Birmingham Development Plan Consultation Opens

The City Council approved the next stage of the creation of the Birmingham Development Plan at Full Counil at the start of December. This plan lays out a framework for development across the whole of the city until 2031.

It now goes out to public consultation until noon on the 3 March 2014. You can comment in several ways:

On line at www.birmingham.gov.uk/plan2031

By post to: Director or Planning and Regeneration, Birmingham City Council, PO Box 28, Birmingham, B1 1TU

Email to: planningstrategy@birmingham.gov.uk

Council officers will also be available to provide advice on completing the comments form at community libraries as follows:

16 Jan 10am - 4pm - Sutton Coldfield Library
21 Jan 2pm - 3:30pm - Handsworth Library
22 Jan 10am - 12:30pm - Walmley Library
23 Jan 10am - 4pm - Sutton Coldfield Library
31 Jan 11am - 1:30pm - South Yardley Library
6 Feb 1pm - 3pm - Northfield Library
8 Feb 10am - 4pm - Sutton Coldfield Library
15 Feb 10am - 1pm - Walmley Library

You can also obtain advice by visiting the offices at 1 Lancaster Circus in the City Centre or by calling 0121 303 4041 between 10am and 4pm on weekdays.

After this has been completed, the plan will be submitted to the Secretary of State and a planning inspector will be appointed to examine the "soundness" of the plan.

Yardleys School to take pupils from 4-16 from 2015?

A proposal for consultation has just landed on my desk and I thought I'd share it - Yardleys School is suggesting that from the 1 September 2015, it might expand from being a secondary school to include the primary phase as well and create an "all-through" school. Pupils will be guaranteed a place - if their parents wish - from reception through to completing their GSCE examinations (and the potential is there to extend either end to nursery and sixth form provision) - but will also be able to join the school at secondary level as they do now.

Birmingham certainly has a need for further school places and this will provide an additional 60 per year from 2015 with the first admissions to reception class in that year. The primary school would not be on the same site as the secondary school, but would be in "refurbished accommodation" on a new site nearby (I don't have any more information than that).

The school holds the view that the "all-through" method would help pupils make the transition from primary to secondary education as well as making curriculum planning easier across the phases.

What do you think?

20s Plenty Consultation Opens - have your say

Consultation has just opened on plans to reduce speed limits on 90% of Birmingham's roads.

I spoke in Council about this last year - you can read my argument in support of the change here.

Pop across to the council website, read the arguments and let us know your views.

The roll-out will take around 7 years to complete and will largely consist of 20mph limits - signed only - although a very few areas may also get zoned, with additional traffic calming measures. We will prioritise those areas where the risks are highest - that coincides with areas of deprivation - but if other areas are having improvements made (rather like the Warwick Road), then we won't waste the opportunity. This will save lives and reduce injuries.

There's also a chance to meet the project team at Fox Hollies Forum on Greenwood Avenue when they hold a drop-in session on Wednesday 13 November between 3pm and 7pm.

Yes, this is still about wheelie bins

We've got preliminary results from the wheelie bin consultation survey that is currently ongoing and they make interesting reading.

• 61% of respondents agree that wheelie bins will help to reduce the number of vermin in their neighbourhood (25% disagree and 14% didn't know)
• 58% agree wheelie bins will reduce the amount of rubbish spilt onto the street (31% disagree, 11% unsure)
• 51% think wheelie bins will improve the cleanliness of their neighbourhood (35% disagreed and 14% didn't know)
• 50% think wheelie bins will be good for the city (36% disagree and 14% are unsure)

That seems very reassuring - especially when you remember that apart from a few streets in Selly Oak, wheelie bins aren't even in use. A 2011 survey for YouGov found 77% support for wheelie bins nationally, with just 10% of respondents opposed to them. 

Want to have your say? Then go here. 

I think everybody appreciates that change - especially a change on this scale - makes some people worry. It isn't helped by some scaremongering from the opposition parties, warning people that they will face charges of £90 a month to clean their bins (they won't). There are bound to be problems with the switchover, but at least we have the chance to learn from the experience of the 82% of councils that have already made the switch and we'll have the experience from Brandwood and Harborne to build a Birmingham perspective on transforming our waste collection service. 

We've also got the figures from those wards on property suitability - 96.7% of low-rise homes in Brandwood and 91.9% of low-rise properties in Harborne have been initially assessed as suitable. Of the 16,000 properties identified as suitable for wheelie bins across both wards, only about 100 have challenged their assessment as suitable and there have also been some challenges raised by householders originally deemed unsuitable for wheelie bins. The assessment considers each property and if it has steep steps or slopes to the roadside, no storage space for wheelie bins or poor access for the wagons, then they will be deemed unsuitable for wheelie bins and red carded. They will continue to get the black bag service. I suspect that there will be wards that will have a higher number of unsuitable properties than either of these two and we've got to handle the switch sensitively. I'll certainly be making sure that properties are correctly assessed in Acocks Green and supporting residents who have been wrongly identified - but we're still a way away from that. 

Meanwhile, figures show that the government's changes to benefits will take over £9 million out of the Birmingham economy thanks to the bedroom tax alone. 

Wheelie Bin Consultation Starts

You can find the survey here. Fill it in and let us know YOUR views.

If you are so inclined, you can find my views here.

West Midlands Fire Service Consultation

The fire service are consulting on their future model of operations - what response times they should set, what their priorities should be, how they should respond to incidents and whether they should continue to prioritise road traffic collision reduction.

They want your views, so you can either watch the videos and comment online or you can complete a paper version and return it for their consideration.

Do have a look.