Here is a link to this weeks planning applications for the Brandwood Ward.
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.
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.
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?
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment