'Warm banks' for Acocks Green
Liberal Democrat Councillor working for Acocks Green Learn more
by Roger Harmer on 26 September, 2010
Amey, who have the contract to maintain Birmingham’s highways, have appointed 6 consitituency stewards to be the first point of contact for community groups and councillors. The steward covering Acocks Green is Jason Bickley. He can be contacted on 0797 187 9059 or by email on jason.bickley@amey.co.uk. My experience of contacting Amey so far has been positive. Its early early days but so far they have responded quickly, and where they can, flexibly, which makes a huge difference in resolving problems. I’d be very interested in hearing other peoples’ experience of working with them so if you have had either a good or bad experience of dealing with them, to tackle an issue in Acocks Green, do let me know.
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There were widespread concerns yesterday that three mature trees in Yardley Road, Acocks Green might be felled after unclear notices appeared on the trees mentioning ‘Tree Maintenance’ and asking for cars not to be parked for 20 meters either side. The problem was that it was the weekend. The notices appeared late on Friday the 7th or early on Saturday the 8th January. They said that the work would be carried out starting at 7.30 am on Sunday 9th, and going on until 3.30 pm. This sounded suspiciously like tree felling. Despite attempts using phone numbers on their website, the phone number and email address, above and Amey’s Twitter Account, no one could contact Amey. Unfortunately Jason Bickley’s phone number has been found not to work. In the upshot members of Acocks Green Focus Group were able to speak to the party working on the trees this morning (Sunday 9th). Ben Cruck, Arbourist working for Amey was able to confirm that Amey are cutting trees back from properties and lifting canopies to six metres. Mr Cruck did take the time to explain things in detail and he was adamant that Amey will NOT be felling trees. He added that there is no policy to remove healthy trees, and they do not even have the equipment yet! This is all very reassuring. However, Mr Cruck did agree that the Birmingham City Council used to give more notice for events like this: usually around two weeks. Had notices appeared two weeks before this would have given plenty of time for concerned residents and local officials to check the situation, and we would have been able to avoid the situation that was averted only at the last minute this morning, were there could have been many people arriving to help protect the trees pending a proper discussion on Monday!
Jason’s mobile was originally wrong by one digit, but has now been corrected in the post above to 0797 187 9059, which is the right number.