What have I been up to?

Just to let you know what I've been doing over the past couple of weeks.

There's been a fair bit of councillor induction. The Tuesday morning after the election saw most of the councillors turning up to accept their office and 'swear in' before the Chief Executive, plus complete some of the basic administration - security passes, photographs for the website, etc. There's also been an induction programme for new councillors, covering council finance (an interesting session, but not because of the information passed to us, more about what wasn't said), the structure of council meetings, childrens' services, the constitution and codes of conduct.

Last Thursday saw me at part of this induction, then straight back to a police tasking meeting, with Friday bringing a brief lunchtime event at the launch of the new Solihull Heights apartment complex on the Coventry Road and then councillors' surgery in the evening at Archbishop Ilsley school. Saturday brought the first part of the Labour Group AGM and Sunday morning saw me on Noor TV, debating the Queen's Speech with John Hemming.

Monday was busy - Yardley Labour Group pre-meeting in advance of the constituency/district committee meeting planned for the 24 May (but now cancelled), then a return to the council house to sort out my CRB form, more induction training and then part two of the Labour Group AGM.

Tuesday saw some IT setup being done. While councillors are entitled to a laptop, printer and wireless card, I've chosen to cut costs by using my own laptop and I have only taken the printer and the council Blackberry mobile phone.

Tuesday evening I was down at St Mary's for the Housing Liaison Board meeting and Wednesday had the final part of the induction training and then back to Acocks Green for Ward Advisory Board, where we considered a tranche of applications for the Community Chest funding. All around this, I've been picking up casework by phone and email, working on fixing problems and getting back to constituents.

Next week sees the City Council AGM on Tuesday, a couple of community events on Wednesday and a meeting as a school governor on Thursday, but that diary is subject to change...