There was a well attended meeting of the Acocks Green Ward Committee on Wednesday evening.

The main agenda item was passing the first, and biggest, tranche of Community Chest funding for the 2010/11 financial year. The following items were proposed by the Ward Advisory Board and approved by the Ward Committee:

1. Security Gating £2,500
2. Gardening Scheme £7,500
3. John Gayle Soccer £20,000
4. Acocks Green Carnival £6,000
5. Extra Special Bulk Collections £8,000
6. Community Unity £1,200
7. New Domehawk Security Camera Columns £1,600
8. Improvements to the 260th Scout Hut £2,450
9. Acocks Green Village Christmas Lights £5,000 

This makes a total approved spend of £54,200 leaving £45,750 unallocated and to be spent in coming months.

The Community Chest spend went through without query or debate, which I feel shows an acceptance that it has been well spent and achieves good value for money.

The meeting then had a good debate on one of the measures being taken by the Yardley Consituency Committee to help balance its budget. This is the closure of the Cafe in Fox Hollies Leisure Centre and its replacement with a seating area with vending machines. Many people had come to the meeting to express the view that the cafe should stay open. I’d love to be able to say we could keep the cafe open, but unfortunately the financial situation means economies have to be made, and I strongly believe that core services have to take priority in these difficult times.

The basics of the situation are:

1. The recession has cut income and increased demand for the Council’s services. Other costs, such as the number of elderly people who need care, are also rising.
2. Unlike Central Government, the Council is not allowed to have a budget deficit while the recession runs its course (for comparison the recession means Central Government currently runs an annual deficit equivalent to £25,000 for every man, woman and child in the country)
3. So the Council has to cut the costs of its services - by around £69m in 2010 - to balance its budget. Yardley Constituency has its share of this. The aim is to cut costs but not the services themselves.
4. The Cafe makes a £50,000 annual loss. A lot of work has gone in to trying to eliminate this loss over the past couple of years, but this has been unsuccessful and we now have to face the choice of replacing it with a seating and vending area or making the direct service cuts we are working so hard to avoid. 
5. Even after the Cafe is closed, the basic service will still be provided; there will still be somewhere to sit before or after you use the Centre and you will still be able to get some refreshments.

While I don’t expect those who enjoy using the cafe to like this, these are the kind of decisions we are going to have to take this year, and in coming years too, as the public sector starts to cut its deficit. They are not decisions we should shy away from. It would be irresponsible to do so.

Another similar issue was raised. This is the proposed co-location of the Acocks Green Neighbourhood Office into Acocks Green Library. This will save significant rental costs - again making a contribution to balancing the budget, without fundamental cuts to services. Yes there will be some loss of space in the library, but its a relatively small proportion of the space and the community room, which is very well used, will be unaffected. We would rather do this than be forced into having to cut, for example, library opening hours.

As I have said before the root cause of all this pressure is the national economic situation. This was made worse by the fact that the Labour Government, believed its own rhetoric that it had abolished ‘boom and bust economics’, so was horrendously unprepared for the biggest ‘bust’ since the second world war. We will all now have to pay the bill for this and anyone who tells you otherwise is living in a fantasy land.

The next meeting of the Acocks Green Ward Committee is this Wednesday - 10th March - at 7pm in Oaklands Primary School, Dolphin Lane.

There is one substantive item on the agenda, which is a verbal report on Community Chest Spending. This follows a meeting of the Ward Advisory Board last week, which made a number of recommendations on spend for the coming year. These recommendations will be put to the Ward Committee for approval. 

The latest Planning Application for 42 & 44 Flint Green Road has now been approved. This covers 42 and 44 themselves and the building of five new 4 bed homes on the site facing Arden Road. The approval is not a surprise as all the local views expressed to me, were that while far from perfect, the application was much better than many of the alternatives. There are 17 conditions of approval, a relatively large number for such an application, which reflects the importance of the location. 

The next key date in the diary for this location is the auction of 42 and 44 themselves next month (18th March) - hopefully this news will encourage any purchaser to develop the part of the site in accordance with this planning approval rather in a less sensitive way.

Two weeks ago the regular public meeting of the Fox Hollies Green Neighbourhood Forum had to be abandoned, when the numbers attending way exceeded the capacity of the meeting room, in the Fitness Suite at Fox Hollies Leisure Centre. The reason so many people (over 120) came, was the great concern in the local community about the changes to local bus services, which I’ve commented about on this site, many times in recent weeks.

The meeting was rearranged to tonight and the bus route changes again took centre stage. Mark Kipling from National Express and Chris Perry from Centro came and took questions and comments on the changes, including the recently announced new 40 service.

Residents made it very clear that while the 40 helps, it by no means tackles all the problems. In particular the lack of direct services to Solihull Hospital and the Northbrook Health Centre were raised several times. Further ideas were raised about how the service could be improved, which only served to stress how much damage was done by introducing the changes without consultation.

Towards the end of the meeting both Centro and National Express agreed with the suggestion that there should be a full Network Review of the whole area in 6 months time. This will give an opportunity to look at all the local bus routes and consider all needs and opinions in a proper way. The frustration is that this is exactly what should have happened before last month’s changes. Centro and National Express promise that lessons have been learned. That was good to hear, but the local Lib Dem team will be holding them to that promise and the promise of a full review of services later this year.

Sir Thomas Legg’s commission has now ruled on the amount that MPs must repay from their second home expenses claims.

There are two MPs covering Acocks Green - until the General Election, when the whole of the Ward will become part of the Yardley constituency. The situation for our MPs is as follows:

John Hemming, Lib Dem MP for Yardley, does not have to repay anything,

Roger Godsiff, Labour MP for Sparkbrook & Small Heath, has to repay £2,224.30. According to the BBC he is one of the MPs who has not yet repayed what he owes.

The full list of every repayment due, and who has paid up so far, can be found on the BBC website via this link

Councillor Neville Summerfield, the Cabinet member for Regeneration, has responded to my request for clarification about the proposed Acocks Green Conservation Area by going public on the issue in yesterday’s Full Council Meeting. He gave a state of play of all the Conservation Areas in development in the City and promised that Acocks Green is indeed in the workplan and will be developed when resources allow.

So timing remains the issue. Clearly the original aim of starting work on the scheme in 6 months (from last November) was over ambitious. With the Head of Conservation retiring at the end of March and lots of other work to do, it will take longer than that, however Cllr Summerfield did say he will do all he can to speed things up - and he knows that the three Acocks Green Councillors will be on his back until he does! As soon as I have any further information on timing I will post on this issue again.

Meanwhile 42 and 44 Flint Green Road have gone back on the market and are scheduled to be sold at auction (with a guide price of £150k each) - by John Shepherd at the Greswolde Hotel, High Street, Knowle on Thursday 18th March. This is a link to the sales details of No 42 and this is  a link to the sale details of No 44

Monday’s meeting of the Fox Hollies Neighbourhood Forum had to be abandoned when over a hundred members of the public turned up to have their say about the bus route changes, which have featured highly in this blog recently. With the meeting to be held in the Fitness Suite of the Fox Hollies Leisure Centre, which simply cant take that many people, the management of the Centre had to call a halt. This was a great shame for those who came, but I’m sure the manager who came from National Express will have been left in no doubt about the strength of public opinion about the changes they have made!

The good news for those who went - or wanted to go but couldnt make it, is that another meeting - in a much larger hall (it can hold 250) has been organised by my Lib Dem colleagues in Hall Green. This meeting will be at 10.30am in Hall Green Baptist Church on Saturday 13th February.

Meanwhile our local Lib Dem MP, John Hemming has raised the issue (and in particular the lack of consultation over the changes) in Parliament. In a debate about the new Passenger Focus watchdog (which can be seen in full on his blog via this link) he said:

“I would like to carry out what I call the “No. 41 bus test” on whether the new watchdog and the order are of any use. At times, it is good to look at specific problems and at whether they are likely to be improved. The No. 41 bus served part of Birmingham and Solihull until the weekend, and its withdrawal has caused major problems, particularly in Stockfield road, Dolphin lane and Shirley road. We have to ask whether giving the powers to Passenger Focus will enable something to be done for those local residents—probably not, I would say.

Together with local councillors, I have lobbied to keep the No. 41 bus service, but we have just been ignored—well, “ignored” is not exactly the right word; we have had meetings with the transport authority and with National Express. Passenger Focus has the right to ask for information, but not to prevent the service from being withdrawn. As a watchdog it has a bark, but in practice it does not have a bite. The transport commissioners may have a bite, but the bite to retain a bus service does not exist, and that is where the matter fails the No. 41 bus test.

Councillors Iain Bowen and Paula Wagg proposed a circular bus route. That could have been proposed via Passenger Focus. The National Express Group has turned that down, and Passenger Focus would not make any difference to that.”

So the campaign is gathering momentum - we also submitted a petition on the issue that had been collected by Mecca Bingo’s customers at this afternoon’s (Tuesday’s) Full Council meeting. With growing public anger it is clearly time for National Express and Centro to make a move. 

Those of us pushing for the development of a Conservation Area for Acocks Green were very disappointed by the report of Julie Taylor, the Conservation Officer for our area, at last week’s Yardley Consituency Committee. She said that any work on developing the Conservation Area will have to go into a queue of work that is currently 18 months long and may get longer. This contradicts the information I was given by the Cabinet Member, Cllr Neville Summerfield, who said we may have to wait around 6 months, so I have asked him to comment and will blog again when I have news.

Meanwhile it is interesting to see that both 42 and 44 Flint Green Road were both briefly put on the market (I received an email alert saying they were on the market last night) for auction (each with a guide price of £150,000), but have, as of this morning, come back off the market. This could be for all sorts of reasons and it will be interesting to see what happens next. Both these important properties are within the proposed Conservation Area and clearly any change of ownership would open up the issue of what will happen to them even further.  

Not surprisingly the shockingly badly mismanged changes to local bus routes imposed by National Express West Midlands continues to cause much anger in Acocks Green, Hall Green and beyond.

In principle some elements of the changes make sense, but the overall package and the way it has been carried out, with no consultation and very poor information to bus users, has turned what could have been a manageable exercise into a horrendous mistake, which will cause significant problems to many local residents. If National Express WM had been prepared to have real consultation, and make some amendments to the changes, instead of just imposing them, it might have been possible to have reached a solution, which met most of the needs of those who will lose out. But they weren’t interested in such an approach.

Apart from complaining to National Express directly we have (through Cllr Jon Hunt, Birmingham City Council’s lead member on buses) contacted Centro (the regional public body that looks after public transport issues) and asked them to organise a mini bus review in our area, with, this time,  real consultation. Centro asked National Express to suspend the changes ahead of such a review. However, I have just heard that, not content with ignoring their customers, National Express, have now ignored Centro too and have refused to suspend the changes to allow such a review.

We will not let things rest at this and have asked Centro to arrange a meeting with senior managers at National Express. John Hemming, Yardley’s Lib Dem MP will attend, as will pretty all Acocks Green and Hall Green’s local Councillors. It is essential that these senior National Express managers understand what a mess up their Acocks Green team have made and how needless much of it is.

I understand also that this will also be discussed at Monday’s meeting of the Fox Hollies Green Neighbourhood Forum at 7pm at the Fox Hollies Leisure Centre (in the Fitness Suite). I look forward to what I imagine will be a lively meeting!

We now have the detailed unemployment figures for December. The headine numbers are that seasonally adjusted unemployment in the UK fell by 19,700 in the month. On the surface this is a surprisingly good result. National unemployment now stands at 5.8%, while in Birmingham it is over twice this level at 12.8%. Within Birmingham unadjusted unemployment fell in 30 of the 40 Wards in December. Sadly in Acocks Green it rose by 13 to 1,336 or 12.1%. This is up 320 on the year.

The fall in unemployment, modest and patchy though it is, has surprised economists, because unemployment usually keeps rising well after economic recovery starts. While growth probably resumed in the final quarter of 2009 (we dont have the figures yet), it would have been weak at best, and certainly not enough to generate extra jobs.

The explanation of what is going on, seems to be that in fact the economy has not been generating extra jobs. Instead there has been a combination of:

1) Employers keeping staff by putting them on short-time working. Eaton Electrical, one of Acocks Green’s biggest private sector employers, has done this throughout 2009.

2) A growth in part-time working. Nationally part-time working has reached a record high of 7.71m, of which at least 1m would rather have a full time job, but cant find one.

3) Increasing impact of the Government’s make work schemes. A good example is the Future Jobs Fund, which Birmingham is using really well, to cut youth unemployment.  

There are good and bad sides to all this. On the positive side, its good news that fewer people (and especially young people) are out of work, than we would have expected from the savage recession we endured in 2008-9. It will lessen the long-term damage, as more people will keep the work habit, and are less likely to become long-term unemployed, than in previous recessions.

The less positive aspect is that it reinforces the concern, that the recovery is going to be slow and painful. The huge amount of public spending used to keep the economy going (in part on schemes like the Future Jobs Fund) will have to be cut back as the economy recovers. This means public sector employment (Birmingham City Council included) will fall substantially as a result. In the meantime, as the private sector recovers, it will prioritise getting staff back on full time before employing new staff. So while the peak level of unemployment may be lower than anticipated, it is very hard to see how it will return to 2008 levels any time soon.

Meanwhile whoever wins the General Election later this year will have to walk a difficult tightrope managing the economy, and in particular dealing with the huge government deficit. Cut it too soon (as I fear the Tories would) and you risk choking off the recovery before it develops sufficient strength. Cut it too slowly (as I fear Labour would) and you risk international fears about UK government debt, leading to rising interest rate costs and a falling pound. In such circumstances, I am sure the best man for the job would be Lib Dem Treasury Spokesman Vince Cable. He had the foresight to see what was coming back in 2007, and is the best placed politician to get us out of the mess we are now in.

This evening’s Acocks Green Ward Committee meeting has been cancelled, due to the bad weather. While the main roads are clear, thanks to the sterling work of the Council’s gritting teams, the side roads and pavements are very icy. With temperatures due to drop sharply this evening, any snow that has melted in this afternoon’s sun will freeze hard. So, as the agenda is very light, with no critical items, it seemed sensible to cancel the meeting.

If you do have any urgent items you were intending to raise at the meeting, please let me know and I will do what I can to deal with them.

There is a new planning application in for 42 & 44 Flint Green Road. I was very critical of the previous application (see my post on 9 October 2009) which threatened to destroy two of Acocks Green’s finest buildings and replace them with some very anonymous modern homes.

The good news is that the new application  proposes the retention of the existing buildings. One (42) would be restored to its original use - as a family home. The other (44) would contain two x 2 bed apartments and two  1 bed apartments.  The rest of the site would see a row of five x 4 bed homes being built along Arden Road.

The new application is still far from ideal - the new homes are still rather larger than would be ideal and the plans involve the loss of a mature oak tree. However it is a huge step forward. The retention of 42 and 44 as they are, is the big prize and it is also good to see the new-build being for family homes, rather than flats, as there are already plenty of flats in the local area.

I’d be very interested in any views on the new application (Ref 2009/06473/PA) which can be seen on the Council’s planning online website - linked here. Please let me have any comments by 19th January.

The next meeting of the Acocks Green Ward Committee takes place at 7pm on Wednesday 6 January in the 260th Birmingham Scout Group Hut at the rear of 254 Spring Road, Tyseley, B11 3DW (to the rear of Scanlon’s).

Its a very light agenda; the only substantive item is a report on School Admissiona and Appeals in the Yardley Constituency, covering the intake to schools in September 2009. As always there may be a number of issues of the day raised by residents.  

The Government has launched a consultation, which if agreed to & implemented, would mean that millions more people on lower incomes will be able to open a bank account, get a mortgage and qualify for cheaper direct debit fuel tariffs. This is part of Government plans to turn the Post Office into the “People’s Bank”. They also want it to reintroduce a children’s savings account.

Leaflets providing details about the plans and offering customers the chance to provide feedback should be available in all branches of the Post Office over the next few weeks.

I would urge you to get involved and reply positively to this consultation. I campaigned with Cllrs Iain Bowen, Penny Wagg and John Hemming MP to save the post office at 1 Olton Boulevard East. That campaign was unsuccessful and it closed, despite very good reasons why it should have stayed open. More post offices will close unless they increase their range of services and become more financially viable. This consultation provides an opportunity to help them do exactly this.

The full consultation document is available by clicking here. The final date for replies is 24 February 2010.

Wishing you all a Happy Christmas and a Healthy New Year!

from Roger Harmer and the Lib Dem team in Acocks Green.

While out delivering Christmas Cards at the weekend I took some pictures of Acocks Green in the snow. It may have been cold, but it was lovely and sunny and perfect for a brisk walk! Here are some of the pictures I took:

Woodcock Lane Bridge

The Canal from Lincoln Road Bridge

Olton Croft

Acocks Green’s Christmas Lights were switched on this evening by Ray Newton. There was a good attendance with children from local schools, their parents and many others coming along. The weather played its part with the rain just holding off until after the switch on and no-one seemed to mind the delay between the finish of the countdown and the lights actually coming on! Well done to Melinda Brown, our Town Centre Manager, Rev Vicki Atkinson, Dave Swingle and everyone else who helped to make it happen.

It was good to honour Ray’s tremendous contribution to the community in this way. Ray has been an active member of several local groups for many years. He has been a driver for the local Luncheon Club and played a key role in making the Acocks Green Carnival happen this year, being on site at 4am to supervise the putting up the marquees and then organising the street procession, making sure everyone who took part were safe. Its the Ray’s of this world that make communities work and its good to be able to show our appreciation for his efforts. 

Centro are proposing to move the bus shelter and stop, currently outside Greggs (1142 Warwick Road) down the Warwick Road a short distance onto the splitter island by 1146 Warwic Road.

Centro, the City Council Highways Department and National Express West Midlands all agree that the current location is not ideal because:

• The footway is narrow at this location and heavily used
• Congestion is caused when buses are unable to pull into the stop, due to use of the disabled parking bay prior to the bus stop

Moving to the new location will tackle both these problems

If it is approved, Birmingham City Council and Centro will arrange the necessary installation of new kerbs, footway construction and a new shelter at the new location.

This move seems sensible to me, but if you do have any concerns, I would be very keen to hear from you  - I need to know by Wednesday 16th December, if I am to take them up with Centro.

Tonight’s meeting of the Greenfields Neighbourhood Forum, saw an update on a number of local issues including:

• Acocks Green Christmas Lights Switch On: This will take place at the Inn on the Green on Tuesday 1st December starting at 6pm with live music, the switch on itself, and refreshments.
• A ‘Village Hero’ scheme has been launched to celebrate the best of Acocks Green Village. Monthly ‘Heros’ will be awarded - with nomination forms available in the Library.
• A website for the Forum is under construction and will hopefully be up and running soon. In the meantime you can mail the Forum executive via this email address: greenfieldsbanf@googlemail.com
• Residents raised the issue of illegal parking on the pavements at the top of Shaftmoor Lane (near to the junction with Olton Boulevard East and Spring Road) causing severe problems to pedestrians at times. The Police agreed to monitor the area and issue penalty notices where appropriate.

The next meeting of the Forum will be on Monday 18th January 2010 at 7.30pm at the Scout Hut on Spring Road, behind Scanlon’s.

There was more success for the Stockfield U14 football team at the weekend. Their recent success at the Birmigham’s Star City Goals tournament, over half-term, took them to the Midlands regional final. This was held at Derby City FC’s Soccer Dome at Pride Park last Saturday. Yet again Stockfield took the competition by storm and won through their 7 competitive games to be crowned as Midlands Champions.

The team are now through to the National finals, which will be held at the Power League Soccer Dome next to Manchester United’s Old Trafford stadium on Saturday 5th December 2009. Lets hope they can go one step further and win in Manchester to become the U14 Champions of England!

The Yardley Constituency Strategic Partnership has its next meeting on Wednesday 18th Novemeber. It starts at 6.30pm at South Yardley Library.

 The main items on the agenda are:

• A presentation on the Youth Festival
• A discussion on the Constituency Strategic Partnership structure
• The Children and Young People Delivery Plan
• A presentation on local Employment Programmes
• A discussion about Yardley’s Priority Neighbourhood

Plus an update on local events and the usual ‘Any Other Business’ item.

There was more success for the Stockfield U14 football team over half term. They won all six of their games in the Birmingham Star City Goals tournament to win the competition trophy. This means that the team are through to the Midlands regional finals, which will be held at Derby City FC’s Soccer Dome at Pride Park on Saturday 14th November. Success at this tournament would mean a trip to Manchester for the National finals, so lets keep our fingers crossed that they can keep their winning streak going!

The main issue discussed at this evening’s meeting of the Acocks Green Ward Committee was the proposed gating of the passageway from Langworth Avenue to the Stockfield Estate. The residents in Langworth Avenue are keen for the passageway to be gated during night time to help prevent ongoing anti-social behaviour there.

Funds were made available to do this from the Acocks Green Ward Community Chest over a year ago. The difficulty has been finding a way to have the gates regularly locked in the evening and unlocked in the morning. This is important as the passageway is also a useful daytime short-cut for residents on the Stockfield Estate who want to go to the Yardley Road.

Initially it was hoped the School could do this, but their caretaker doesnt live on site so this is not possible without significant extra expense. Following a discussion at the last local police tasking meeting, the police agreed to see if they could look after the locking and unlocking.

We agreed to wait for their response, and make some further checks on the status of the passageway, and discuss the issue again at the next meeting of the Ward Committee - which will be on Wednesday 6th January 2010 at The Scout Hut to the rear of Scanlons, 264 Spring Road, B11 3DW. Hopefully we can come to a conclusion on the gating issue then.

The need to make improvemets to Fox Hollies Park has been discussed at several recent Acocks Green Ward Committees. As a result I fixed up some meetings with the local Parks Manager and colleagues from the Environment Agency and the locla Wildlife Trust.

One of the initial fears was that Westley Brook, which runs through the middle of the Park, is badly polluted by what are known as ‘missed connections’ upstream. These happen when people improve their homes but dont connect new pipes to the sewage system. However while there probably are a few missed connections there clearly arent many as the water quality in the Brook is not too bad with Sticklebacks in its deeper channels.

In order to assess the overall state of the Park, we used some Community Chest funding to pay for a SLINC Survey. Areas of Fox Hollies Park are officially a SLINC - or Site of Local Importance for Nature Conservation. Getting the Survey done, identifies priorities for improving the plants and wildlife in the Park and is essential as evidence for funding bids that might be made for investment in the Park.

The SLINC Survey uncovered 151 plant species in the Park and evidence of 22 species of animals using it (other than humans!). It recommended that the area of the SLINC be extended to take in more of the Park, which is a really positive statement, with some really valuable wetland and developing wooded areas. Japanese Knotweed was found in a couple of locations (to the rear of gardens in the north west and south east of the Park), and this needs managing to prevent it spreading.

Other recommendations from the Survey included protecting the wetland by stopping trees growing there and drying it out, installing some bird boxes to increase the diversity of the bird life in the park and increasing the area of uncut grassland.

If you would like to get involved in the work to improve the Park - or would like a copy of the SLINC Survey, let me know. I have another meeting set up to discuss the findings of the Survey, and will report back from time to time on our progress via this blog.

The next meeting of Acocks Green Ward Committee will take place at 7pm on Wednesday 4th November in Severne JI School, Severne Road.

Aside from the routine agenda items there are two issues for discussion - the first is a report which recommends the recognition of the Fox Hollies Green Neighbourhood Forum and grants it £1,200 for its running costs in the current financial year. The second item is a verbal update, by the Ward Support Officer, on the issue of gating in Langworth Avenue. Copies of the full agenda will be available at the meeting.

This evening I had a very enjoyable time at The Inn on the Green, taking part in the Hazelwood Road Residents Association Charity Pub Quiz. My team, which  was made up of Cllr Iain Bowen, Trevor Wagg, my daughter Lizzie and myself were always in contention and with a very lucky final round managed to inch our way ahead of our nearest competitors to win. Many thanks to Greg Mason for organising the event, the Inn on the Green for providing a very tasty chicken curry and everyone for taking part. We also did our bit for charity, raising £53 for The Seeing Dogs Alliance; you can find out more about them by clicking this link

Somehow I doubt it, but it is interesting to see the Labour MP for Hodge Hill has today made the same point about rising unemployment in the East of Birmingham as I posted yesterday (see below).

The report on the Birmingham Post’s website says: 

“MP Liam Byrne has warned that east Birmingham urgently needs investment, following the announcement that vanmaker LDV is to shift assets overseas.

Mr Byrne (Lab Hodge Hill) said he was “gutted” at plans by LDV’s new owners to end manufacturing in Birmingham, threatening thousands of jobs.

He called on politicians and business leaders to work together to prevent the east of the city sinking into unemployment and poverty.”

For the full report click here

I agree with the main point Mr Byrne is making, though I’d say its too late to “prevent the east Birmingham sinking into unemployment” - it already has. What we need to do now is to take action to turn its fortunes round. With public sector jobs inevitably going to decline in the coming 2-3 years (as the Government, of which Mr Byrne is a member, tackles its huge deficit), we need to encourage private sector jobs in growth industries into the east of the City. It won’t be easy and its certainly true to say we all need to pull together to make it happen. It will be interesting to see what the Government will be doing to help in these straightened times.

Several local groups have come together to campaign to save two of Acocks Green’s finest buildings: 42 and 44 Flint Green Road. There is a planning application, currently out for consultation (reference 2009/04327/PA) until 29th October 2009. This application would involve the complete demolition of these two buildings and their replacement with a development of a total of 11 new 4 bedroom dwellings. I strongly believe that while redevelopment of the site is to be welcomed, it can and should be done in a way that protects our heritage and does not simply sweep it away.

The groups working together to try to save these buildings are Arden Road Residents Association, Flint Green Road Residents Association, Acocks Green Focus Group, Acocks Green Neighbourhood Forum, Flint Green House and Birmingham City Mission. I will be actively supporting their campaign and joined in their meeting earlier this week which shared views on how best to save the buildings. We were heartened to hear the following comments from the City Council’s local Conservation Manager:

“This  scheme is undoubtedly a retrograde step both in terms of the loss of these buildings and the design of the proposed dwellings …  The proposed scheme would be extremely incongrous in terms of scale, massing, form and detailed design and would not contribute positively to the street scene.”

There are more details about the campaign on the Acocks Green Focus Group website (link to the left). If you want to support our efforts, please comment on the planning application, which you can do via the Planning Department’s webpage www.birmingham.gov.uk/planningonline.

The Hazelwood Road Residents Association will be holding a Charity Quiz Night at the Inn on the Green at 7.30pm on Wednesday 21st October. Teams of 4 are welcome to come along. It only costs £5 per head to enter, and a buffet supper is included in the price. If you are interested please contact Greg Mason on 0121 706 5056 

There was an excellent attendance at Monday’s meeting of the Fox Hollies Green Neighbourhood Forum. The main presentations were by:

Andy Chidgey from Transportation,  on the A41 corridor study. He reported that so far there have been over 100 responses to the consultation with the most common issues flagged being:

• The dangerous right turn from Stockfield Road into Warwick Road
• The problems caused by the short stretch of bus lane on Warwick Road running to the roundabout in Acocks Green Village
• The narrow pavements in parts of Acocks Green Village

While most of the issues raised by the study are long-term, Andy confirmed that the bus lane should be removed before too long - it was put in as part of a bigger scheme that was abandoned due to public opposition. There is little value in it being there and it causes a lot of congestion and some problems for buses turning right on the roundabout.

Melinda Brown, our Town Centre Manager, gave an update on the work of the Acocks Green Village Partnership and urged residents to support their local shops, by trying them first for Christmas Shopping, before heading into Solihull or the Bull Ring.

Sgt Dave Mirams then gave an update on policing in Acocks Green. While Crime figures in his Tasking Area (the Village and residential areas nearby) have fallen by 10% in the past year he stressed that more emphasis is being given to public satisfaction with the police. As people are particularly concerned with Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) an ASB car has been acquired that will only respond to ASB issues and will give a 999 style response after 2pm, in order to get to grips with the problem. It has led to 10 arrests in the past month and will hopefully make a significant difference.

Finally there was an interesting presentation on the Park Ranger Service and a suggestion that a Friends of Fox Hollies Park should be set up. This is a great idea and would support the work being done to try and win funding to improve the facilities and natural value of the park. Anyone interested can contact the Fox Hollies Green Neighbourhood Forum (see contact details to the left under community groups) who will support the process.

It was great to see so may people at the meeting, as usual I picked up some items of personal casework too, which I will report back on directly to the residents who raised them with me.

I’ve just discovered  - and corrected - a bug in this website. The forwarding email address for the ‘Report a Problem’ and ‘How Can You Help’ forms was mistyped by one letter. As a result if you have sent anything to me this way it has disappeared into the ether. Many apologies for this and if you resend it to me now, it will get through fine.

This coming Saturday, 26th September, the 260th Birmingham Scout Group are holding a coffee morning in support of Macmillan Cancer. It will take place at the Scout Hut on Spring Road (behind Scanlon’s) from 10am to midday. Please feel free to turn up and support the Group.

Another well attended meeting of the Acocks Green Neighbourhood Forum this evening. There were presentations from Bari Aziz, Ward Support Officer, Jeremy Shields and John Green from the Council’s Waste Management Team and John Hemming the local MP came along and answered questions.

Amongst the issues raised in the meeting included two contentious planning applications. One for Pinfold House (just over the border in South Yardley Ward) seeks to vary previous conditions to allow the development to go ahead before Pinfold House itself is renovated. This application 2009/04258/PA is open for comment until 30 September 2009. The other application is to erect eleven four bedroom homes on the site of 42 and 44 Flint Green Road (at the junction with Arden Road). This application 2009/04327/PA is open for comment until 7 October 2009. If you are concerned about these applications you can view them online on the Council’s planning website www.birmingham.gov.uk/planningonline Paper copies of the Pinfold application are also available at South Yardley Library and paper copies of the the Flint Green Road application are similarly available at Acocks Green Library.

Following complaints at the last Ward Committee (2/9/09) about dumped rubbish along the side of the walkway that runs from Clay Lane Allotments to Yardley Road, our Ward Team has done a great job in clearing it away. I have a couple of photos from the same location which show the improvement. 

The lastest unemployment figures are out and predictably they are not good. The national rate is now 5.8% and the Birmingham rate is up to 12.6% (Birmingham is now only 0.1% behind Liverpool and higher than all the other major UK cities). In Acocks Green we have had an increase of 5 to 1,344 or 12.1%. While there are now clear signs that the economy has turned and is slowly starting to grow again, unemployment usually keeps rising for a year or so after growth resumes after a recession. With the poor state of the public finances implying big real spending cuts in the next couple of years, this is likely to be particularly true this time.

A study is being carried out on ways to improve the Warwick Road and surrounding area. The aim is to make it better for those who travel, live, work and shop along this stretch of road between Solihull centre and its junction with the Stratford Road in Sparkbrook.

This study should not be confused with the work being done to look at how Acocks Green Village can be improved. However as the Village is a key part of the Warwick Road corridor, the two studies will have a significant impact on each other. It is in fact very useful that the much more extensive Warwick Road study is being done as it will ensure the Acocks Green Village enhancements, when they are done, sit within a consistent plan for the whole Warwick Road.

I have provided a link to the Warwick Road website - on the left of this page - and recommend you have a look there. There is also the opportunity to have a look at the study documents at a public drop in event in Acocks Green Library on Saturday 19th September between 11am and 3pm. Initially officers had not planned to hold this event but, together with Councillors Iain Bowen and Penny Wagg, I insisted that residents had the opportunity to look at and discuss the plans in person and I’m glad that the officers have agreed to our request. The internet is great but not everyone has access to it or wants to look at important documents online.

The monthly police tasking for Acocks Green South was held on 2nd Sept. The priorities set for the coming month were:

1) Tackling anti-social behaviour in Tibland Road. This will be kept as a priority following progress made on the issue during August

2) Tackling anti-social behaviour in Northanger Road. Again this is kept on as a priority following progress during August

3) Preventing cruelty to dogs reported to being trained to fight in Fox Hollies Park

4) Monitoring alleged nuisance from youths hanging around the new takeaway food shops on Lakey Lane.

The next tasking meeting will be help at Lakey Lane Primary School at 7pm on Wednesday 7th October

A quiet Acocks Green Ward Committee tonight - caused by the light agenda and the very bad weather  discouraging members of the public from attending. Two main items were raised by those who did attend. One was a spate of anti-social behaviour on the Yardley Road, particularly in the area around the canal bridge. The other was a petition handed in calling for traffic calming measures at Woodcock Lane Bridge. We asked for these issues to be looked at, with reports back, covering what action has and will be taken, at the next Ward Committee which takes place at Severne JI School, Severne Road at 7pm on Wednesday 4th November.

Earlier this month Stockfield’s U14 football team won the Sport 4 Life regional Streetgames football team tournament in Stoke on Trent - winning the final 6-1 to bring the trophy back to Birmingham. Well done to manager Ryan Shahriveri and all the team!

Unemployment rose faster in Acocks Green than in Birmingham - or the rest of the country for that matter - in July and now stands at 1,339, which represents a claimant rate (reckoned to be the most robust way of measuring unemployment) of 12.1%. It has risen from 7.8% a year ago (up 4.3%) which compares to a rise of 3.7% in the City over the same period. By comparison the national rate is now 5.8% These are the highest figures since 1995.

So far the recession has hit manufacturing industry hardest, and this explains why Birmingham and Acocks Green have seen unemployment rising so fast, as the City is still a centre for the sector. In the past year industrial jobs have declined by 453,000 nationally whereas public sector jobs have actually risen by 55,000. This balance is likely to be at least partially reversed in the coming year as industry starts to recover whereas the public sector has to make sharp cuts to bring the national budget back towards a sustainable level of deficit. The thinktank ‘Centre for Cities’ reckons that public sector employment could shrink by between 240,000 and 290,000 over the next 5 years and Birmingham will do well to avoid its share of these losses.

Birmingham City Council is doing what it can to protect jobs in the City but frankly these efforts can only mitigate at the margins when faced by the appalling mismananagement of the national economy between 2005 and 2008 by the Labour Government. Its crass belief that they had ended boom and bust meant no preparations were made for a potential downturn and we faced no reserves to cater for it. The results can be seen in the data showing our economy continuing to contract (by 0.8%) in the second quarter of the year, whereas the French and German economies, managed much more conservatively in the boom years, have already started to grow again.

After promising so much, the Labour Government has failed the unemployed and will almost certainly leave office with many more out of work than when it won power in 1997.