The budget this coming year will be tight, as it will for all parts of the public sector. Indeed the situation for local authorities is so tight that the Government has helpfully provided some guidance for us, in a report produced by the leaders of pretty well the last two flagship Labour Councils left (to be precise Sir Richard Leese, leader of Manchester City Council and Sir Steve Bullock, the elected Mayor of Lewisham). One might imagine that as a Lib Dem I would be sceptical of such a report but actually its not at all bad, and once again demonstrates that Local Government, of whatever colour, is often ahead of central goverment in terms of efficiency and best practice.

The thrust of the report is that the task of the public sector should be to defend front line services and find every way it can to cut out costs, to make these services more efficient. And this is what we have done our best to do with the budget.

Take Acocks Green Library as a good case, and one that there has been some debate about recently. With Customer First (itself a big driver of efficiencies) reducing the numbers of staff needed in the Neighbourhood Office, the decision has been taken to close Botteville Road, and co-locate the Neighbourhood Office in the Library. This can be accommodated in the Library without harming the services the Library offers. Naturally, before I would agree to the move, I checked it out with Mike Byrne, our Librarian and he commented “I believe we can ‘change’ by accommodating the Neighbourhood Office without losing any valuable services at all.”

The real point of doing this is that every pound saved in this way, reduces the pressure from making cuts to frontline services. And the Library is a great example of the benefit of this. When Labour last had control of the Council, it was open 39 hours a week. Now, under the Lib Dems it is open 50 hours a week. As a result, over 25,000 more visits to the Library are made each year. If we hadnt made the efficiency savings we have made, in the past few months, including co-locating the Neighbourhood Office with the Library, we would probably had to go back to Labour’s 39 hours and deprived all those people of the chance to use the Library.

A disappointing part of the evening was the lack of any real opposition. As far as I could tell there were no Conservative activists in the audience at all - amazing when you think they have ambitions to form the next Government and had the sitting MP for the old Yardley seat up until 1992. There were a handful of Labour activists in the room, and they did make some criticisms of the budget, but they failed to propose an alternative, just as the Labour Councillors had failed to do in the Council Chamber, when the Council’s budget was set last month. When the Lib Dems were in opposition, we always came up with an alternative budget and identified cuts to fund extra spending we wanted. This gives the electorate a real choice and allows a better debate about each party’s policies.

Much more positive was an example of a big improvement in service in an important area - the fight against graffiti. We heard that by getting many services to coordinate their approach a big reduction has been achieved in the amount of the City suffering from graffiti - from 18% to 9%, beating the city-wide target of 10%. Acocks Green has been a big beneficiary of the new approach. In January and February there was a ‘deep clean’ of the ward, with 1,400 tags removed, and more graffiti resistant paint added in areas prone to tagging, such as the Warwick Road. As a result Acock Green’s score has improved from 20% to 2%. Of course it will be hard to keep it that low, but real progress is being made and its a great example of how the Council can deliver better services, even at a time of real financial pressures.

The main items on the agenda (from an Acocks Green perspective), which looks to me like being busy one, are as follows: 

• A report on the state of the finances of the Consituency for the current financial year
• The budget for 2010/11
• An update on Building Schools for the Future
• An update on Operation Paragon - the reorganisation of the West Midlands Police
• An update on the anti-graffiti strategy
• A briefing note on 44 Sherbourne Road, Acocks Green

This is the last Constituency meeting before the local elections, and the anticipated date of the General Election. Because of this, I’m sure there will be a full and lively debate on many of the topics. I’ll report back on how it goes!

Japanese Knotweed was introduced to the UK by the Victorians as an ornamental plant, but soon escaped from gardens and began a rapid and damaging spread throughout the UK. It is so hardy it can burst through tarmac and concrete, causing costly damage (estimated at £150m per year) to pavements, road and buildings.

In Japan the Knotweed is less damaging that here, due to the actions of natural predators who help keep it under control. One of these predators, an insect called ‘Alphalara itadori’ has been chosen for release here as the one most likely to cause damage to the Knotweed and little else.

At first glance this may sound like a good idea. However members of the Committee, including me, were not impressed. Our concern is that it doesnt seem to particularly clever to deal with the unintended consequences of the introduction of a non native plant species - by introducing a non native insect. The insect may have been tested on 90 different UK plant species - but there are thousands of plant species - not to mention insect species here. How can we be sure that there will not be another damaging unintended result of the introduction of ‘Alphalara Itadori’?

Moreover while Japanese Knotweed is a pest, it is pretty well under control in Birmingham, due to the repeated application of appropriate weed killers. We seem to be taking a big unnecessary risk by the introduction of this new insect.

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.

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. 

Other good news was that the Cresswell Road flats - facing Lakey Lane as well as Cresswell Road - were bought by a developer earlier this year and are due to be renovated and brought back into use as flats within 12 months. It will be great to get, what is currently an eyesore, back into use.

The priorities set for the coming month were:

1) Severne Road Primary School - in particular dealing with parents who drive their kids to school and are not prepared to follow the rules of the road when they drop them off. We were told that a pushchair was knocked over by one car recently.

2) Anti Social Behaviour at the junction of Nailstone Crescent and Roydon Road.

3) Anti Social Behaviour in Northanger Road.

This was the last meeting, before the Police reorganisation means their operational areas will be aligned with the Council’s Ward boundaries. This will help co-operation between council agencies and the Police and is something I’ve long argued for. However in our case it means that we will lose Tom O’Keefe - our Sergeant, who will be moving on. Tom has done a great job for the past couple of years, so I’ll be sad to see him go and wish him all the best, wherever he moves to.

The damage will be very expensive to put right. This time last year, the Council set a budget of £4m for winter repairs. This has been upped to £6.1m, a vital increase, but another pressure on the Council’s budget. The extra spend will help. Longer term the Highways Maintenance PFI, which starts this year, will increase the level on investment in our roads and, over a 5 year period, will get them all up to a standard where they will be better able to resist a harsh winter.

In the meantime there are two things you can do to help. One is to call 303 6644 to report any particularly badly damaged roads that are not getting any attention - though of course it will take some time to get round them all. The other is simply to take more care, when driving or cycling. Driving a little more slowly is not only safer but gives you more time to avoid that unexpected pothole. 

I dont want to repeat the full 4 hours of debate about the Budget here, but I thought I’d just post a few specific comments, given some of the the things that I’ve heard said about the Budget in recent days.

A key issue is the nature of the efficiency savings. Are they really efficiency savings or just cuts in services dressed up as something more palatable? Well having looked at the details I am confident that most are cuts in bureacracy and not services. Many areas of the Council do have top heavy management (in part, to be fair, to deal with the ludicrous levels of reporting required by Central Government) and cutting this is certainly overdue.

Why, some people ask, are such big savings needed anyway, when the Council Tax and Government Grant have gone up modestly and pay rates (the Council’s biggest cost) are not likely to change this year? The reasons for this are complex however key issues are:

• The ongoing costs of implementing Single Status, which has had immense costs on the Council’s pay budget. Single Status is the right thing to do to make pay rates fair, but pay reform is alway expensive, as those who lose out have to be protected. The Labour Government made Single Status mandatory but underfunded the costs. Seeing this, when Labour ran Birmingham they delayed implementing it until the lost control, leaving it - as a huge unpaid bill - for the current administration, which is now being picked up.
• Increasing costs, caused by changes in policy and population changes, particularly in children and young peoples service and adults and communities. We have more and more older people who need more care each year. We also have more children in our City, due to a recent increase in birth rate and more of those children need looking after in residential care which is very expensive.
• A steady stream of new initiatives from Central Government, which all Councils have to implement but are not fully funded. A good example, which will make things even worse if it happens, are the current proposals by Labour for free personal care at home. This is being underfunded to the tune of at least £250m natonally or £5m for Birmingham (and there are risks it will be much more). In other words what they give in one hand they take back with the other.
• Unlike Central Government, The City Council has no legal right to do anything but set a balanced budget. When faced by a severe recession, which cuts its income and increases the demands on services, it cannot run a deficit. There is some wriggle room with some costs allowed to be capitalised (turned into debt), but the rules on this, means its a limited option.

One other thing that has been said, that needs clearing up, is that the need to make savings only applies because Council Tax rises are being restrained. The maths on this argument simply doesnt add up. Each 1% on Council Tax raises around £3m for the Council. The Government has put a cap on rises Councils are allowed to impose of 4%, which means even if we had gone to this maximum, we would only raise another £6-7m, or around a mere 10% of the savings needed.

As I’ve said before, the other big pressure comes from knowing that things will only get tougher in coming years, as Central Government starts to get to grips with its deficit. There is no point trying to muddle through to better times, because they arent coming anytime soon. Better to get on with it and start to look for more savings, which will certainly be needed this time next year, whoever wins the Election.

Councillor Barbara Jackson, also rode the route on Monday and says that as the bus approached Acocks Green Village there were 12 passengers on board on her trip. This is important as an average of 6 passengers per trip are needed to keep the subsidy.

Frustratingly, road works on the Stratford Road, by the Health Clinic, were causing some delays today. Its also clear that many people do not yet know about the new route so useage will be light at times. But the road works will end soon, and as awareness grows, useage should grow too.

A full network review of south east Birmingham, with extensive consultation, is what is needed to address all the problems with the bus routes caused by National Express’ recent changes. We have secured a promise that we will get that review in the autumn. In the meantime, the 40 is a good first step to improving services for Acocks Green residents.

Seasonally adjusted unemployment rose to 12.9% in Birmingham, from 12.8% in December and 10.5% a year ago. This compares to the national rate, which is now 5.9%. In Acocks Green the undajusted figure rose by 24 in the month to 1,360 (or 12.3%), which is up 298 on the year. These figures continue the trend we have seen in recent months of the rise in Birmingham continuing albeit at a slower rate than before, while the national rise has come to a halt.

The other figures published this month point to a very difficult future. Retail sales fell much further than was forecast in January. A fall was expected because of the bad weather but they fell further than was predicted. Even more gloomily the government borrowing requirement in January was very bad. Normally the government makes a surplus in January due to the timing of tax receipts. But this year, even this factor did not prevent a borrowing requirement of £4.3bn in the month.

The rapid rate of growth of the national debt is simply unsustainable. While it would be better for growth, to hold off spending cuts for as long as we can, to do so for too long is to risk a downgrading of our debt and then enforced cuts as Greece has had to endure. So deep public sector spending cuts are coming soon, whoever wins the election. As a result it is hard to see a rosy future for unemployment unless the private sector can grow quickly to take up the slack.

The legacy of the Blair / Brown Government, which they claimed to have ended boom and bust, seems more and more likely to be a long period of economic stagnation and high unemployment. The answer, as Vince Cable has said, lies in having a credible plan to tackle the deficit, which the markets believe and will allow us to keep investment going. This can buy us the time to avoid us to having to cut too hard too soon.

There is a way through the economic fog but it will take a skilled operator to lead us there. For me that is Vince - not the Labour leaders who have led us into the mess we are in and certainly not the Tories who seem to be thrashing around, this way and that, for a coherent economic policy.

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.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Shadow Climate Change Secretary, Simon Hughes said: “For those of us who really care about the environment and the future of our planet the Tories have demonstrated once again that there is no reason to vote for them. Cameron the PR man likes having his picture taken with huskies, but when it comes to governing this country the Tories have never made the climate one of their priorities.”

A key reason why I am a Lib Dem is that we have always have put the environment at the heart of our policies. We arent just interested in it when its popular. We are committed to action to protect the environment because its right and because urgent action is needed in the face of resource depletion and damage to our natural environment. In Birmingham we are making big steps forward, most recently through the Green New Deal, which tackles unemployment and increases the energy efficiency of homes and other buildings. In the General Election we will argue for the same level of action on a national scale.

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.

Since your Lib Dem Councillors heard of the changes, we have worked hard to restore as much of the lost services as possible. Led by Cllr Iain Bowen for Acocks Green, Cllr Paula Smith for Hall Green and John Hemming MP applying some impressive pressure in Westminster, several meetings have been held with National Express and Centro.

While National Express would not move (and as a private sector operator are under no obligation to do so if they dont think it will help their profits), we managed to obtain a subsidy for a new route, the number 40. This subsidy is based on some residents in Acocks Green being put over 400m from a bus service by the withdrawl of the 41. It was not easy to come up with a route that met the various rules you have to comply with (you are not allowed to run a subsidised service that competes with a non-subsidised route). However after much work by Cllrs Bowen and Smith, Centro have approved the 40 as meeting these rules. 

The new 40 will run on a ‘use it or lose it’ basis - basically it will need an average of 6 people per trip to keep its subsidy when it is reviewed in 6 months time. It will run, on an hourly basis, from The Baldwin to Robin Hood Island, then the Gospel Oak, along Lakey Lane, Shirley Road and Dolphin Lane to the Warwick Road and Acocks Green Village. From there it runs to Spring Road Station, down Cateswell Road, up Stratford Road (stopping at Hall Green Health Centre) and then back to Cateswell Road via York Road and then back to Acocks Green and then The Baldwin on the same route it came. The first service leaves The Baldwin at 0731 and the final service back leaves Hall Green Health Centre at 1656. It will run Monday to Saturday.

The 40 does not replace all the services lost by the 41 but is the most that current rules will allow. To make more fundamental changes we need a change in those rules. This is what Yardley’s Lib Dem MP, John Hemming, was calling for when he raised the issue in Parliament. Labour MPs jeered him for doing this. Perhaps this just reflected their frustration at seeing an effective local campaigner in action and a fear that more of them will lose their seats to hard working Lib Dems in the coming election.

And there is one issue that dominates above all else at the moment. Cuts. Every Council up and down the land is facing daunting levels of cuts over the coming 3 or 4 years. The reason is that central government has to reduce its deficit significantly over this time. But all parties have pledged to protect spending on the NHS and other key services such as education. All fine and good but if you do that, the cuts on other services - many run by local Councils, become proportionately bigger. Around 20% across Council services according to many forecasters. In London that means around 25 - 30,000 redundancies.

In Birmingham the Evening Mail has estimated that around 7,000 will lose their jobs over the coming decade. Estimates for that far into the future are no more than guesses, but it seems consistent with the London picture I saw earlier in the week. Cuts of this scale overwhelm any efficiency measures a Council can realistically deliver. Whats more the pressures that have built up this year caused by the implementation of Single Status (which is a good thing in principle, but hugely costly in practice) and the increasing demand on social care (from both young and old people) have meant many of the less painful measures have already been taken.

Its not going to be much fun running any Council over the next few years, but if anything, good management becomes even more important in difficult years such as these. It may not be a problem of our making, but Councillors and Officers will have to work as hard as we can to minimise the impact of these cash cuts, on the services we provide to the people of Birmingham. The very first step should be no pay rise for any of us this year. In fact I’d like to go further with anyone in the Council earning over £50k taking a pay cut. This won’t happen, but I think it would be the right thing to do, I strongly believe the top Council staff earn too much and when its at the expense of their colleagues’ jobs and the services they provide the public, they should take a cut in those pay levels.

In July last year a metal detector enthusiast discovered the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold ever found, in a Staffordshire field not far from Birmingham. News coverage of the find was huge - and over 40,000 people queued to see the Hoard in Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, before it went to London for study by the British Museum. The Hoard includes over 1,500 incredible objects - all apparantly drawn from the battlefield and displaying breathtaking craftmanship, from a period of our history described as the Dark Ages.

But for the Staffordshire Hoard, a final battle remains. We have just 12 weeks to raise the £3.3m needed to secure its future on public display in the West Midlands. If we fail to do this, the treasure will be returned to the finder and landowner and could end up being sold on the open market. But if we do raise the money, it will go on display at  Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery in Stoke.

I’m making a contribution. I feel that the Staffordshire Hoard is a priceless connection with our past and should be kept together near to where it was found. I’m also sure that it will act as a magnet drawing more visitors to our City, giving our economy a boost. If you want to make a donation you can do so online at www.artfund.org/hoard

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

1) Anti Social Behaviour (ASB) at the top of Edenbridge Road and Lakefield Close: Action has been taken with one youth who lives in the maisonettes in this section of Edenbridge road identified. He has been interviewed by the Police and Housing have issued first stage warnings for breach of tenancy against his parents. Other youths have also been identified and referred to the Birmingham Anti Social Behaviour Unit (BASBU) with first stage warning letters sent to all. These actions have led to a significant decline in ASB in the area but a close watch on the area will be maintained for the time being.

2) Parking issues around Lakey Lane School: Officers have partrolled the area and warned parents who have broken traffic regulations. Where these warnings have not been heeded fixed penalties tickets have been issued. In addition, following an idea from a member of the public a “Alcohol Restriction Zone” notice has been bought and put up in the alleyway between Stonehaven Grove and Lakey Lane. This appears to have reduced the drink related ASB in the alleyway.

Priorities for the coming month were set as:

1) Edenbridge Road / Lakefield Close: carried forward from last month as above

2) Tibland Road: Following a recurrance of the previous sporadic ASB in this area, letters will be sent by the Council’s Housing Department setting out tenant’s obligations to keep their children under control. They will be delivered by the Police and will hopefully nip the problem in the bud before it gets any worse.

3) Northanger Road: While the problem of ASB in the area is better than before sporadic problems continue especially around the Greenwood Avenue end of Northanger Road. Attention will be paid to the area by the Police in addition to ongoing work by the Council’s Housing Department to keep the problem under control.

The good news is that crime has continued to fall in the area, with 30 fewer crimes in the period Jan 1 to 29 2010 than the same period a year ago. Within these figures the number of burglaries from homes fell from 18 to 8. However there are ongoing reports of bogus callers in the area so please keep alert to the threat these people are to the elderly and report any suspicious people to the Police.

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

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. 

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.  

There was an understanding and acceptance from both National Express and Centro that the way these changes have been brought in was poor with a failure to hold any consultation about them. There was a promise that meaningful consultation would be carried out, for any future such proposed changes. This will involve locally elected members and other key groups having the chance to have their say, before any final decisions are taken.

There was also an acceptance that these particular changes will cause problems for specific geographic areas and groups of residents, in particular those visiting the Hall Green Health Centre (many of whom will now have to change buses). Oaklands School has lost its service and some other local schools will also suffer a significantly poorer service. Councillor Iain Bowen put forward a very interesting suggestion that most of these issues could be dealt with by running a circular service from Acocks Green Village, down Dolphin Lane, Shirley Road, School Road, up Stratford Road, Shaftmoor Lane and back to Acocks Green. This would need to run during the times people visit the Health Clinic or go to the local Schools.

Centro and National Express made no promises, however they did agree to look again at the changes, particularly in light of how they work in practice in coming weeks. So the door does remain open on the issue, which is probably the best we were likely to get as an immediate outcome from the meeting.

We agreed that, as the changes have most impact on Acocks Green and Hall Green, further discussions with Centro and National Express would be led, from the group of Councillors, by Councillors Iain Bowen (for Acocks Green) and Paula Smith (for Hall Green). Cllr Bowen keeps in touch with this blog, so if you wish to post comments here he will see them. Please do let us know how the new services work in practice (both good and bad aspects) so that we can feedback to National Express and Centro and keep the pressure on for an improved package of services.

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!

The main items on the agenda are:

• An update on the Constituency Budget for 2009/10
• The Constituency Parks and Open Space Action Plan, with Pat Terry, Parks Manager attending
• An update on Section 106 agreements in the Constituency
• The Town Centre Management Delivery Plan for Acocks Green, with Melinda Brown, Town Centre Manager, attending
• The report on School Admissions & Appeals that was to have gone to Acocks Green Ward Committee, at the meeting cancelled earlier this month due to the snow.
• A report on Conservation Policy, with Julie Taylor, Principal Conservation Officer, attending 

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.

Takeovers only usually make any sense when the company being taken over has major problems that the predator company can put right. This is not the case with Cadbury, which is one of the most successful and admired companies in the World.

Because of this, Kraft have had to pay over the odds for the company. While this may be good for the short-term interests of Cadbury’s shareholders (though in the long-term its very doubtful that Kraft can produce the returns that Cadbury have), its bad news for pretty well everyone else. To raise the money, Kraft will burden the business with debt. This will create immense pressure to cut costs and sell assets to meet the repayments. Bad news for future investment in Cadbury and its workforce. Bad news too for the communities where its factories and offices are based. Especially Birmingham.

So why does has it happened? Well with British takeover rules pretty well anyone willing to pay the asking price can buy any UK business quoted on the stockmarket. But there is lots of evidence that most contested takeovers fail to add value. Instead they seem to be more about boosting the egos of the managers of predator company, in this case Kraft. And of course Kraft’s investment bankers and financial advisors will earn a whopping great fee for their services.

It doesnt have to be like this. No German company could be taken over in this way. Their company ownership structures embed real control with the local community (via the local and regional authorities) and the workforce. I believe it is time to move to a similar company ownership structure in the UK, so that wider interests than just those of shareholders, are protected. Sadly, any such reforms would now come too late to save Cadbury as an independent business.

For the Liberal Democrats the emphasis has been on Fairness.  The background for the new Government will be one of a painfully tight financial situation, with the need to cut the huge national budget deficit. Therefore a very sharp focus will need to be on priorities - and other things will have to be shelved until the deficit is back to a more manageable level. Our priorities will be based on what needs to be done to deliver a fairer Britain. To do this we will prioritise four pledges:

1) Fair Taxes: We will make the first £10,000 you earn tax-free. This will save taxpayers £700 and will be paid by cutting tax loopholes for the rich, introducing a mansion tax on the value of homes over £2m and switching tax from income to pollution

2) A Fair Start for Children: We will cut class sizes and allow schools more resources to tackle problems faced by disadvantaged children. We will pay for this by cutting tax credits for higher earners and stopping the flow of education gimmicks Labour has so loved.

3) A Fair and Green Economy that creates Jobs: We will invest in public transport, energy efficiency and new social housing. We will also break up the banking system and impose a bank profit tax while the banks are relying on state aid for their survival.

4) Fair and transparent Politics: We will reform the voting system to make sure parliament reflects the wishes of the people. We would also return more powers to local councils allowing local communities to make more decisions on matters that affect their local area.

Of course there is a host of policies below these headline priorities, but they give a good idea of the direction the Lib Dems are offering the country. I’m confident the more people learn about what we are offering the more support we will generate in the coming months. It certainly looks likely to be a very interesting and very important election, and one which could leave the Lib Dems with more influence in parliament,

Despite some stories in the press, Birmingham still has a reasonable amount of grit; plenty for another week of bad weather at least. However with the national situation getting difficult, the Government has set up the ‘Salt Cell’ to co-ordinate use of remaining supplies across the country. The ‘Salt Cell’ is made up of Councils, the Highways Agency, Central Government and Salt Suppliers. Its job is to look at the overall situation and ensure the grit doesnt run out.

All local authorities have now been asked to cut grit use in half to preserve stocks  and Birmingham has done this by reducing the flow rate from the gritters from 20g to 10g. Meanwhile 600mt of unrefined table salt has been bought by the Council. While this cannot be used by the gritters, it will be mixed with sand and used to refill grit boxes and treat pavements where there are resources to do this. This will help the road grit last longer.

So there is a strategy in place to last out the winter, but its at the expense of less grit going on the roads that we would usually have. So lets hope nature comes to our help and melts the ice and snow the normal way soon. And in the meantime a big thank you to the workforce who have manned the gritting lorries, going out night after night, for a record 28 consecutive nights (the previous record was 14 nights). Without doubt they have kept our City moving this past snowy month.

The classes are funded by the Football Foundation as part of Sport 4 Life’s large Street Sport project. There is a new qualified dance instructor and there are opportunities to participate in tournaments, competitions, performances and routines. There is also the chance for regular attendees to get their own personalised kit. A consent form is required for participants - this can be obtained from the instructor on the day.

If you want more details you can contact Sport 4 Life on 0121 429 4700 or tom@sport4life.org.uk 

My eldest daughter loved Street Dance when she was that age; its a great way for girls to get fit, make friends and above all have fun!

 1. Edenbridge road at junction with Lakefield close – One of the youths who lives in maisonettes on Edenbridge has been identified as cause /  encouraging groups to hang around his address and cause nuisance, this youth is further mentioned in a number of residents calls and police stops. His address is being visited jointly with housing with view to action being taken and parents advised re tenancy. This youth and his identified associates are being sent warning letters by the Birmingham Anti Social Behaviour Unit as first stage of actions to curtail behaviour. This youth / parents will be receiving a youth intervention referral for reasons as above with a view to forcing a change in behaviour.

 2. School Parking: Lakey Lane School – Officers have been patrolling at said times (2.45 - 3.30pm) with a number of motorists / parents being advised and further fixed penalty tickets have been issued when advice has not been heeded.

Because of the cancelled meeting the priorities will remain the same for the coming month. The next meeting will be in Lakey Lane School at 7pm on Wednesday 3rd February.

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.

To be honest it was a pretty disappointing meeting. It rapidly became clear that this was not a consultation meeting but to inform and explain what was being done. So, if we had any ideas of how things might be done differently (and we did), they would not be considered. This is frankly unacceptable. For such significant changes there should be a proper public consultation, before any changes become set in stone.

There are some good aspects of the changes - the extension of the 31 route to Solihull is something we can probably all sign up to. However the loss of the 41, unreliable though it may be, will have a major impact on anyone using the bus to get to Oaklands School, or to visit the Health Centre on Hall Green Parade. Bus users along many parts of the 41 route will be forced to change buses to get to the Health Centre, something the elderly find a major inconvenience. In addition the amended 12 route is being renamed the 3 for very little purpose (other than to confuse).

Apart from being unhappy at many of the changes and the lack of any proper consultation in their development, I am very concerned that bus users, especially irregular users, will be blissfully unaware of what is being done, until after it happens - and their bus no longer turns up. Information on what is being done has been very poor so far and it happens in just over three weeks. We stressed the importance of doing more, and I hope that National Express will respond with real efforts to let people know what is happening. Given the mess they have made of this whole exercise so far, I’m not that optimistic.

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.

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.  

In the first year fees will be scrapped for final year students, the year which is most painful for students to pay. In the following 2 years, part-time fees will be regulated and fee loans will become available to part-time students. In year 4 free tuition will be extended to all full time students except for the first year of undergraduate study. In year 5 the same will apply to part-time students and finally in year 6 all tuition fees, for first degree students, will be scrapped.

The cost of this will be met by a programme of cuts elsewhere in government, with full costings published along with the Party’s manifesto at the time of the General Election.

 There are two main reasons I think it was important to keep this policy despite the tough economic times we face. First is that fees act as a barrier to people from low income families participating in higher education. A debt of £20k - typical for students leaving Uni - is a much bigger worry to the child of someone on minimum wage than it is for the child of a doctor. 

The other reason is that it is simply wrong for the State to encourage people to get into a lifetime of debt. After they qualify students tend to earn more and pay more tax - these taxes are how I believe Universities should be funded.

With both the Conservatives and Labour believing we should keep tuition fees, it will be an interesting area of difference between the parties at the General Election in the coming year and one I think will benefit the Liberal Democrats.

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.

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

As I’ve said before, the crazy thing about it is that most of what we need to do to tackle climate change, are things that we will have to do shortly anyway, to respond to the rapidly decling level of global resources. Oil is the most important example, as much of our economy is designed around cheap oil and that is now pretty well history. Oil is currently trading at $70+ a barrel even though the world’s economy is staggering out of a traumatic recession. After the last global financial crisis at the end of the 1990s it was trading below $10 a barrel. The markets are telling us something about oil reserves, just as the dwindling arctic summer ice cap is telling us about global warming. So lets just get on with it.

The positive side of Copenhagen was away from the global leaders. Apart from the main summit were a number of satellite events. This included a series of events for local government leaders. A former work colleague of mine, Richard Sharland, who now has a senior role at Manchester City Council attended these and wrote as follows about them:

“For three days, the mayors and leaders of a hundred major world cities discussed the challenges of climate change, their ideas, plans, projects and responses and their shared focus on action and delivery. At no point did anyone question the need for urgent action or question their own individual - and shared - responsibility and there was a quite remarkable lack of competing, showboating or criticism.

This looked and felt like a team! They listened to each other’s plans, they openly encouraged plagiarism and replication, they fostered support for each other in a way that was uncontrived, open and positive. They discussed technical fixes, finance and resources, education and engaging citizens: they discussed mitigation and adaptation, economic opportunity and necessity: and they recognised they need to be leaders of substantial cultural change.

It was great to be there and be part of it. I wanted to share this and, in a small way, for it to be known: please feel free to share this note with friends and colleagues, particularly if they are feeling down at the news from COP15… people need to know that some leaders out there are focussed on making change happen, a good reminder that is the best place to put your head and your heart: just do it!!”

Councillor Paul Tilsley, Deputy Leader of Birmingham City Council, also attended and came back buzzing with new ideas to take forward here. This may be how it has to be. If the national leaders can’t sort it out, the rest of the world, but especially the leaders of the world’s major cities and businesses just have to get on with tackling the problem. Now. 

Woodcock Lane Bridge

The Canal from Lincoln Road Bridge

Olton Croft

“41: Service 41 will operate as current from Solihull station to the Swan at Yardley.  Following that it will take the existing 32 route to Acocks Green village, where this new service, numbered 42, will terminate.  The section of the old 41 along Stockfield Road will be served by a diversion of the 36/C, which will continue along Wharfedale Road until the junction with Stockfield Road, where it will turn right and serve the stops vacated by the 41.  Redstone Farm Road will not be served.  30 minute service.

12: Service 12 will be renumbered 3 and 3A.  The line of route will stay as is currently is until Stratford Road, following which the 3A will extend to Acocks Green village, covering a combination of the 41 and 32 routes along Stratford Road, Shirley Road, Lakey Lane, Gospel Lane and the existing 32 route to Acocks Green.  This will operate every 30 minutes.  Service 3 will continue from Stratford Road to Solihull Station along Streetsbrook road, again every 30 minutes, giving a combined 15 minute service on the core section of the route from Haslucks Green Road to the City.  This solution means new links are provided for communities in Shirley, Gospel Oak and Acocks Green.  A small section of Shirley Road and Dolphin lane will be unserved by the removal of the 41 in this area.  Customers who use the 41 from the Baldwin will still have the option of service 5.

32: Service 32 will be withdrawn - all roads are covered by other services.

31: Service 31 will be extended all day from Gospel Oak to Shirley Church, providing a new link from Acocks Green village to the heart of Shirley.  This will run every fifteen minutes during the day from Gospel Lane, Lakey Lane, Pitmaston Road, Solihull Lane and Stratford Road.  This option retains the link between Springfield and the Gospel Oak estate, albeit a longer route than the 41.”

National Express West Midlands believe these changes “give new journey opportunities to many residents in Solihull and Birmingham, as well as removing the complicated, unpopular and unreliable 41 service.” What do you think about what they are planning? 

Councillor Penny Wagg and myself plan to meet Mark Kipling on Tuesday January 5th 2010 to discuss the impact of these changes, as we have concerns about their impact. If you have any views, positive or negative, please let me know before then, so we can feed them into the discussions.

The bad news is that in Birmingham it rose 219. This a continuation of the trend of the past year, which has seen unemployment in our City increase more than other parts of the UK, as manufacturing industry - of which we have proportionately more - has suffered particularly badly in the recession. Its becoming a major concern that it hasnt started to recover yet, and we must hope it does soon.

There were more detailed figures published for youth unemployment this month. These show a similar, but sadly more extreme, picture to the overall unemployment levels. National youth (defined as 18-24 year olds) unemployment is at a seasonally adjusted rate of 14%. The West Midlands figure is 18.4% and Birmingham is an eye watering 25.7%. Again this is higher than any major UK city. Liverpool is second worse at 22%. Greater London is much lower at 11.9%.

One in Four is an horrendous amount of youth unemployment for Birmingham to be faced with. I’ve argued before that we need to be doing more tackle it. Some new national schemes are coming on stream at the moment. I dont think they go far enough, and national Lib Dem policy is to do more, but lets hope they do improve the situation significantly. Otherwise we risk creating the next generation of long-term unemployed.

• You can get a £5 day return ticket to London from Snow Hill or Moor Street. You have to book in advance using London Midlands’ “rapid advance purchase” system.
• You can also get a £10 day rover ticket which allows you to travel anywhere on the London Midland service.

These are special ticket offers the company has agreed following its failure to run Sunday services earlier this year. This emerged at the meeting of the West Midlands Integrated Transport Authority on Monday. There are 400,000 of the London tickets and just 50,000 day Rover tickets so expect to have to hunt around to find the offers. This is the London Midland site.

In further good news, the Lib Dem lead on the Transport Authority, Councillor Jon Hunt, has put through a ground-breaking deal to ensure the future of the Ring and Ride service. Centro has agreed to fund Ring and Ride for at least three years, enabling Ring and Ride to invest in new services and equipment, with a view to carrying more passengers more efficiently. If you have special transport needs and are eligible to use Ring and Ride, look out for special day-time trips such as shopping expeditions.

Prince Charles made a good point tonight at Copenhagen summit, when he emphasised that a world in which we tackle climate change will be a much safer, healthier, more pleasant world to live in. I do think its important to emphasise the positives of tackling climate change, not just the potential disaster of not doing so.

I also watched the first of Tony Robinson’s  ”Man on Earth” series (the Copenhagen summit means the tv schedules are full of man and the climate programmes). It was a fascinating look at how climate has changed in the past and the dramatic impact it has had on people. Most amazing was how the Black Sea was a relatively small inland lake, well below sea level, until it was flooded by the melting of the North American Ice Sheets. This raised global sea levels and enabled the Mediterranean to break through at the Bosphorus. This forced around 100,000 people to flee the rising waters around 8,000 years ago. A tiny foretaste of what will happen all round the world if the temperature rises enough to cause rapid melting of the Greenland or West Antarctic Ice Sheets. Of course back in the stone age there was enough room in the world for people to move to. If it happens in the coming century, it would be a little more tricky to deal with.

In Ireland the finance minister, Brian Lenihan, announced plenty of painful measures. Cuts in public sector pay and welfare benefits will save around 7% of government spending. Pay cuts range from 5-15%, disability benefit is cut 4% and child benefits by 10%. The positive side of this pain is that taxes are kept down and the budget should be back to a normal 3% deficit by 2014.

In the UK, by contrast, Alistair Darling glossed over the severe cuts that will have to be made. Indeed the extra spending he announced actually exceeded the extra taxation (£15bn more spending and £9bn more tax over the next 2 years according to the independent Institute of Fiscal Studies or IFS). Now there is a good argument to be made that we need to hold off cuts for a while longer, because of the fragile state of the economy. But we also need to make it clear what the strategy is for getting the deficit under control. If we dont the risk is the pound starts to fall as foreign investors lose confidence. If that goes too far, interest rates and inflation start to rise and it all gets very nasty - big cuts then have to be made on the markets timetable, not ours.

As the Lib Dem Treasury spokesman, Vince Cable put it “Alistair Darling should have laid out exactly where cuts would have to be made. Instead he chose to pretend that everything was fine and that he could carry on with tax and spend.” Well he can’t. According to the IFS the Treasury’s forecasts imply cuts in non protected spending areas (all except Education, the NHS and the Police) of 6.9% a year. Thats a 20% cut in real terms between 2011 and 2014. This means some very nasty reductions in services and is the real legacy of the Brown years.

For local government the prospect is grim. Local authorities are already struggling as the impact of the recession cuts income (with huge falls in fees from planning applications as an extreme example) and increases demand for services. In Birmingham this has been made worse by the impact of Single Status on pay costs. This Labour Government measure was hypocritically deferred by Labour when they ran Birmingham (because they knew how much it would cost) and had to be picked up by the Conservative Lib Dem Progressive Partnership. So next year looks tough. Then comes 20% cuts in the three years afterwards.

What do I think we need to do? Well for sure we will have to be ruthless about prioritisation and cut out any fat that remains. I also think there should be no pay rises for any public sector workers (including, naturally Councillors) until the crisis is past. Moreover the highest paid public servants (say over £50,000) should have cuts increasing in size with pay levels, up to 10% for those earning over £100,000. Finally I think even ring-fenced areas need to look for some savings. Its right to protect education, but even in this field some modest savings can be found. 

I strongly believe we need more radical measures like these, to protect services in the long-term. They won’t happen, because Labour’s biggest concern is looking as good as possible until the General Election and that means pretending things are better than they are. Unfortunately for the rest of us, this will only make the whole situation worse from 2011 onwards. And if this weekend’s polls are anything to go by, its very unlikely to help Labour win the election anyway. I just hope they call the election early, so we can get a new Government with a longer term view as soon as possible.

The priorities set for the coming month were:

1. Anti social behaviour - Mayfield Road
   Local residents have raised concerns that a group of youths are engaging in anti social behaviour and criminal damage in this area.
2. Inconsiderate parking - Wetherfield Road/Tyseley Lane
   It has been reported that vehicles are being parked in an inconsiderate manner on the pavement of Wetherfield Road and close to the junction on Tyseley Lane. This is creating a problem for people using wheelchairs or pushchairs and motorists pulling off their driveways.

Enough of jargon - what does the CAA say about how things are going in Birmingham? Well lots of things are seen as going well. The Council were praised in the organisational assessment for:

·     Increasing the number of adult social care clients receiving self-directed support
·     Improving educational attainment in line with the national picture and other similar areas
·     More consumers now feeling confident when buying goods or services in the city
·     Locally-based street cleansing teams exceeding Birmingham’s litter targets
·     More affordable homes being built than originally planned 
·     The Council Plan clearly setting out the authority’s strategic direction
·     Good use of natural resources
·     The ambitious Business Transformation programme improving services and making savings
·     A strong focus on tackling under performance

But the Council has work to do to improve some service areas including:

·     Health inequalities
·     Child poverty in certain areas of the city
·     Work to tackle unemployment
·     Children’s social care

This means that the Council’s overall CAA assessment is that it performs adequately.

There was good news for Birmingham with the award of two green flags for “exceptional performance or outstanding improvement in a specific area of work which others could learn from”. By contrast there was one red flag, which signals the Audit Commission has “significant concerns about results and future prospects that are not being tackled adequately”.

Birmingham’s red flag was given on the issue of ‘returning home after a stay in hospital’. One green flag was given for tackling climate change and reducing CO2 emissions. The other was awarded for working in partnership to meet housing need.

There has to be a health warning with external assessments these days - following clear failures by inspectors to pick up major failings in hospitals, not to mention some high profile failures by Ofsted to provide adequate warnings in the area of child care. However this overall assessment feels about right. Lots of things are going well, but in such a big organisation its not surprising that there are some areas that need improvement.

The full CAA assessment is available via this link.

1) Don’t leave presents on display; in particular avoid putting presents under the tree until the last possible moment.

2) If you are out at night leave a (low energy) light, radio or tv on, using a timer switch if possible.

3) If you go away ask a trusted neighbour to take in your post, close your curtains at night and leave a light on.

Please also look out for your neighbours. Offer to help with their post if they go away, and if you see them leave a door open or taking a chance in any other way, let them know. Lets do all we can to keep our neighbourhoods safe and the police as quiet as possible over the festive season.

Proposed by Lib Dem Group Leader Cllr Paul Tilsley and seconded by Lib Dem cabinet member, Cllr Ayoub Khan, the Declaration demonstrates Birmingham’s leadership in setting out plans to tackle climate change and prepare our economy for a future of much scarcer raw materials, such as oil.

The Declaration will mean the country’s biggest local authority will use its purchasing power to stimulate the City’s green economy, creating new jobs whilst reducing energy bills for residents.

The Declaration commits the Council, by 2015, to:

• Cut the City’s energy consumption by 25%,
• Buy 50% of the City’s electricity from renewable sources, 
• Ensure all vehicles bought by the Council are powered by electricity or LPG,
• Develop a network of electric car charging points, with at least 500 electric cars running in the City,
• Install retrofit insulation in 10% of City homes,
• Connect 10% of City homes to District Heating Schemes,
• Create a further 10 low carbon communities based on the successful Summerfield model.

I very much welcome this as a bold but achieveable plan for the next five years. It will take us a significant step along the way to becoming a low carbon, energy secure City, which is playing its part in tackling climate change.

New priorities set were:

1) Anti Social Behaviour at the top of Edenbridge Road (by the top of Lakefield Close)
2) Congestion around Lakey Lane Primary School caused by parking at the end of the school day

Anti Social Behaviour was reported to have declined in the priority areas set last month (Tibland Road, Thornfield Road and Northanger Road). Residents were pleased with the progress made by the neighbourhood policing team but agreed on the need to remain vigilant.

The next meeting will be held at 7pm on Wednesday 6 Jan at Lakey Lane Primary School.