Council Homes as they will be owned by Birmingham Municipal Housing Trust, therefore will the tenants be council tenants or RSL tenants. I think we all need to know Councillor Lines.

Why wasn't that news given to Full Council yesterday, could it be that he knew that he would have been blown out of the water, or is it a knee jerk reaction, over my criticism over holding on to the Land Bank?

http://www.birminghammail.net/news/birmingham-news/2009/02/04/birmingham-to-build-500-council-homes-a-year-97319-22851952/

Thursday

It snowed again overnight and again most schools are closed!!!!

Left the house early to attend a meeting with National Express at Yardley Wood Garage, over the three bus routes in Kings Heath, which have been giving my residents a lot of grief over the past couple of weeks. I got there a little early, better early than late, everyone else was on time except for the other two councillors for Brandwood Ward, after nearly half an hour Mark Hill arrived, so we more or less had to start again. It does annoy me when people put themselves out for you and lack of punctuality lets everyone down, even if it is snowing.

The outcome from this meeting has been reasonable, but nothing immediate, as BCC will have to do some minor engineering works to Alcester Road South, TWM will have to look closer at some of it's route planning and we, the Brandwood Councillors along with those from Billseley and Moseley & Kings Heath, need to hold a public meeting at All Saints Church, to here additional information and allow the public to discuss these plans, before coming to an overall decision.

In the evening I attended Brandwood Ward Committee meeting, amongst other matters on the agenda had been something about "Section 106" monies, however no officer had turned up, because of snow, so we still haven't got to the bottom of what money has been allocated, why other hadn't been spent. I'm aware that I'm in a minority of one, however there is nothing more pleasing that embarrassing the other councillors if they've done things which haven't quite worked out.

Members of Brandwood West Neighbourhood Forum were present to hear a tirade off Mark Hill as to why they shouldn't be given a full grant for the current financial year. Let me remind you that this financial year finishes on 31st March and they are still waiting for their grant!!!!

Anyway, both he and Neville Summerfield agreed and wasn't going to give me an opportunity to say anything, that the forum would only get £500. I had my say, they cover over 6,000 homes, all of the members volunteer, without any payment and when we have had walk-abouts normally two but often more join us and give their opinion, the same for when work needs doing.

Shame on you Cllrs Hill & Summerfield, you should encourage the commitment of residents

Friday

Attended the Co-ordinating Overview & Scrutiny Committee this morning. Did you know that Birmingham Council spends in excess of £67million on consultants and until very recently no one was keeping a close eye on who was employing them, what they had been asked to examine, worst of all what the quality of their findings had been like!!!!!! The whole charade was out of control.

The Chief Executive had to give a report on corrective actions, but in my opinion you could still drive a horse and cart through the measure he had introduced.

Saturday

Following Thursdays Ward Committee meeting and the complaints from residents in and around Brandwood Park Road, I decided to dust off my Council issued "Considerate Contractor Assessor" ID card and do a site inspection of the works underway. To be perfectly honest the site itself was well and secure, found two areas of concern, the first being that a cabin had been placed on the highway, which Birmingham Council rarely agree to and the second was several warning signs approaching the roadworks hadn't been sand-bagged.