Acocks Green’s Ward Committee meeting took place last night. It began in amusing fashion when the failure of Cllr Stacey to attend (without giving apologies) led to Cllr O’Shea (Lab) relying on Cllr Bowen (Lib Dem) voting for him to secure his election as Chair for the coming municipal year. Sensibly (and despite party differences the Councillors in Acocks Green usually are a fairly sensible bunch on such matters), Cllr Bowen agreed to do this and the main agenda of the meeting could be tackled without further ado. The issues covered were:

Appointment to outside bodies: Cllr Stacey was reappointed to the Stockfield Community Association and Cllr O’Shea was reappointed to the Acocks Green Business Improvement District (BID) Board.

Healthwatch Birmingham: We had a presentation by Healthwatch Birmingham, which is the new consumer champion for both health and social care in the city. It is an independent organisation designed to given a voice to the public in how health and social care are delivered. You can find out more about them here.

Community Chest Allocations: £3,000 was granted to the Fox Hollies Community Association (of which I am a committee member) to run a summer holiday play scheme. This will provide 2 weeks of activities for children aged 3-11. £200 was given as a contribution to the purchase of a Defibrillator for Acocks Green Village. This is a potentially live saving piece of equipment for someone who has a heart attack in the Village and needs very quick treatment. On Tuesday evening I was at a meeting of the Acocks Green Primary School Governors and we agreed that the Defibrillator would be one of the things the school raises money for in the coming hear, so it looks very promising that the money will be raised. Finally £300 was granted to the Millennium Green Trust to cover their insurance costs for the year. This is a regular grant which covers the cost of the insurance required by the Trust to allow the Millennium Green to be used by the community.

Then Planning Applications were discussed and the Committee objected to permission being given for another fast food takeaway on the Yardley Road, due to lack of adequate parking. Plans for a restaurant on the Warwick Road were also objected for the same reason and the impact on the building line of the road.

There was a report from the Ward’s Environmental Health Officer who promises action to deal with the rising tide of litter and advanced rubbish on the Yardley Road. She has also been trying to sort out problems with the Great Western Pub at the top of The Avenue by the Station. This pub has been vacant for some time, which is inevitably causing problems to local residents. There was some hopeful news here as we were told that the owner, Enterprise Inns, have recently taken possession of the pub from the last tenant. This should hopefully be the first step to it being brought back into use.

Finally the dates of future meetings of the Committee were agreed:

4th September at Acocks Green Baptist Church, Alexander Road
23rd October at Fox Hollies Forum, Greenwood Avenue
4th December at The Oaklands Primary School, Dolphin Lane
26th February at Severne JI School, Severne Road
2nd April at Acocks Green Library

We were told that the next meeting should see a presentation on the plans for the Glynn Edwards Hall. This is likely to lead to a bumper attendance, especially given the appropriate location for the meeting.