Just heard that Asda staff are up in arms about this horrendously filthy and dilapidated underpass between Birmingham City University and the One Stop Shopping Centre.On the side next to Perry Barr station it is in the Lozells and East Handsworth Ward, but on the other side of the Walsall Road it is the Perry Barr ward. Perhaps the two sets of councillors ought to get their heads together and get the Council to clean up this aweful eyesore.

 Popping up to Rookery Road Fire Station the other day for a Patients meeting with our local NHS, I was horrified to come across this crazy situation.

 A refuse bin provided by the council outside the front door of  Dr Sharma's Surgery on Trafalgar Road Handsworth is suffering from an attack of persistent fly tipping caused in the main by the remains of fast food wrappers and drink cans left by the users of the ever increasing fast food outlets on Soho Road.This cul-de-sac is the perfect place for the locals to accumulate and socialise, although there is a Youth Centre on the other side of the cul-de-sac.They can drive their cars into the adjacent car park with full music systems blasting.

The council seems powerless to address this canker and Dr Sharma is keen to see the full force of the Law applied to this unhygenic affair.

A possible solution is to remove the bin to the Rookery Road end, or perhaps leave it where it is and clear it every day. After all a bin cleanse a day should keep the doctor away.

 

Tonight at the Perry Barr Constituency Councillors meeting,with 12 residents (that's a  good public turnout),the 10 councillors present heard an update presentation from Panikos Panayiotou,who is Sports Development Manager. He explained that we are priviledged to be running a pilot scheme based on the Holford Drive Community Sports Hub, which could be rolled out across the City. Basically it involves lots of sports clubs getting together under one "roof" and sharing the facilities. You can learn more about it on their new web site, http://www.icesportn-hobham.co.uk/

Also present tonight was our new young councillor Waseem Zaffar, who was busy Tweeting this message- "Presentation from the Sports Development Team in Perry Barr - worked with 12,840 young people since 2005 http://t.co/vo0Cxkq".

Even our two poorly councillor turned out too,Don Brown and Hendrica Quinnen,to support him. There were lots of sticky questions thrown at Panikos, but his team managed to bat straight boundries, and avoid the Councillors' googlies. 

 

Together with Heart of Birmingham PCT, who are funding the project, 4000 patients will be identified and asked if they are regularly taking their prescribed medicine. These are the target groups, Dyslipidaemia, Type 2 diabetes,Hypothyroidism,Prophylaxis of Thrombosis.The short video explains which groups are targeted.

If you want to take part call the project administrator  Alpa Patel on 0121 204 4963

You can follow the progress of the study at  www1.aston.ac.uk/adherence

http://evcwm.org.uk/2011/05/04/four-flip-cameras-to-give-away/

Street CCTV records this poor chap returning to depot tonight with a really overloaded trolley. When you see the Wagons passing by ignoring stuff it makes you wonder when the department are going to instruct crews to more proactive.As he pushed this load up Wellington Road incline, he passed the full to overflowing bin by the bus stop opposite St Teresas Church. There are even bags to the entry of the houses that are still there after 3 weeks ! Shame on you Street Cleansing department.The stretch from Leslie Road back to the embankment by the bus stop is diabolical, how can you expect this chap to clear it up when he has such a full trolley every day !

http://evcwm.org.uk/2011/05/04/four-flip-cameras-to-give-away/

http://birminghamagainstthecuts.wordpress.com/

http://socialgov.posterous.com/transparency-and-text-cllr-iain-roberts-and-c

http://evcwm.org.uk/2011/05/04/four-flip-cameras-to-give-away/

To round off a successful series of meetings with various Birmingham City executives, the Community Cohesion Policy Network Team meet today with Stephen Hughes, (Birmingham City Council Chief Executive), to go over the issues raised and lessons learnt, since we first spoke with him last August. We have also  spoken to Peter Haye about Health & Social Care,Jackie Mould CEO of Be Birmingham, Dr Mashuq Ally on Equality & Cohesion,Charles Small Drum CEO on the arts, Tom Murtha CEO of Midland Hart, but failed to meet with the Chief Constable who was 3rd on our list. There will be a fuller report in the BIRCHFIELD BUGLE, but one of Steven's suggestions for future working was to have  local Summits where a greater age range and representation of the community would be invited.The launch of the recent Birmingham Leadership Foundation was seen as a valuable move.

Doreen Osbourne,who chaired todays meeting, gives her reaction, outside the Council House.

http://evcwm.org.uk/2011/05/04/four-flip-cameras-to-give-away/

After a tour of the school senior staff are seen relaxing with the Lord Mayor, together with the school's reporting team who will bring us the full story in the next edition of BIRCHFIELD BUGLE 

http://astonvision.blogspot.com/2011/05/lord-mayor-visits-westminster-schoos.html

http://evcwm.org.uk/2011/05/04/four-flip-cameras-to-give-away/

No I'm not on about loosing one's cool, but the use of the FLIP camera on loan from Birmingham City Council, which has recorded  a fair few shots of our ever increasing RUBBISH problem. I am constantly made aware of dumped black bags, carpets, matresses, builders debris and of course the usual street litter disgarded by disenchanted bored young people as they tuck into fast foods on the way home.So here is a brief sample to start us off, how are we going to tackle this attitude of dis-respect for our environment. I chatted to this guy on a local street during the Easter weekend.......... 

Coming through the door today is a leaflet telling us that Waseem Zaffar has been selected( by the National Labour Party executive, which means with the backing of the local MP Khalid Mahmood), which means that the local Labour Party must have been up to some sort of trickery with its selection of a local candidate. It was Councillor Hussain who has now been forced into retirement or something. Reminds me of that wonderful page in the Sunday Mercury a few years back,September 25th 2005, with the headline "Jobs for the Boys", and pictured the MP, and Councillor on the doorsteps of some Youth Project near to Leonard Road where the even younger Waseem( before he became the youngest JP in town ) was heading the project, (Handsworth recreation group). The assembled company were being accused of using the premises to front the MPs canvassing activity in the Constituency, hence the title of the expose.It also mentions that way back in 2001, when Mahmood became Britains' first Muslim MP, he had to resign from his post at South Birmingham college amidst allegations that he had used his position for political gain, with the college being used as a lobbying ground for Labour.

Well lets hope that "the boys" have grown up a bit and are prepared to distribute a fair bit of their political clout to the wider electorate and not just their own 'in crowd'.

We look forward to working with young Waseem, when he secures his landslide victory in May, after all he promised a reform of the Forum system so that Birchfield has one in its own right.