Fox Hollies Leisure Centre Path

After years of waiting, the footpath from Fox Hollies Road through to the leisure centre should reopen on the 1 May. There is a bit of cleaning up to do first, but things are well on track to see this brought back into use, allowing easy access to the leisure centre from the busy bus routes and meeting a demand from local residents.

We had a couple of options to sort this. One was to reopen the old path closed when the school raised security concerns, but this required some work to deal with problems of subsidence and would also have left us open to dealing with further potential costs further down the line. The solution we have came to a very similar cost, but without the ongoing risk. It has been paid for through the Community Chest money available to Acocks Green Ward Committee.

Diary Date - Acocks Green Ward Committee

Acocks Green Ward Committee
Wednesday 20 February 2013 - 7pm
Severne Road J&I, Severne Road

Items on the agenda will be

• BSEEN - Promoting and supporting Birmingham Energy Savers
• Planning update - planning officer attending to discuss commercial planning considerations and other issues. 
• Planning matters
• Community Chest
• Local Housing
• Wheeled bins consultation update
• Other issues of local concern

Look forward to seeing you there!

Next meetings: 

17 April 2013 - The Oaklands Primary School

29 May 2013 - Scout Hut, behind Scanlons on Spring Road

Report - Acocks Green Ward Committee

A slightly chilly meeting on Wednesday evening...

We had an officer from Trading Standards attend to talk about No Cold Calling Zones. We've had three areas designated across the city - in Sheldon, Sparkhill/Hall Green and Stechford. The law doesn't allow the City Council to actually ban traders from calling door to door, but this is aimed at tackling rogue traders and reducing distraction burglary. Typically, this is where a caller at the door keeps the homeowner occupied while an accomplice steals from elsewhere in the property and the typical victim profile is an 82 year old woman living on her own. Far too often, rogue doorstep tradespeople are checking out the house for a later visit. Even buying something with cash at the door can reveal that you keep cash in the house, roughly where you keep it and - something I didn't know - that you have a large quantity of cash in one place. Apparently, the notes take on a particular smell if kept together. These zones are targetted on areas where a high number of distraction burglaries are reported and they act as a deterrent. Initially, Trading Standards officers provide a response to individual incidents and ask doorstep callers to stay away - and most comply - but after a while, experience shows that the zones become self-enforcing as residents themselves get the confidence to turn callers away and 95% feel safer with a zone in place. With budget cuts, there are no plans at this stage to bring a zone to Acocks Green, but we'll keep an eye on the situation.

The meetings were agreed for the remainder of the coming year:

• 5 December 2012 - 7:30pm - Lakey Lane Primary School (time accommodates police meeting at 7pm)
• 20 Feb 2013 - 7pm - Severne JI School
• 17 Apr 2013 - 7pm - The Oaklands Primary School
• 29 May 2013 - 7pm - Venue TBC

Community Chest spending continues. We agreed funding for:

Acocks Green Means Business - £4500

This is a project to help 250 local people to develop self-employment opportunities and, hopefully, deliver about 20 business starts with 2-3 months of workshops and one-to-one advice. This has been an effective scheme in the past and has actually been able to draw down further funding from elsewhere, reducing the commitment from the ward.

Acocks Green Library temporary provision - £26,000

We've used some unspent money allocated to the library earlier in the year, a little new revenue spending and a chunk of capital spending to deliver on this - Labour weren't prepared to see the library close temporarily without alternative provision. 

Project Worker, Gospel Oak Community Centre - £3408

Youth Group - Gospel Oak Community Centre - £2817.50

We're supporting this scheme jointly with Hall Green. Although the centre is just outside our boundary, it serves a large community within the Gospel estate and I've been down to visit the team there and meet some of the young people in the youth group and I was impressed by what the team are trying to do. 

We do still have some funding remaining for the year, but there is an alternative source of support through the Acocks Green Community First funding stream, which provides match funding for sums between £250 and £2500. Have a look at the website here. 

We've also agreed to continue funding for the Acocks Green Neighbourhood Forum.

Most of the planning applications mentioned in the agenda had already been decided, but we have an application for the land adjacent to the end of Grattidge Road at the Solihull side of the ward. This waste land is between the end of Grattidge Road and the back of what used to be a furniture store, but is now an indoor play area. There is already an existing planning approval on that entire site for redevelopment, but with the play area now in use, that looks unlikely to move to fruition, so the developer wants to build five detached houses on it. The councillors have heard different views on the matter - some residents are in favour, others opposed - if you have views, let me know. We also briefly discussed the flurry of applications for solid wall insulation on council property on the Yarnfield estate.

That largely wrapped up the meeting, although I will be writing a letter to express the community's concern about the ticket office closures that the government have now approved for many stations within London Midland's area, including all the stations that serve Acocks Green. The decision has been made, despite widespread opposition locally, but I will still express our dismay at this. I was also asked about progress on the Yardley Road issue.

With that all done and dusted, the meeting was closed and we'll reconvene in December. 

Acocks Green Ward Committee - 7 March 2012

This week’s ward committee was a relatively quiet affair and also the last one before the elections in May.

On the agenda was a briefing from the Education team about plans to expand The Oaklands school to provide an additional primary class to cope with expected increase in demand from September 2013. They are working to a tight timetable, as construction work will be required to make the school fit for a modern, two form entry and this will need local consultation and planning permission. Cllr Stacey pointed out that the school governing body have yet to agree to this expansion and have only approved that the City Council study the feasibility at their own risk.

On planning, there was little of controversy. The original application to change the use of the former pub on the

Warwick Road

(just by the rail bridge) to a car dealership was turned down because the applicants failed to provide some additional technical details. These have now been provided in the form of another application. There was some discussion about the property to be constructed at the rear of 122 Westley Road and while there was some concern about this setting a precedent for other back gardens along the same strip, it was also pointed out that this might not be sufficient reason to block it in planning law terms.

The Community Chest spending was approved, as well as some continuation funds for the John Gayle football project, which has been a long term success in the ward and is currently looking for grant aid to provide ongoing support for a great scheme.

The only other thing was a note for future agenda to discuss access to the Leisure Centre from the public footpath between Fox Hollies Road and

Shirley Road

, which has been closed for some time now. This has been raised on Restirred and I will keep an eye on it. I can see no reason why access should not be restored – but this won’t come up until after the election in May.

As ever, watch this space.