Hospital alarm

Alarming changes to our local hospitals will also be under discussion at the ward committee next Monday (that's 7pm at Rocky Lane Methodist Church, Monday 29th).
The project team are coming to explain their proposals. I'm not expecting to feel comforted.

The first wave of changes would strip children's wards and emergency surgery from City Hospital.

Then there's 2010 - or probably much later than 2010 - when they plan to replace all major services at City and Sandwell Hospitals on a new site in Grove Lane, Smethwick.

I spoke on this subject at the city council meeting two weeks ago and was interested to discover that the Grove Lane they mean is the one at Cape Hill, not the one that runs down from Soho Road. There are no maps in the consultation documents to explain.

Local people use both hospitals. My children were all born at Sandwell Hospital. Grove Lane, Smethwick, is approached via the Rabone Lane industrial estate from north west Birmingham. I've used that route a few times, it's a useful cut-hrough but we've also had some nasty bumps along there. I guess the ambulances might use the motorway.

Also alarming when Good Hope, our third local hospital, is going under the wing of Heartlands. I was on the community health council when City and Sandwell were sandwiched together under the same management. We were assured repeatedly that it was purely a management reorganisation to save on the costs of bureaucracy. Some of us were pretty certain it was not - and how right we were. If City had gone under the same management as Good Hope the new hospital would be going up in Witton, by Spaghetti Junction, and THAT'S WHERE IT SHOULD BE! A few years ago in fact there was a report in the papers warning that the region could end up with one super-hospital at just this site. No chance!

Our constituents in Witton are even more worried as many do not have cars. I talked to one whose child regularly uses the children's ward at City Hospital. Now she will have to travel to West Bromwich. How many bus changes is that?

The problem, if you follow my argument, is not that NHS managers keep trying to change things. It is the utterly pointless and endless reorganisations that take place. So we end up with short-termism dressed up as long-term strategy. All that is taking place at the moment is being driven by the inadequate funding of health services for west Birmingham and for Sandwell.

The plan also involves proposals for a chain of community hospitals, including one placed somewhere like Witton. I like it in theory but get alarmed when they try to suggest that casualties could be diverted to these hospitals.

When I spoke at the council I reminded the council of some history. That when the General Hospital was closed in the early 90s, people were told city centre emergency services would be provided by Dudley Road Hospital, which was then renamed City Hospital. In addition a minor injuries unit was open on the site of the General Hospital. The minor injuries unit was hardly used and closed within a year or two.

There is already concern about the staffing of the five community hospitals. And once the public realise they are not open 24 hours they lose confidence in them and cease using them. Exactly the same fate as has befallen our local police station and neighbourhood office (which however continues to provide a good service to many people, I hasten to add). In addition, how is somebody with, say, a sprained ankle supposed to know which kind of hospital to use? How do they know whether it's just a muscle sprain or a broken bone?

Jon

A chat with the new park warden

A walk in Perry Hall Park today and a chat with the new park warden Jez Lilley.

What a great appointment this is! He is brimming with ideas both for Perry Hall and for Perry Barr Parks.

He has already opened up a new "avenue walk" from the Perry Avenue car park. There is an avenue of trees tucked behind Derrydown Road which Jez has identified as an old Victorian Avenue so he has made a walkway through from the car park and has plans to create more natural features along it. So please don't kick the piles of leaves he's made. In a year or two they will be breeding beautiful butterflies.

He's also been taking a look at the old Chinese water garden and confirms that it was built as just that. Now he's thinking about how it can be restored.

In Perry Barr park he's getting involved in the project to clean up the lake and has hopes of setting up angling lessons for local youngsters.

Jez and the parks team will be coming to the ward committee meeting next week to tell us more.

The meeting's at 7pm at Rocky Lane Methodist Church on the 29th.

Jon

Trolley watch

We have been doing an intensive trolley watch for a few weeks now. Last week we reported a total of 8 trolleys on Cliveden Avenue.

Abandoned trolleys are the blight of modern society. A quick search on the internet gives details of how the rest the of world is trying to cope with the problem.

As local councillors we have been battling with Asda for some time trying to get them to take responsibility for their trolleys. It must be costly for them to keep losing them.

We have been told that the trolleys have wheel locks that operate when the trolleys are taken out of the vicinity of the supermarket. With the amount of trolleys we have dumped in the ward it is obvious this is not working.

A tour of the ward this weekend turned up two trolleys both in the Perry Hall area. They have been reported and we will be checking to make sure that they have been removed.

If you see an abandoned trolley, contact Asda on 0121 344 4550.

Buses and tolls

One story all week in different guises.

OnTuesday the city council meeting received a report on bus use, identifying measures to improve the popularity of buses.

We know what needs to be done - better safety and better routes but have little power to do it. I'm hoping and have been pressing for the West Midlands to be allowed to do what London does and franchise bus routes. That would mean the bus companies having to agree standards and fares to get a bus route. TWM and its owners National Express is dead against this and demonstrated this by hiking fares by 25 per cent this month.

One local resident told me the other day that buses are by far and away faster than a car to commute into town - but he won't use them because they are so smelly and uncomfortable.

My comments in my speech to the council, condeming this "utter disgrace", were widely quoted.

But I went on to talk about the other side of the coin, the proposals for road pricing. We pledged not to be too party political on this blog but the local MP has decided to try to make the issue political, accusing us of overstating the case by describing the congestion charging proposals as "official". Well, they were the main charging proposal in the consultation document Gridlock or Growth issued in the autumn and financed with some £2 m of public money. The government wants the West Midlands to introduce some form of road pricing by 2014. Is that official enough?

I remain hopeful we can nip the toll proposals in the bud. It is true there is probably no local political support for them - but the councils do not have any alternative to offer the government and the highly paid consultants who drew up Gridlock or Growth could not think of anything better.

On Thursday the Liberal Democrat shadow transport secretary Alistair Carmichael MP came to visit the West Midlands and, after a meeting with councillors, I brought him to view the M6 running over the Beeches Estate. His first comment, as he saw it approaching from a distance, was "this was Stalinist planning, wasn't it?". Yes it was and we're trying now to get a change in attitude from the public authorities.

Alistair's message was the sooner or later the system of taxing for vehicles will change.Petrol will run out and global warming is already a major problem. But we must get the solutions right and crude, badly thought out proposals get us nowhere.

I drove him back to the station on the M6, mostly all the along the boundaries of Perry Barr ward to Spaghetti Junction, and up the Aston Expressway which delivers cars straight into Birmingham city centre.

Jon

Cycle Speedway

As local councillors we were concerned when we learned that the Birmingham Monarchs were having problems with the track in Perry Hall park especially when they failed the cycle speedway inspection. As soon as we were aware of the problem we contacted the Monarchs to find out how we could help.

We will be working to try and come up with a package of funding from the council and other organisations such as Sports England to make sure that the club is kept up and running.

There are a number of reasons why it is important to keep the club running.

Firstly, the Monarchs have a long history within Perry Barr and Birmingham and are the only club in the Birmingham area. They have a hard working team at the club that are committed to the sport.

Secondly, we have a number of young people hanging around street corners complaining that they don’t have anything to do. We have been working actively to provide more facilities for our young people in Perry Barr allowing them to have a variety of activities to choose from within the ward. Cycle speedway will have a part to play as one of those range of activities.

Thirdly, the Birmingham Brummies motorcycle speedway will be returning to Perry Barr in Birmingham and although they are different there is a link between the two sports. It would be a major disappointment to see the cycle speedway finish just as motorcycle speedway is returning.

The Leisure, Sport and Culture Overview and Scrutiny committee will be doing a review that will be looking into Sports Development within Birmingham taking into account the Olympics in 2012. The committee have identified the need for more sports facilities for our young people to promote overall health, fitness and well being.

We will also be looking at how feasible it is to get the BMX track in Perry Park up and running again.

Karen

Happy Christmas!

I was pleased to take part in the Aston schools' carol concert at Aston Parish Church last week.

Groups of young people from primary and secondary schools throughout Aston and Nechells sang songs. This ranged from the gospel sounds of Heartlands High to a brave stab at a Partridge in a Pear Tree from a primary school in Aston. It was a wonderful multi-ethnic celebration of a special season.

Birmingham has been slandered this year as people continue to recycle the story of how Christmas was renamed Winterval several years ago. Very few of these reports make it clear that Winterval was abandoned and that, indeed, the current administration of the city council has made a point of restoring Christmas.

Indeed at the last council meeting it was a Muslim councillor who proposed the motion of "Happy Christmas" to the people of Birmingham.

Following the Aston Carol service the local councillors were at the inauguration of the new priest of St John's Church, Perry Barr, in the evening, Rev Crispin Palling.

Our colleague Ray Hassall is a cabinet member for leisure and during the speeches he made a point of emphasising the Birmingham is celebrating Christmas again.

So a happy Christmas to all in Perry Barr!

Jon

Tree removals

This is a list of roadside trees due for removal in the ward. If you see any other tree being removed please let us know as we should have been notified of all removals. With one exception they are all dead or dying.

47/49 Curbar Road
178/180 Curbar Road
14 Curbar Road (said to have outgrown location)
subway, Booths Lane
111 Booths Lane
45 Cramlington Road

First zone charge petitions go in

I submitted the first 200 signatures from the petition against the congestion charge zoning to the West Midlands Passenger Transport Authority today (Monday). Another 500 will be submitted to the City Council today.

They have been coming in fast and we can submit further tranches in January.

Simultaneously the Liberal Democrat group, which I lead, submitted a motion calling, amongst other things, for an alternative and workable scheme of road pricing to be submitted to the government. The government is determined the West Midlands will pioneer road charging outside London and its spokespeople, Advantage West Midlands, stated on Saturday in the Birmingham Post: "It is not a case of if but when. We are determined to be in the first wave of trials". So much for consultation!

We also continue to stress that the current public transport plans are misconceived. Buses need to take people where they want to go and need to be safe and pleasant. Continuous investment in our own A34 Walsall Road (ie plumping a Metro on top of buslanes and red route) is not going to help local people get to jobs on the A38 corridor, for instance. To do so you have to walk up the steep hill in the city centre to change buses. What nonsense, especially for professionals who may be carrying laptops late at night!

There was no chance of our motion being accepted as it was critical of the PTA leadership for its handling of the Gridlock or Growth so-called consultation and, quite seriously, of the lack of accountability of the way very large sums of money is being spent on consultants. They were asking for another £1 million today.

But we got some promises of a proper PTA debate on the matter and a good look at alternatives in the New Year. The new Centro/PTA chief executive Geoff Inskip is a bright spark, poached from Manchester, and is beginning to sort out some of the problems he has inherited. I sat on the recruitment panel. He stressed that he recognises the need for a great deal more thought about the nature of road pricing and also how investment is attracted into public transport beyond the £2 billion on offer from the government.

On the subject of congestion zones, I stressed that Gridlock or Growth had failed to offer any feasible schemes of road charging for this region. Its best idea is the congestion zones and they would be a disaster, particularly in the way they would hit the poorer suburbs of north Birmingham.

Jon

Thornbridge Avenue bus shelters

One of the local papers reports the police plans for a dispersal order on Thornbridge Avenue. The aim is to target those gangs of young people who are causing a nuisance or worse - not those that are just hanging around with their friends.

A few weeks ago a new bus shelter was installed outside Bamfylde Place and the glass repeatedly smashed.

Centro should replace it with plastic - I was there when they agreed this policy - but have sent me a letter saying it has only been smashed once. So I'll be getting back to them on this.

I saw it smashed once and local residents and traders say it was smashed at least once more.

Jon

Dangerous dog-owners and some good news

The first piece of good news is that the police have interviewed someone about the dog attack in Perry Hall Park.

At the police neighbourhood meeting at Rocky Lane Methodist Church, on Thursday night the police were at pains to stress that there is no exceptional dog problem in the park.

Certainly concern about men with dogs is being reported quite widely now, not by any means just in this park. One or two residents have stated they have heard dog fighting in the park. That does not mean it is organised or routine.

There's been a lot of media coverage of the attack this week after the family decided to release a picture of Harvinder's injuries. Radio WM turned up at 7am on Tuesday morning in the half light, dragging Jon out of bed for an interview, and were a little spooked by seeing the park in this light.

The truth is it is a beautiful park, enhanced recently both by the river widening project and by the exceptional voluntary work of Norman Ball.

And the good news...The new park warden has been appointed and will undertake a couple of weeks induction before beginning full time duties in the park. He is said to be enthusiastic about his role and we all look forward to him bringing fresh ideas to this facility.

ASBOs for dumpers?

This was the idea we raised at the ward committee on Monday night with residents from the Witton end of the ward.

We were all disgusted by the state of one of the streets in the area when we are on it about ten days ago. I'm not going to name it but residents are all getting leaflets through their doors from the environmental warden.

It's not as if this is a road that's been neglected. It's been spring-cleaned and had plenty of attention from the environmental warden. The problem is there's one or two residents down there who think they can simply dump all their rubbish on the pavement. There was an enormous pile of household rubbish - not even in black bags.

So we've asked for action to be escalated. Video surveillance can be used to catch dumpers. Why not an ASBO? They're used for every other kind of public nuisance.

Jon

Queslett Road

The rapid development of the new housing estate at the St Margaret's site is causing problems.

The developers have put in their "own" set of traffic lights, granted to them by the planning inspector, blocking off Booths Lane.

This has, local residents reckon, doubled the traffic trying to turn on the Queslett Road using the opening facing Nova Court, causing not just chaos but hazards, in particular when traffic from the Scott Arms direction accelerates towards the new lights.

We had a meeting about this earlier this year with cabinet member Len Gregory and it was agreed a second set of lights would go in at Nova Court. The problem is the city council is lagging behind the developers who are proceeding at a rate of knots.

We'd asked - and thought we'd got - some temporary lights at this junction but this has turned out be impractical. I've now asked for measures to slow the traffic on the Queslett Road and also some decent markings and signs to reduce some of the confusion.

The only good news is that the manager in charge on the Birmingham side doesn't hide away so by the time it was raised on Monday night at the ward committee we had an answer and at least some assurances that new measures would be looked at. It was, understandably, raised again on Thursday night at the annual general meeting of the Booths Farm Neighbourhood Forum.

Jon

Dog attack

The three councillors returned together to Perry Avenue on Wednesday night to find two young men trapped behind the gates of Perry Hall Park.

At first it was hard to take in what had happened to them - but it rapidly became clear that they were soaked in blood and that they had suffered very real head and facial injuries.

The young men said they had been attacked by some men with a dog whilst taking a late night walk in the park following a visit to the Garden Gate pub in Handsworth Wood. They were clearly shocked and very miserable.

After calling the emergency services, we got some ladders from Jon Hunt's house and helped them get out of the park. The police arrived, promptly, as they came down the ladder. The ambulance took a little longer to arrive.

One of them is now facing major surgery in hospital and we wish him all the best for his recovery.

It appears they were attacked somewhere near where the River Tame runs under the railway, knocked to the ground with a baseball bat and then the dog set on them. The police believe it was a straightforward robbery.

Even if this is so, using a dog for this purpose is not straightforward and will confirm the fears that many people have that fierce looking dogs have become not just fashion accessories for some people but weapons of intimidation.

I know the police are reviewing the Dangerous Dogs Act which was passed about ten years ago to see what powers it gives. This will send shock waves amongst users of this park and of other public areas ( see earlier posting on Thornbridge Avenue). I just hope it does not undo the good work that is underway in deploying local officers, such as park wardens, neighbourhood police, police community support officers and our ward's environmental warden to try to make our public places feel safer and more pleasant for users.

Recycling

How is it going?

We have been contacted by some residents with questions about recycling and will be posting further details in the near future.

Let us know what you think about the scheme.

Grit Bins

Do you need a grit bin on your road? We have another five to put out this winter in Perry Barr ward.

Over the last couple of years we've managed to get bins to most of the danger spots, especially those that had lost bins when they were cut back a few years ago.

If your road tends to be forgotten please let us know.

Thornbridge Avenue

The police confirmed today they are looking for a dispersal order on Thornbridge Avenue.

We're giving it qualified support as this area needs respite. A big effort has been made to try to keep things calm here but problems continue to crop up. In particular recently new bus shelters have been vandalised.

The youth service is concerned that local young people meeting their friends will be victimised. The police assure us their aim is to deal with the real troublemakers, including a number of groups who have been bringing dogs that appear to be quite aggressive.

Alongside this plans to reopen the youth "pod" on Hassop Road are well advanced. All we are waiting for is an electrician to connect the electricity.
This will enable the youth service to take young people off the streets and give them a haven.

This came up at the Perry Barr Neighbourhood Tasking Group which is a newish body, aiming to push forward some of the things that everybody knows needs doing. It seems to be working as the aim is that people should do things between meetings rather than just talking about them.

Jon

Perry Hall Park

The SMURF project reshaped the River Tame through Perry Hall Park, widening its banks and making it wildlife friendly.

Upriver there was quite a wide lake created with shingle beaches. When I first saw this the river was flowing fast through the lake and it seemed unlikely many wildfowl would settle there.

Consequently when somebody flung a shopping trolley in I had mixed feelings - as I had some hopes it would create an island on which birds could nest.

I went to look at the lake yesterday and in the last few weeks it has changed. The river has carved a course through the shingle beach, leaving an island which is gathering mud and I think will soon start growing plants.

Somebody has thrown in something that looks like an industrial trolley. A separate island is forming from a branch and a coot seems to be settling there. Nothing has happened to the shopping trolley and I think it is time it was removed - before next year's nesting season.

So it is possible that an area of reeds and marshland will develop in the middle of the lake around the shingle island - or even an archipelago, a cluster of islands, with the river flowing round the edges.

We had more about SMURF at last Thursday's Perry Barr distict committee. It has moved on to the bureaucratic phase of reshaping planning rules to try to limit exposure to flooding.

That will not solve current problems, like the tendency of the culvert that runs from St Margaret's alongside the motorway through Perry Park to flood.

Jon

Wheelie bad idea

Here's a headline we've used on our Focus a few times.

The issue has been stirred up again because apparently a scrutiny committee has been pressing for wheelie bin pilots to be allowed in some areas.

Advocates of wheelie bins tend to try to link them to recycling. In this area we know it's not the case as we have been pioneering Birmingham's recycling scheme - without recourse to these monster bins.

In case anyone's in doubt, these three councillors will continue to resist vigorously the introduction of wheelie bins. It's all very well to talk about pilots but we know what happens in those circumstances - complicated schemes get introduced which lead to people in Great Barr losing out.

Not just the paths to the houses but some of our roads are incredibly steep. We would see bins lying on their side.

There is a need for continuous education about disposal of rubbish - but that appears to apply with wheelie bins too. Hence threats of prosecution for people who put the wrong items in bins.

Some people continue to misuse the new recycling facilities in this area. Others are understandably confused as the programme has been rolled out with amazing speed this year - first green bags and then, for many households, boxes for plastic, cans and bottles. But most people have taken to the new facilities with enthusiasm and the majority of complaints we get are from people who have been excluded from the scheme.

Jon

More on those toll road plans

Quite a few calls are coming in about the congestion charging proposals now as their enormity sinks in. People are calling for additional petition forms too.

One or two have asked for more information and the full report can be found here. Details of the zone charging "example" are in chapter six.

The deadline for responses is much sooner than I had realised and is December 30th. It is likely there will be a second round of consultation following this.

So we need petitions back by the beginning of December!

Road charges and youth

Two discussions of interest to me and to this area at the city council today.

The first was a report about West Midlands Passenger Transport Authority.

I spoke and expressed my alarm at the handling of the congestion charging proposals. They are meant to be out to consultation for public debate - but there is precious little sign of the public being involved.

As things stand the proposals would mean tolls on Beeches Road, Thornbridge Avenue, Queslett Road, Aldridge Road and Brookvale Road - all along the line of the M6. They would divide communities and penalise this area. In addition our PTA group does not think the proposals do nearly enough to improve bus services.

We are circulating a petition on Focus so please sign it if you get a copy.

After the meeting I read in the Evening Mail that Len Gregory had committed our coalition to oppose the charges. He doesn't think a workable system can be devised. All the indications are the government is relying on the West Midlands agreeing to something - and is pushing for it sooner rather than later.

Most local people who have taken it in are staggered by the proposals. Yet it's one of those things that will happen if it's not nipped in the bud.

The second topic was a major report on youth services produced by members of the education scrutiny committee and by a group of young people.

At last arrangements for youth are starting to come together in our area. The youth club at Trehurst is open most of the time and is thriving - after the community centre spent about two years battling with red tape to get their work done. Similarly the "Pod" on Hassop Road is about to open its doors. That will enable the youth service to get local young people off the streets - and where their lives are in turmoil ensure they get what was described by one of the young people at today's council meeting as a "second chance". It's good that we have active police teams on the streets now but for most young people, once they start hanging out on the streets, it would be better if their first encounter could be with the youth service rather than the police.

Jon