1 May 2008 Local Elections - Selly Oak Ward

My fellow ward councillor Alistair Dow was re-elected to Birmingham City Council in yesterday's elections. Thank you to everyone who supported him.

The full result was:

Alistair Dow (Lib Dem) - 1948
David Williams (Labour) - 1274
Andrew Hardie (Cons) - 889
Peter Tinsley (Green) - 319
Trevor Shearer (BNP) - 176

Details of all the Birmingham election results are available on the internet here.

Registration deadline approaches for 1 May elections

There are council elections in Birmingham on 1 May. If you have not already registered to vote then the deadline is 16 April.

If you are on the Register of Electors then you should already have received details of how to vote on 1 May.

To inform the council of a change to your details on the electoral register, or find out more about the 2008 elections, go to www.birmingham.gov.uk/elections or call the elections office on 303 2731.

Further information about electoral registration and voting is also available at www.aboutmyvote.co.uk.

City Council Meeting - 1 April 2008

The agenda for the City Council meeting on Tuesday 1 April 2008 does not yet (at the time of typing) appear to have been published on the internet, but will hopefully appear shortly here.

Items on the agenda include:

• the annual report of the Cabinet Member for Local Services and Community Safety - Councillor Ayoub Khan (Lib Dem, Aston Ward);
• the annual report of the Standards Committee;
• an annual report from the Chairmen of Constituency Committees (or at least three of them);
• Housing and Homelessness plans;
• the Children & Young People's Plan 2008-2011; and
• Scrutiny reports on Tackling Domestic Violence and Regeneration in South West Birmingham.

Get Biking in Birmingham – consultation on the cycling strategy

Birmingham City Council and the Health and Well-Being Partnership are developing a new strategy to encourage more people in Birmingham to cycle more often.

The new draft cycling strategy has been developed with the aim of encouraging more people to cycle more often by:

• promoting Birmingham as a cycle friendly city;
• encouraging people to switch to bike for one or more journeys as part of their CO2 reduction pledge;
• cycling for health and encouraging participation in cycling;
• business support to help encourage cycling to work and as part of company business; and
• renewing the emphasis on improving the quality of Birmingham’s Cycle Network.

As part of the consultation on the new draft cycling strategy the City Council wants to hear views from interested groups and individuals, whether they cycle (or not) to work, to school, to the local shop, as a leisure or sporting pursuit. The consultation closes on Wednesday 30th April 2008.

A full text version of the draft cycling strategy and supporting documents (including the summary document and consultation questionnaire) are available at: www.birmingham.gov.uk/cycling

Trees on the former Pebble Mill site

The former BBC Pebble Mill site is currently vacant (following the demolition of the BBC Pebble Mill buildings) and waiting for the development of the new University Science Park. You can see from this picture that it looks a little bleak (although it was taken on a dark day):

The site is not in the Selly Oak Ward, but the Bourn Brook (which is on the far side of the site in this picture) forms the northern boundary of the ward and the site is obviously of interest to local residents in Selly Park, particularly those on Oakfield Road whose houses are on the other side of the Bourn Brook from Pebble Mill. Some trees on the site have been cut down recently and there were some concerns about what was going on. However, it does not seem to be as serious as first thought and there is some encouraging news about future tree planting in the response from the responsible Planning Officer, which may be of wider interest:

"Following detailed discussions between the City's Tree Officer and Calthorpe Estate's Arboriculturalist, the tree works were agreed in 2007, for completion during the winter of 07-08. The City's Planning Ecologist and our Landscape Officer were also closely involved with these discussions and the works' approval.

The outline planning consent attached conditions to address tree surgery, tree removal, and any compensatory tree planting. The Arboriculturalist's subsequent tree survey identified all trees on site and assessed their condition and retention value. This survey also identified root protection areas with respect to future development, and a number of preliminary tree works to be undertaken prior to the commencement of the science park construction.

Many of the trees located on the Bourn Brook and Chad Brook were identified to be of poor quality and, due to their species type, if retained would have been likely to suffer stem and basal failure. Therefore, the trees had to be managed, after many years of neglect, to ensure the site was safe. Many trees have been coppiced to a low level, which in essence should stimulate new growth and allow for good future management.

While resulting in a short term loss of vegetation cover, there will be longer term benefits across the site as the trees re-grow. Given that tree removal and surgery has been mostly along the brook courses or other site boundaries, there has been little or no advantage for the developer in terms of extra land for construction. Also, the City required new tree planting entirely away from the surgery/removal areas, eg a line of heavy standard Liquid Amber and London Plane trees on the boundary adjacent to Eastern Road where there are only a couple of insignificant trees at present. The new trees should be in place within the month.

We appreciate that the loss of trees will have an impact on the local environment and ecology in the short term, but the City's Tree Officer emphasises that the trees have been considered from the earliest possible stage and all works have been agreed by him and the arboricultural consultant working on the project. He considers the surgery, removals and new planting to be proactive management of the trees on site, ensuring site safety and vegetation longevity."

Selly Oak Constituency Committee - 18 March 2008

The agenda for the meeting of the Selly Oak Constituency Committee on Tuesday 18 March 2008 has now been published and is available online.

The meeting will be held at 7pm in the Brandwood Centre, 157 Allens Croft Road, Kings Heath, Birmingham.

Items on the agenda include:

• Planning Enforcement;
• an update on Community Safety;
• an update on the Neighbourhood Advice and Information Service;
• a report on improving Library services; and
• a report on improvements to the local environment.
  

Living in LAA LAA Land

I attended a briefing session earlier this evening on Birmingham's Local Area Agreement (LAA) for 2008-2011.

A Local Area Agreement is basically a deal between central government and Birmingham (the Council and other local organisations) to achieve certain targets. In return, central government is supposed to allow greater flexibility for local organisations to implement local solutions.

Be Birmingham (the Birmingham Strategic Partnership of the Council, statutory agencies such as the Police, Fire Service and the local Learning & Skills Council etc and voluntary organisations) is currently finalising the LAA. Partners in Birmingham have agreed 19 priorities and are in the process of agreeing 35 national indicators against which targets will be agreed with central government by the end of March / beginning of April.

The key issue discussed is how partners will work together to achieve the agreed targets. The aim is that projects will be influence and delivered locally, particularly in tackling unemployment and deprivation. What we as councillors need to try and ensure is that this happens as partners develop the action plans to achieve the targets that will be signed off by central government in June. For example, Council Scrutiny committees are expected to be given new powers to consider how partner agencies are working to achieve the targets in LAAs.

The reduction to 35 indicators is supposed to be part of a lighter touch approach by central government. However, as well as the 35 agreed national indicators, there are 16 compulsory Education indicators and any local indicators that may be agreed. In addition, the Council will also be expect to monitor its performance against the rest of the 198 national indicators and statutory agencies will also have their own targets. So it's not being simplified that much!

Changing Rooms in the Selly Park Recreation Ground

The portable changing rooms in the Selly Park Recreation Ground next to Raddlebarn Road (bad picture above) are a valuable and well-used resource, but they have been covered in graffiti for some time.

The Parks department recently applied for a renewal of the planning permission for the changing rooms. Following representations from local residents and myself, planning permission has been renewed with a condition that the changing rooms be painted with dark green anti-graffiti paint within the next three months.

The portable changing rooms now have temporary planning permission until the end of February 2011 (the long term aim is construct suitable permanent buildings on the site).