Police update

This is the latest update from our local neighbourhood team.

April saw ten burglaries, two up on the previous month. Unusually, four have been forced entry through front doors and on two occasions, vehicles were also taken. Two were from empty properties where boilers and copper pipe were taken and there have been three burglaries on commercial properties. Two robberies and five thefts of motor vehicles have also been reported. Fifteen thefts from motor vehicles, five of which related to the theft of front and rear number plates. Four sets of Astra wing mirrors have been stolen - the successor to the theft of Mini Cooper wing mirrors. There have been two cases of theft of satnavs from vehicles and one incident of a theft of a bag from a car, which resulted in the arrest of the thieves. There has also been the theft of a catalytic converter from a van.

There have been a few incidents of anti-social behaviour on the Gospel Estate and two youngsters have been placed on anti-social behaviour contracts.

Just a reminder - no elections in Acocks Green this year!

I've had a couple of people ask me why they haven't received voting cards this year. There's no need to worry - in Birmingham, we elect our councillors 'by thirds' so in three out of four years, one council seat in each electoral ward is up for election for a four year term. The fourth year is 'fallow' and we don't have elections. 2013 is our fallow year.

The next election planned in Birmingham will be in late May 2014, when the local elections will be shifted back a few weeks to bring them into line with elections to the European parliament.

Planning Applications to the 27 April 2013

Another flurry of applications as spring arrives.

2013/02796/PA - 12 Grayland Close, B27 7NE
Erection of two storey side, first floor rear, single storey side/rear extension and rear conservatory

2013/02579/PA - 254 The Avenue, B27 6NU
Erection of single storey rear extension

2013/02836/PA - 15 Ryde Grove, B27 7SW
Erection of single storey rear extension

2013/02811/PA - Archbishop Ilsley Catholic School, Victoria Road, B27 7XY
Installation of synthetic turf sports facility creating two multi use tennis and netball courts

2013/02275/PA - 79 Woodford Green Road, B28 8PH
Erection of two storey side and single storey forward extensions

You can find the details by inputting the reference number into the Council online database here

If you have any comments, you can submit them online - feel free to pass your comments on to me.

Tunnels

If you are driving into the city centre over the next week or so, don't forget that the Lancaster Circus tunnel on the A34 will be closed until 6am on Monday 6 May 2013 for essential refurbishment. 

With changes in usage, this isn't a very busy route, so the disruption should be relatively minimal. Diversions will be signposted around Lancaster Circus.

Later in the year, there will be a more significant closure, as the St Chad's and Queensway tunnels will both be completely closed from the 19 July to the 2 September 2013 to allow for essential in depth repairs to the conditions of these 40 year old structures (preceded by about 4 weeks of overnight closures and followed by another two weeks of overnight closures as well). The work is unavoidable and the decision was taken to do it with a total closure for about six weeks rather than six months of total closures at weekends. This method is also substantially cheaper. Either way was going to cause significant inconvenience to drivers in the city, but a total closure for six weeks over the summer means that retailers aren't inconvenienced in the run up to Christmas.

If you drive into the city regularly, it might be worth thinking about how you'll do the journey during the closure period - can you replan your route, avoid the journey temporarily or could you consider taking the train or the bus?

To keep up to date on all things tunnel related, there's a website.

Planning Applications to 20 April 2013

Just a single application:

2013/00789/PA - 42 Victoria Road, B27 7YA
Erection of detached garage/storage building to side and erection of 2m high boundary wall to side.

You can find the details by inputting the reference number into the Council online database here

If you have any comments, you can submit them online - feel free to pass your comments on to me.

Millennium Green Spring Clean

Cllr Stewart Stacey, Cllr John O'Shea and Dee Smyth

Saturday saw bright sunshine as spring finally sprung in Acocks Green and there was a good community turnout to help clean up a hidden little piece of green in the shape of Millennium Green. Litter was picked, soil turned for planting and ivy cut back to stop it choking trees. Cllr Stacey and myself were joined by a colleague, Dee Smyth, to help out the local residents who have done a sterling job in developing and maintaining the site for years.

Forced entry

Picture from @bhameastpolice

The picture on the left shows the small arsenal of weapons found when the Yardley priority team executed one of two drugs warrants over the weekend in Acocks Green. It includes a range of bladed weapons and an extendible baton. The knowledge that this can lurk behind the doors of a few homes is why the police force entry to properties - a few seconds of surprise can save injury.
A large quantity of cash was recovered under the Proceeds of Crime Act and two people are in custody, helping with inquiries into robbery and assault.
These raids were the direct result of information received through Crimestoppers, which allows you to anonymously help the fight to keep our community safe.

Elsewhere, inquiries continue into the fire on Cateswell Road - just outside the ward. A 56 year old man was arrested in relation to the fire, which has now been confirmed as arson. A woman died in the fire and her daughter suffered severe burns and remains very ill in hospital. If you were in the area around 5am on Wednesday, the police need to hear from you. You can call them on 101 or contact them through Crimestoppers.

Spare an hour or two on Saturday? Join the Millennium Green clear up.

If you are feeling inspired to lend a hand clearing up a great community project, you could do worse than pop along to the Millennium Green on Saturday. Kicking off at 10am, volunteers will be helping to clear up the park which provides a welcome green space on the north side of the Warwick Road. There's lots to do, so please come along if you can.

Rookwood Road rail bridge repairs

The coping stones along the wall of the footbridge that links Rookwood Road and Alexander Road were dislodged a few weeks back and pushed over onto the embankment below. The stones on the other wall were similarly vandalised late last year and have already been replaced. The new stones are now secured with rods driven down into the brickwork beneath. British Transport Police will be increasing activity in the area, as a result of the vandalism on this bridge and the risk to trains below. If you know anything about this, please give Crimestoppers a call or you can call BTP directly on 0800 40 50 40.

New fountain for Acocks Green.

Photo from @AftabRahman

OK, so it was a temporary addition to the street scene on Arden Road. A local resident contacted me about this early yesterday evening and I was straight on to Severn Trent to check that they had a response team on the way, who attended within an hour of the first call from another resident and fixed the problem.

By the way, the barriers have been put up because we're using some money from a developer and from local highways project funding to improve the junction layout there and calm traffic speeds.

Diary Date - Transport, Connectivity and Sustainability O&S Committee - Friday 19 April

Transport, Connectivity and Sustainability O&S Committee
Friday 19 April - 10am
Committee Room 6, Council House, Birmingham

Key items on the agenda:

• Cabinet members - 
• Green Safe and Smart City (James McKay)
• Development, Jobs & Skills (Tahir Ali)
• Health and Wellbeing (Steve Bedser)
• Birmingham's Green Commission Vision Statement
• Building a Green City
• Carbon Plan analysis
• Response to consultation - World Class Rail Network for the West Midlands

Sadly, this one isn't webcast, so you'll miss the excitement. You can always come along though....

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.

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. 

Planning Applications to the 13 April

Only a couple of applications

2013/02474/PA - Highway verge off Fox Hollies Road, B27 7US
Installation of replacement 15m high telecommunications mast with 3 no. antennas, 1 no. equipment cabinet and associated ancillary works

(This is the current site beside Merestones petrol station and is replacing the existing mast that has been there for a number of years.) 

2013/02386/PA - 25 Olton Croft
Installation of step lift to front

You can find the details by inputting the reference number into the Council online database here

If you have any comments, you can submit them online - feel free to pass your comments on to me.

Diary Date - Acocks Green Ward Committee - Wednesday 17 April 2013

Acocks Green Ward Committee
Wednesday 17 April 2013 - 7pm
The Oaklands Primary School, Dolphin Lane

Key items on the agenda:

• Community Chest Projects
• Wheelie Bin Consultation
• Environmental Health Update
• Meetings for the year ahead
• Other urgent business

Illuminating Woodcock Lane

Stewart and I have been working very hard on keeping Woodcock Lane at the top of the list for urgent replacement of the streetlighting on the road, pushing Amey to prioritise it, given that it is probably the worst lit street in the ward and has some blocks of accommodation used by our most vulnerable residents.

I'm delighted that we can now announce that this is about to start.

The work is due to start on the 13 May and is scheduled to take about 30 days in total, working between 8am and 6pm on weekdays, with the possibility of some Saturday work. It isn't unusual for there to be a delay between the new columns being installed and for the connection to the power supply to be completed - this part of it is done by electricity operator and not Amey, so has to work to their timetable.

The new lamp posts will be installed towards the back of the pavement so that they cast light across both the road carriageway and the footpath.  This also means that they are less likely to be hit by motorists. The new lamps will be LED types, which save up to 60% on energy bills and because they direct the light downwards - where it is actually used - they reduce light pollution. The difference is striking.

Digging for victory

Out again in Mallard Close at the site of the new orchard to help Fran and her team of volunteers launch Acocks Green in Bloom 2013. This little patch of wasteland beside some garages has been transformed into a small community garden. Trees have been planted and we were preparing the soil and planting box hedges today. My gardening skills aren't great, but I lent a hand moving the soil to be sifted, laying the gravel and even got to plant some sage and rosemary too. There's plenty more to do and there's a bit more good news too as the Ward Committee, of which I'm chair, is helping out the Acocks Green Village Partnership and paying for some more baskets to make the floral display that much brighter in the Village this summer.

By the way, next Saturday sees the spring clean up of the Millennium Green (off The Avenue) - do come along, bring your wellies and some gloves!

Scrutiny Committee Report on Cycling

I didn't get called to speak, but here's the speech I would have given.

It has been a great introduction to the life of this council to have served as part of a group that has shown such cross-party agreement in setting a transformational direction for cycling and other forms of low-carbon transport in our city. In that mood, it seems appropriate today to borrow from the Thatcherite's Thatcherite, Norman Tebbit, as we encourage the people of Birmingham to get on their bikes. Indeed, only last weekend, one of my children went solo on his bike for the first time.

In particular, I welcome the recommendation that specific targets should be set - it was a criticism of the last strategy document that it was long on words, but short on measurable outcomes. This report has not made the same mistake and I welcome the executive commitment to take it through to delivery. We have a chance to build on the legacy of the Olympics, to seize the moment to take this city forward, but it takes commitment at the highest level amongst officers and executives to deliver on the ambitions.

This report is also about road safety - I would particularly encourage the spread of 20mph zones and limits across appropriate roads in the city. These will help make our neighbourhoods better places to live as well as delivering proven benefits in terms of reducing casualties and the severity of injuries. There is safety in numbers - the more people we can encourage to get on their bikes, the safer it becomes for them, as drivers get used to their presence, as Cllr Barnett pointed out.

A public outcry over road safety brought about a massive change in the Netherlands. They made the same mistakes that we did after the war, building cities and towns designed around car ownership. It was only at the start of the 1970s, following a rise in injuries to children, that they took a political decision to change direction and embarked on building the system that we see today. Make no mistake, this is a long term project that will take decades, but we need to make a start and this report is a good point.

As a committee, we have had sterling support from cycling evangelists like CTC and Sustrans, in the gallery today, as well as individual enthusiasts in the city, for which we are grateful, but the are not our target audience. We need to deliver, but not for those hundreds of indefatigable cyclists, who will resort to two wheels no matter how hard we, as a council have made it over the years. We need to deliver for those thousands, or tens of thousands, who will cycle if we make it easier and safer. We need to deliver on this for future generations.

Build it and they will come.

Location:Chamberlain Square,Birmingham,United Kingdom

Acocks Green Policing Update

Recorded crime since the start of April has been exactly the same as it was last year - 37 offences recorded. One was a house burglary and we've had three vehicle crimes, but no robberies. Our local officers are targeted to cut recorded crime by 5% this year, on top of the 10% from last year.

To tackle some of the anti-social behaviour around Lidl and Merestones petrol station on Fox Hollies Road, the retail radio scheme that has proved very effective in the Green will be extended to those stores. This allows retailers to share intelligence and have direct contact with the police officers on duty, helping to speed up response to incidents.

As the days get longer and we head towards summer, the perennial problem of quad bikes and motorbikes being driven irresponsibly is likely to return. The police have removed one in recent weeks and it will be crushed - the owners rarely pay the collection and storage fees. Two other riders have been issued with warning letters and continued breaches will lead to prosecution. To tackle this, they need information on ownership, so please get in touch with them - you can contact them through Crimestoppers anonymously if you wish.

Some good news - money from the proceeds of crime has been awarded to the Acocks Green Village Partnership and has been used to support the Big Dig over on Mallard Road.

Location:Yardley Road,Birmingham,United Kingdom

Diary Date - Full Council - Tuesday 9 April 2013

Full Council
Tuesday 9 April 2013 - 2pm
Council Chamber, Council House
And you can now watch online here.

Key items on the agenda:

• Question Time
• Members of the Public to any Cabinet Member or District Committee Chair
• Any Councillor to Committee Chair or Lead Member
• Councillors other than Cabinet Members to Cabinet Member
• Councillors other than Cabinet Members to Leader or Deputy Leader
• Report of council business management committee
• Reports of Overview & Scrutiny
• Health of Birmingham's Third Sector
• Changing Gear: Transforming Urban Movement Through Cycling & Walking in Birmingham
• Motions for Debate
• Tory motion supporting the alignment of government spending with the priorities of the local business community
• LibDem motion about Pupil Premium

This is a meeting open to the public and we've certainly seen significant use of the online streaming - far more have watched online than have attended these meetings in a year.