Monyhull Refuse Collection

Now when you pay FULL Council Tax you expect to have a reasonable service from the council, refuse collected, road swept, roads repaired, light repaired and so on.

Most residents living within the new(ish) Monyhull Development all pay their FULL Council Tax, yet the only service which Birmingham council provides them is the removal of their household refuse, all because Birmingham Council hasn't as yet adopted the roads on this development, other than the first road in to the development and then only part of the way in.

So when the ONLY service which Birmingham Council provides, falls well short of what any resident in the City expects, no wonder they get annoyed, I would if this happened to me.

From the photograph you can clearly see that no care and attention has been paid to loading the black bags on to the back of the refuse lorry, leaving household rubbish strewn all over the road.

This I have taken up with Lifford Lane and I am presently waiting for a site visit to be arranged immediately after the crews have done their task.

Whilst we all from time to time complain about "dustmen", in general most of them do an exceptional job in often difficult conditions, however in this particular case they need calling to task, which I hope will happen sooner rather than later.

If you have a similar experience I would be most grateful if you would email me using this link, giving me as much detail as you can and I will see what I can do.

mike.leddy@birmingham.gov.uk

Self Setting Trees Nuisance

Residents living in Dawberry Road and Frome Way asked for help with the nuisance of self setting trees in what was once a public footpath, running from Dawberry Road through to Harton Way. This footpath I was informed was blocked off a number of years ago, although boundaries to it from gardens fences remain.

Clearly to have such large trees in such a confined space is not only dangerous, but prevents natural light getting too a number of homes in Frome Way and residents in both Frome Way and Dawberry Road are unable to regularly put out washing.

The matter of who owns the pathway is currently being investigated along with what the council intends to do with these trees.

GRIT BINS IN SUMMER????????

Well it seems that while most of us think that summer is almost upon us or at the very least late spring, even if sometimes the weather isn't what we would wish for, it seems that Birmingham Council are still waiting for snow.

Throughout the whole of Brandwood few if any of the Councils grit bins have been moved back to the depot, which I find extraordinary, I can't remember the last time we had a good snow fall in May.

What is most annoying is that some youngsters find that these grit bins can be fun, spewing out the contents, no matter the weather, but for the many residents living close by the bins, other than in bad weather some become a real a nuisance.

Monyhull Hall Road Recycling Bins

After being contacted by residents, who live in Broadmeadow Close, about the poor upkeep of the recycling bins in Monyhull Hall Road and the need, today for them, now every house in the area has recycling collections on a fortnightly basis, I contacted Council Officers.

The Officers response has been quite positive to the residents request to have them moved.

We must now wait and see what happens.

Shelfield Road Garages

Residents living on Monyhull Hall Road contacted me this week about the deplorable state of council owned garages in Shelfield Road, which have been giving them concerns about security to their own property.
I established that over the past twelve months West Midlands Fire Service have been called out no less than SIX times to put out fires, all of them maliciously started, including one vehicle set on fire.
Most, although not all of the garages have been vandalised, but I'm led to believe that two garages do have tenants, mores the pity. Nevertheless some action is called for, asbestos roofing sheets, broken up and left around the site are to be bagged up and removed before anything else can be started, including the removal of burnt tyres and other debris all dumped at this site.

As you can see in the video something needs drastically doing and am to make sure that it's done.

The Mountaineer P.H.

Well this well known local landmark re-opened towards the end of April and don't the local residents know about it.

For two of the last three weekends, there has been the playing of very loud music with a deep base, all windows and doors open, at "closing time", the customers have been coming out of the premises on to the car park, with pint glasses of booze in hand and making such noise it has been enough to wake the dead all in the early hours.

A large number of residents in Ashburton Road and Listowel Road phoned me about the problems and I started to get the ball rolling. The first thing was to establish what types of licenses the premises had, imagine my surprise when I found out that in 2006 (well before I was elected the local councillor), that a music license which allows the playing of music till half past MIDNIGHT and drinking till 1:00 in the morning, was approved and for a pub in a residential area, turning it in to a virtual nightclub..

Well no wonder The Mountaineer has these licenses, I was told by resident after resident that when it went to the sub-committee Neville Summerfield represented them and they said he also spoke for the applicant!!!!!!!!

After my intervention, with License Enforcement Officers and a talk with our local Police last weekend was a little quieter, but I can't and won't take all of the credit, as Sgt Knowles had arranged for members of her team to make two strategic visits on Friday evening and the same on Saturday night.

Lets hope that this coming weekend is also quiet, I say this as both the "gaffer" and the premises owners Enterprise Inns had a very uncomfortable meeting with Police and Enforcement Officers on Wednesday afternoon.

National Express Annoyance

Once again we have a situation, whereby National Express, think they know better than many local residents and Councillors.

For the past few weeks, instead of terminating the 76 bus service at the top of Allens Croft Road, as they should, they have been turning into Colmore Road, Kings Heath, to the annoyance of most residents. One of the organisers contacted me after this unsavoury practice started to happen, I suggested that she and others came along to a Neighbourhood Tasking meeting and aired their views. Well a good number did come along and voiced their opinion and if a senior manager of National Express had been there, then they wouldn't have got out alive.

To simply rail-road through a new route, without consulting residents or elected Councillors is asking for trouble. The number of emails going back and forward to the Acocks Green garage on this matter is incredible and time after time promises have been broken. I accept that if there is an emergency, a traffic accident in kings Heath, or a road closure nearby, then buses can and should use whatever roads are open to them to provide a good public service. However what they have been doing is unacceptable, so over the past few days residents have been strategically parking cars again, as a means to stopping buses using this very residential road. This gorilla action has been so successful that National Express have started using Grove Road & Tenbury Road as a short-cut and again some residents in Tenbury Road are up in arms and who can blame them.

SOONER or LATER National Express will get the message that they can't bully their way in to route changes like they are trying to do with residents in Kings Heath. Until that day comes, I will continue to support residents actions, so long as no lives are put at risk by stupidly parking cars