I Will Be/ Will You?

ENOUGH SAID, Just do it.

Twenty Is Plenty And Forty Is Naughty

Our  local Police team have recently agreed to mount a laser speed enforcement campaign along Broad Lane, Brandwood Road and Brandwood Park Road after it was found that some motorists have been doing well over forty miles an hour in these roads.
I am hoping that this could be the first of many initiatives to enforce motorists, who use our local roads as a race track, putting at risk the lives of children and adults alike.

Calls For A Safer School Crossing

My colleague Labour's Campaign Leader, Barry Henley and me have urged The Council to introduce a School Crossing Warden in Broad Lane.

After being invited to see what moms and other family members have to do, to ensure that their children at St Alban’s school can cross Broad Lane safely, they have convinced me that Birmingham’s Tory run Council are playing with the lives of these young children, by not providing a school crossing warden.

35,000 POLICE JOBS TO GO, 2,500 IN THE WEST MIDLANDS

The Government's decision to go ahead and impose large spending cuts on the police has been well criticised by my colleague Barry Henley.

At least 35,000 police officers jobs will go in published figures from the budget, with over 2,500 from here in the West Midlands Force. How many of these will be from our area of Brandwood? These job losses in our police are unacceptable.

Is This The End Of ASBO's

My colleague and Labour’s Campaign Leader, Barry Henley has urged the Tory Lib Dem Government to drop their plans to scrap anti-social behaviour orders (ASBO's), claiming such a move will leave residents and police in large parts of Brandwood helpless, in tackling unruly behaviour from some youths .

Asbos have worked and will continue to work provided they are used effectively. Cracking down on crime and disorder needs to be constantly reviewed and improved but the ASBO’s have been a success.

Baverstock & Kings Norton High School Latest

Towards the end of March we had the Ward Committee meeting, were a very large number of residents, mainly those who live around the Lindsworth School site and a few residents at the school itself, came along to here the latest news.

Well I don’t know what has happened with the powers that be, but all scheduled meetings to discuss the Tory Council’s plans have been postponed, at least till after the elections.
Now I smell a rat, is it that they think I may not be around, so can bulldoze the plans through with little public consultation or what?
Well let us give them a surprise, win or loose, I will still be around fighting for residents opinions to be heard and campaigning for the new school build to be on Druids Heath not Monyhull Hall Road.

HOUSING MADDNESS Part 2

With more than 30,000 families on the Council Housing waiting list, why are there boarded up homes?



For more than four years, I have been asking why a large number of homes here in Brandwood have been boarded up and targeted by vandals. I had been calling on the Housing Department to upgrade, repair or demolish these properties. Well at last someone has got off their backside and agreed to repair these houses, soon to be homes. See my blog of of June last year.http://councillormikeleddy.blogspot.com/2009/06/housing-maddness.html

Over the coming weeks and months they will be repairing the foundations, fitting new roofs, new windows and doors, new kitchens and bathrooms along with central heating. Each property has been costed out at £30,000 a lot less than demolishing and rebuilding. So why has it taken so long?

The Pathway and tunnel to The Worthings

For over twelve months now, some of us, have been trying to get something off the ground, with Network Rail, Birmingham City Council and the local community, to make the walk through the subway along The Pathway to The Worthings.

The tunnel as it’s known and the paths either end are dark and to some users, threatening. Well at last, it seems that we may have come up with a programme, whereby a number of groups in the area can take part in painting a mural, not just any mural, but one, which depicts some of the history of the area. The murals will be painted on marine plywood and once treated with an anti-graffiti coating, will be fixed either side of the walls and a repainted ceiling to top it all off.

Did you know that the tunnel was used as an air-raid shelter and that some people were killed during the war? It really is amazing what you can find out these days.

Dog Poo

There is nothing more annoying than to see dog poo on out pavements and verges and I speak as a dog owner. I accept that its not always a pleasant job, but it is all part of wanting a dog and a task that needs to be done and I would rather clean up the mess my dog makes than end up paying the £1,000 fine.
Not only does dog poo look and often smell terrible, people and I know from past experience children nearly always find a way to tread in it, so it should, no must me cleared up by the dog owner.
Those dog owners who don’t clear up are lazy and think they can get away with it. Unfortunately, it is the rest of us who suffer.

20 is Plenty

I spent the end of last week and a fair amount of this week, talking to and collecting signatures for a petition from parents of children outside both of the Colmore Schools’. Both Steve McCabe and I wanted to know the views of the parents on the speed of vehicles using Tenbury Road, Grove Road and Colmore Road.

In the mornings it was very clear that Tenbury Road and Colmore Road was a rat run for motorists who didn’t like the traffic lights at the junction of Vicarage Road by the Red Lion, so speed outside the School main entrance. In addition a number of motorists who did drive down Grove Road, took little account of the young children on their way to school, hence our campaign of ’20 is Plenty’, where we will attempt to get a 20mph zone around school starting and finishing times introduced.