Local calendar

This is the picture we have used on our councillors' Christmas Card this year. It is by Albert Watts, a member of Perry Beeches Art Group. The art group has produced a wonderful full colour calendar of local scenes by local artists (Jon helped choose the selection). You can get a calendar for £6 by calling Jill Barnard on 358 0781

Vote for our local parks

Local people have been putting effort into turning our parks around - and we've been helping them.

Now we need everyone to take one simple step to make a big difference. Yes it's an on-line vote. You need to follow this link and vote for Perry Hall Park (called Perry Hall Playing Fields in true municipal style in the description).

This week we hope we, as local councillors, will be agreeing to renew our pioneering park ranger project. Only since August the ranger has been working in all our green spaces, encouraging volunteers, coming up with ideas for improvements and trying to make them happen.

Here are more details of the contest:


"2012 marks Her Majesty The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and we want to ensure that it is celebrated in fitting style. The Queen Elizabeth II Fields Challenge, operated by Fields in Trust, is a fantastic new campaign to protect 2012 outdoor recreational spaces in communities all across the country as a permanent living legacy of this great event.

From sports pitches to woodlands, children's play areas to gardens and bicycle trails to parks, the Queen Elizabeth II Fields Challenge will protect a diverse range of outdoor spaces ensuring that there is something to appeal to everyone.

Whether you live in a dense city or the middle of the countryside recreational spaces are the heart of any community and the Queen Elizabeth II Fields Challenge will ensure that these outdoor spaces are guaranteed for future generations.

Securing access to grassroots sporting facilities is particularly relevant given the other milestone event taking place in the UK in 2012 – the London Olympics. What better way to mark the greatest sporting show on earth?

The Queen Elizabeth II Fields Challenge will give communities an opportunity to vote for an outdoor space in their area to become part of the scheme and be permanently protected as a tribute to the Diamond Jubilee."

Birmingham Half Marathon

Karen will be doing the Birmingham Half Marathon on the 23rd October 2011. She will be raising money for the British Lung Foundation. Karen said "the training has been hard and I haven't done half as much as I should have as fitting it in with my work has been quite difficult but I will do my best to finish". If you would like to sponsor her see http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/KarenHamilton or look out for her on the route!

Welcome to our wardens

New lake on River Tame at Perry Hall Park mid-August,
showing growth of wildlife and plants on shingle island

We now have two new officers working on the ground in our community.

* Deborah Parsons, environmental warden. Deborah's already been busy tackling problems such as: abandoned skips, dumped shopping trolleys and flytipping.

She is one of Birmingham's most experienced and effective wardens and has powers to prosecute for dog fouling and litter dropping. She's also got a reputation for helping and will be working with residents on neighbourhood clean-ups and other local issues - as well as working closely with the local cleaning team You can contact her on deborah_parsons@birmingham.gov.uk or try to leave a message on 303 9812. Or simply call or email your local councillors, councillors@perrybarr.com

* Richard Weaver, park ranger. Richard is based in Perry Hall Park and will be working with the friends group there. But his brief also includes developing activity in our other parks, especially Perry Park and Kingdsown Park. Both posts are funded from the community chest which means Deborah and Richard are totally committed to Perry Barr ward - and will be accountable to the local community at community meetings.

Councillor Ray Hassall, Perry Barr ward committee chair, said: "I'm delighted to welcome these two officers and hope local people will get to know them and help them make our area a better place to live.

"Both will be working closely with the local police on issues such as anti-social behaviour and dog problems."

SUPER SURGERY PLAN

COLLECTING VIEWS
Local health officials are proposing to request planning permission for a new super-surgery for GP services at 481 Walsall Road (on the corner of Perry Park Crescent). The development would include 58 assisted living dwellings for the elderly. It will also mean three of our local GP practices move on to the one site:

•  Tower Hill Medical Centre
•  Great Barr Surgery, Thornbridge Avenue 
• High Trees Surgery, Walsall Road.

 We've been asking local residents what they think about this and replies have been coming back with a whole range of views.

 Here's some pros and cons:

•  Getting there on foot: harder for many, easier for some; 
• Getting there by car: many people will have to u-turn at Tower Hill and at Rocky Lane;
• Car parking: may be easier than at Tower Hill, depending on spaces ;
• Getting there by bus: about the same as Tower Hill and Hightree. The 51 and 952 stop close by. 
•  Medical services: we're told that some out-patient clinics and other services from hospital may move there - so this may be easier for some ;
•  Assisted living homes: this must be a plus for our community; 
•  Improved premises. Great Barr and High Trees are said to need 'major renovation'. 

 We'll be questioning the developers aat the next Perry Barr ward committee on Thursday October 13th. It's at 7pm at Perry Hall Methodist Church, Rocky Lane and all are welcome to come and participate. We'll be looking in detail at traffic implications and what might be done about them.

Councillor Ray Hassall, chair of the ward committee, said: "This will be a massive change in local GP services, which could deliver big improvements, and until recently only a handful of residents had been consulted. There are many issues to consider, especially making traffic access safe.

"There are also a number of people, especially the elderly and disabled, who are concerned they may now find it a struggle to get to their doctor's. We want to know what will be done to help them."

Birmingham’s Play in Parks Project

During this summer children and families are invited to attend Birmingham PlayCare Network’s Play in Parks project supported by Perry Barr ward councillors through a community chest allocation.

Play in Parks is an open access project providing play opportunities aimed at children aged 5 to 13. There will be a great range of playful activities and games for local children and their families

Rebecca Coley Project Manager for Birmingham PlayCare Network says; “This will give the children the opportunity to make dens, participate in team games, arts and craft and engage in messy play. We look forward to welcoming the public, please come and join us!”

The Play in Parks project will be at the following sites:

Calshot School - 08/08/11 till 19/08/11(excluding weekends)

Perry Hall Park – 08/08/11 till 12/08/11

Other locations in Perry Barr constituency:

Sandwell Recreation Ground and Hillside Recreation Ground – 01/08/11 till 12/08/11 (excluding weekends)

If you require any further information please contact: Rebecca Coley on 0121 236 2917.

Summer playschemes

We're expecting the usual annual summer scheme in Perry Hall Park to begin on August 8th for one week. Full details will be posted here when we get them.

The annual scheme which has run for many years at the end of July fell foul of budget cuts - so the ward councillors have stepped into agree some community chest allocation to support a week of activity.

In Turnberry Park there is  a playscheme running on Fridays from 3pm to 6pm until the end of July - for children aged from five to 13.

Tower Hill Library Campaign

Today Jon Hunt submitted 917 signatures to the city council's budget meeting in support of Tower Hill Library.

The library has been under threat since managers came up with a plan to close it for three months in December. We stopped that - but had to concede two days of closure including Saturday.

The argument was it was the least used library in the Perry Barr constituency. The figures were dodgy (based on lunchtime closures) and in fact it is the only library in the heart of the constituency. Nobody wants libraries to close anyway.

So what are the chances? The council's leadership has declared it is not closing libraries - but today's meeting agreed massive savings from constituency budgets. The constituency committee will discuss libraries later this month - and we predict another huge tranche of signatures will be ready for that meeting!

There are several things that can be done - even in spite of the massive budget cuts the council has to make. The campaign is winnable and, as councillors, we must make sure it is won - as losing this library would rip the heart from our community. Saving money on local council management and getting the council to put in place its plan for city-wide savings on library budgets (by using more automatic machines and cutting costs, not by closing them) are among the options.

Photo: Jon and Ray begin collection of signatures outside the library.

Bin bag pile-up

Residents who read the papers will have an idea of why so little refuse has been collected this week.

The refuse collectors are taking industrial action. On Mondays they strike and the rest of the week they "work to rule" - which means not doing overtime and various go-slow techniques.

The council has hired extra crews to try to clear the backlog but the combination of rubbish left over from the snow, Christmas rubbish and the go-slow has made this a tough job.

We're now being told the backlog in this ward will not be cleared by the weekend - as they are still working on the backlog from Monday and Tuesday.

We do not think this is acceptable. We are pressing the council to take on more temporary staff. We have made it clear to senior managers and leaders of the council that this area is taking a big hit. We don't think the council can buckle in to the industrial action which is about long-running issues over overtime, pay etc which must be resolved. Once this is settled the council plans to take on permanent extra staff to make up for reductions in overtime working (which had become a routine part of the working week and was effectively preventing the creation of extra jobs.).

We also think the snow was used as an excuse for not collecting rubbish (on health and safety grounds). This picture shows a private refuse collection vehicle using Derrydown Road. It wasn't a council vehicle but showed that a council vehicle could easily have got down that road in the week before Christmas - yet it was missed on that Wednesday. Thankfully the black bags have now been cleared from Derrydown after we highlighted this.

Many thanks to all those residents who have contacted councillors about non-collection. Believe it or not we want those calls! We have highlighted every complaint we have received and, as during the snow, will badger managers to take action on roads that are missed. So we do also want to know when a road does get collected. We are doing our own patrols but may not check every road. Drop an email to councillors@perrybarr.com

Tree planting ideas

The estates of Great Barr and Perry Barr were built in the woods on the edge of the historic Cannock Chase. Lots of trees survived the house-building and new ones were planted down the new roads.

This all helped to mop up the water and the hillside streams displaced by the house-building.

So for local reasons, as well as good global ones, we've been keen to retain trees and find sites to plant new ones. It's not always easy and sometimes the wrong roadside trees can annoy residents and cause serious nuisance. Shortage of parking space has also played havoc with trees as front-gardens have been up-rooted and drop kerbs installed.

Mostly residents like their tree-lined roads and the woody view from a thousand trees growing in back gardens. In one or two cases we've been able to support community tree planting - where residents have undertaken to help maintain new trees planted by the council.

Sometimes there's a stretch of grass verge which could take more trees - or a patch of land. There's nothing like a cherry blossom in the spring!

Do you have any ideas? If so here's a new on-line scheme from the Woodland  Trust to help you. It allows you to select trees and see how they would look on your photos.

Interested? Give it a try:  http://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/myview

New advice bureau arrangements

Councillor advice bureaux will continue to be on Wednesday evenings but there have been some changes of venue, starting this week.

The weekly advice bureau in Perry Barr/Great Barr will now take place at the Trehurst Community Centre between 7pm and 8pm. That can be found just behind the Neighbourhood Office building on Beeches Road.

A monthly advice bureau for the Witton area will take place on the second Wednesday of the month at 5.45-6.45pm at the Witton Community Centre, Deykin Avenue.

We are currently awaiting details of a venue for a new monthly advice bureau on the Yew Tree estate. In the meantime if you cannot make another venue, please call our office on 240 9689 to arrange to see a councillor.

Neighbourhood Office and Advice

Jon Hunt writes:
The future of the Beeches Road Neighbourhood Office has been under review for some time. Originally it was opened as a walk-in office but as residents know, its hours have increasingly shrunk and talks have been going on for some time about the best way to provide neighbourhood advice services..

As councillors we take a special interest as we hold our weekly advice sessions in the same office on Wednesday nights.

So I was a little shocked to turn up last Wednesday and see notices announcing it would close this Thursday on July 22nd.

I have contacted senior managers and as a result advice workers will continue to work from the office throughout the summer. They will only see residents by appointment however. If you need an appointment please call 303 1111. So final closure will not take place until the autumn.

Three questions to answer, then.
What's happening to advice services?
What's happening to the Beeches Road Neighbourhood Office?
What's happening to our councillors advice bureaux?

Advice services: these will mainly be by appointment in the future.This enables workers to manage their time and ensures no queuing. The advice workers tend to be expert in the benefit and housing system and if you need help with these, please do use their services and call 0121 303 1111 to make an appointment.

The management plan was to create a base at the Old Oscott community centre where advice workers could keep their appointments with local people.

We've said this is not good enough. There needs to be a base in the Beeches Road/Walsall Road area. Many users of services will need to use buses and we don't think Old Oscott is accessible to our constituents.

Beeches Road Neighbourhood Office:
This is a good building and we're pressing for it to be kept in community use. It's right next door to the Trehurst Community Centre, which is currently housed in a container. So that's one possibility.

Councillor Advice Bureau:
We're currently reviewing all our venues - as they all have to change - but intend to keep the same schedule as in the past. That is weekly at 7pm in the Great Barr/Perry Barr area, first Wednesday of the month on the Yew Tree estate at 5.45pm and second Wednesday of the month in Witton - probably back at the refurbished Witton Community Centre.

Because we've been using schools in Witton and Yew Tree, we've not been able to open in the school holidays recently. We're hoping we will be able to offer a holiday-time service soon. But please bear in mind we take holidays too - so we may not be able to open every week.

In the meantime if you want an appointment with a councillor during August please call our office on 303 4204.

Turnberry Woods clean-up

Snow and rubbish

The heavy snow in the middle of last week meant most of the rubbish collections were not done.

Crews worked on Saturday to catch up but didn't manage to clear the backlog. As today is bin day for most of Perry Barr, we hope most bags and boxes will be cleared today.

We're now asking residents to let us know which areas are worst affected. We know that in some roads bags have split spilling rubbish.

Most people realised collections were missed because of the snow and have been pretty patient. But please don't put up with rubbish on your road. Let us know! You can post here or email cllrs @ perrybarr.com . (You'll have to type out this email address as I've added spaces to prevent spam).

We have a good local cleaning team, which will tackle the worst areas. We also have access to extra help over the next few weeks - but we need to know where the problems are!

Happy Christmas and Best Wishes for the New Year

Delivery of the annual Christmas card and calendar is now well under way. And this year's has a historical mystery.

The photograph shows Perry Pool House, Perry Barr, pictured in 1909. But where was Perry Pool House? We have studied the 1890 maps of Perry Barr and cannot find a trace of it on the River Tame or by the pool in Perry Barr Park.

A day out over the holiday?

Would you like a day out over the Christmas holiday? Here are some offers you may not have heard about.

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 yesterday. 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 a second development at the ITA, Jon Hunt was pleased to 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.

* And there's more good news on public transport because for the first time in donkey's years, bus fares on National Express West Midlands - that's the old TWM - will not be going up in the New Year.

Queslett Road lights hold up

Today Jon Hunt raised the deadlock on the Queslett Road/Nova Court junction at the West Midlands Integrated Transport Authority.

As a result Centro is to talk to Sandwell and Birmingham Councils to try to get joint working resumed on this junction.

Queslett Road, as has been well reported, has had a tragically high accident rate in recent years with several unpleasant crashes near this particular junction.

Speaking to the authority Jon stressed that quite a lot has been done. New traffic light junctions have been installed at Netherhall, close to Nova Court, and at Asda a little further on. In addition there are speed cameras on this stretch of road.

However access to Nova Court and the estate around it remains hazardous.

At last month's ward committee, the Perry Barr councillors were told that Sandwell Council had withdrawn its support for lights at this junction, claiming they are not necessary any more. Birmingham officers said they are now looking at other ways to spend their share of the cash to improve safety here. However, without lights, this junction is always going to be hazardous.

The Transport Authority received a report on progress in the region which stated that:
1/ road casualty rates are still too high'
2/ the local authorities do not think there are many more major engineering schemes that can be put in place to deal with the problem.

Jon took his opportunity, asking who could "bang heads together" and gained backing from officers and members for taking up the problem.

Ward committee in Witton

Perry Barr ward committee meets on Monday at 7pm at the Methodist Church, Wyrley Road, Witton.

The main topic is the proposed Aston and Lozells Action plan. It proposes a new zoning arrangement for Witton, between industrial and domestic housing. We had some concerns about the plans we saw as they did not include Deykin Avenue School. We have been assured this will be corrected.

A second major issue is the fate of the Serpentine Site, which used to be a supermarket and is now a parking area for Villa and includes the Villa Leisure Centre. It was previously intended it would be for housing and leisure - it is now being zoned for industry and commerce.

Whatever happens, it needs cleaning up. However we are concerned it will leave the Yew Tree estate isolated and also that earlier plans to replace or develop the Villa Leisure Centre should not be abandoned.

Art exhibition

A terrific art exhibition by the Perry Beeches Art Group at St Paul's Church Hall, Great Barr, today, demonstrating some hidden talent in Perry Barr and Great Barr.

This group started just six years ago in the Trehurst Community Centre. They have had a little bit of community chest to help them along.

There were pictures to see - but the group has also produced its own calendar for next year.

Many of the artists had never believed they could paint before they joined the group. Yet all produced a range of excellent and interesting pictures in a range of styles. We understand that one of our Christmas cards inspired an intriguing painting of the old Perry Mill Farm, which stood roughly where One-Stop is at Perry Barr.

The photos here show secretary Jill Barnard with proofs of the calendar. It costs just £5 and can be obtained by calling Jill on 358 0781.

There's another opportunity to take up art on Wednesday nights, we hear. Classes are held at Great Barr School at 6.30pm. The contact is Mrs H Davies at the school.

Speedway Hopes and Trees

Two developments on Wednesday which offer hope of a rapid solution to keeping Speedway at Perry Barr.

Firstly during the evening the Speedway tested out the new reduced noise exhaust systems on Wednesday night. The aim is to reduce noise levels by about 10 decibels.

Jon and Karen listened at various locations and were pleased to note the way it reduced the volume of noise across Perry Barr. If you live in the area of the track we'd value your feedback (please email with your address ) on the success of this.

Earlier in the day Karen, Ray and Jon visited the track and met promoter Graham Drury to discuss further environmental measures.

This was an exciting and productive meeting. Graham is suggesting planting about 100 metres of fast-growing high conifer trees along the line of the bank of the River Tame. We've expressed concerns that the river is acting as an echo chamber - you can see in the picture behind Ray Hassall, there's a chain-link fence and then the river, which is flanked by factory walls. Once fully grown, this line of trees would help prevent sound reaching the river and screen the track from both the Nash Square and Cliveden/Teddington neighbourhoods of Perry Barr.

It would also have a big environmental impact. It would hugely improve the appearance of Perry Barr as you approach it from the Birchfield flyover and would provide a green, leafy backdrop to the stadium.

Ray said: "As everybody knows, I've made it my mission in recent years to get trees back into Birmingham. This proposal from the Speedway would make a big contribution as well as helping to ensure the noise from racing does not give residents cause to complain in future years.

"I shall be doing what I can to provide advice and support to Speedway to make this happen and have begun talks with our experts in the parks department."

He added: "During the three years I was cabinet member for the leisure department we increased the rate of tree planting from 1,000 trees a year to 3,000 trees."