We're a Three-Star Council!

Yesterday, the Conservative-led Birmingham City Council announced that the Government has awarded it three stars! In 2004, we inherited a no-star Council with particularly acute problems in Housing and Social Services - it's an amazing turnaround. Adult Care, Education and Housing were picked out for special praise in the Audit Commission's report.

The picture shows me with Alistair Burt MP, Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party.

New Green Space on Stoney Lane

Along with your local Conservative Councillors Jane James and Len Clark, I’m very pleased to announce that we’ve improved the public area at the junction of Stoney Lane and Hagley Road West. We’ve cleared out the undergrowth and installed a smart new green space. The photo shows myself and Cllr Clark at the site.

Good News for Residents of Quinton Road West Area!

The Quinton Conservatives Hit Squad recently planted lots of flower bulbs in the planters outside the shops at the corner of Gorsy Road and Quinton Road West. These will provide a very pleasant street scene when the flowers grow this spring.

The photo shows myself, Parliamentary Spokesman Cllr Deirdre Alden and Quinton Conservative Councillors Jane James and Len Clark.

You may also be interested to know that a recent planning application to turn one of the shops at the corner of Bolney Road and Quinton Road West into a hot fast food outlet has been turned down. The decision was made after local residents submitted a petition objecting to the planning application.

Toronto Gardens Cleanup

Your local Conservative Hit Squad recently visited Toronto Gardens off Court Oak Rd to see what we could do. We’d had reports of litter and leaves piling up and making the area unpleasant for the many elderly residents. Our Parliamentary Spokesman Cllr Deirdre Alden, Quinton Councillor Jane James and I turned up and got it sorted. We hope that our efforts made the environment more pleasant for everyone!

Today has been cancelled

This is something that appeared on the main conservatives.com website and in several national newspapers today, and I think well worth repeating. Click the image for a better look...

Quinton Ward Gets Greener – Again!

I'm delighted to announce the continued success of the Quinton Green-Up Campaign.

We planted over 600 trees in Quinton ward during the previous two years, and this year sees another 200. Trees improve air quality, enhance the street scene and increase the amount of local wildlife. This campaign is greatly improving the environment for thousands of residents across Quinton ward. It’s yet another example of your local Conservative team delivering results on the ground.

Next to get the green-up treatment is the area around Wedgewood Rd, Faraday Rd and World’s End Lane. The team will also be picking up some other roads, including some that need to be finished off from last year.

Everyone living in the target areas will be given prior notice and have the opportunity to comment before work starts.

Brown Fritters?

'Frit' is a Lincolnshire colloquialism for 'frightened', made famous by Margaret Thatcher in 1983. She was accusing Labour's Denis Healey of being frightened of her calling a General Election.

On Wednesday, I returned from Conservative Party Conference, buoyed up by David Cameron's great speech. Any accusations that he lacks substance were firmly put to bed - there were plenty of policy proposals, incuding raising the threshold for inheritance tax and stamp duty. We're going to pay for this by a flat rate tax on so-called 'non-doms' - typically very rich people who live in the UK but don't pay normal tax for various reasons.

Labour's playing a very cynical game on this. Before we announced our policy, the (Labour-run) Treasury claimed that they didn't have any figures on non-doms. But when we announced it, Labour said that our sums didn't add up, based on figures magically obtained from the Treasury! The reality is that we've come up with some well researched, well costed policies and they're using every trick they can to try and undermine them.

Well, it won't work and the British public won't fall for it. So Mr Brown, why don't you call the election - we're ready. Or are you frit?

UPDATE 06/10/2007: He's bottled it!

Guest Post from Praguetory

Sorry I haven't posted for a while - things have been very busy in Quinton! Today's post is a guest post from my good friend Praguetory.

Since 1997 Labour MPs have been returned in all but two of the 11 Parliamentary seats within the borders of Birmingham. At Westminster we rely heavily on Labour representatives. A recently published government report on unemployment by constituency makes depressing reading for Brummies.

With the exception of Sutton Coldfield, all seats in Birmingham are ranked as having among the highest rates of unemployment in the UK, with Birmingham seats taking the top three positions in a league table that you don't want to head.

1. Birmingham Ladywood
2. Birmingham Sparkbrook & Small Heath
3. Birmingham Hodge Hill
12. Birmingham Erdington
16. Birmingham Perry Barr
39. Birmingham Yardley
56. Birmingham Edgbaston
71. Birmingham Northfield
77. Birmingham Selly Oak
78. Birmingham Hall Green
446. Sutton Coldfield

In 1997, unemployment in Birmingham was 10.6%, 1.7 times the national average. In 2006, unemployment in Birmingham stands at 8.9%, 3.4 times the national average. In every year since 1997, the difference between unemployment rates in Birmingham and the rest of the country has widened.

And yet, Steve McCabe, a government whip and the Labour MP for Hall Green is in denial in Monday's Birmingham Post! Since 1997 Labour has utterly failed the people of Birmingham. Their locally elected politicians such as the mendacious McCabe stand complicit.

Planting success in Quinton

I was out on Saturday weeding and replanting the planters on the corner of Gorsy Rd and Quinton Rd West. Cllrs Jane James and Deirdre Alden were also there, along with a team of local Conservative volunteers. We got a lot done and hopefully brightened up the place. If you'd be interested in sponsoring a planter or two, drop me an email!

Local footie tournament

Yesterday, I attended a football tournament where the focus was kicking racism out of football. Loads of teams of youngsters from around the area were playing, including several from Quinton. I was there with Cllr Jane James from Quinton (right) and Cllr Deirdre Alden, Conservative Parliamentary Spokesman for Edgbaston Constituency (left). All the boys and girls had a great time! Match report on Deirdre's blog.

Busy weekend

It's been a busy weekend!



On Saturday morning, a team of local Conservatives (myself included) spent some time strimming, weeding and otherwise cleaning up the junction of Upper Meadow Rd, Hansom Rd and Arkwright Rd in Quinton. Doing this ourselves is only a temporary measure until we get something permanent arranged with the Council. The place looked much better after we'd finished, and certainly the residents we spoke to agreed. Thanks to all who helped, including Cllr Len Clark and Cllr Jane James from Quinton, and Cllr Deirdre Alden, Parliamentary Spokesman for Edgbaston Constituency.

I spent most of yesterday at Harborne Carnival, manning the Conservatives stall. We must have given away over a thousand balloons and plenty of our 'Carnival Special' leaflets. Loads of people came up and spoke to us, and it was a very useful way of engaging with local people and finding out about current issues. The carnival as a whole was a great success and it looked like everyone was having fun. Again, Len, Jane and Deirdre were there, along with Cllr John Alden from Harborne, volunteers from Conservative City Branch, Birmingham University Conservative Future and many others.

And so it starts again...

Was out in Quinton yesterday and delivered a few hundred leaflets. Probably should have avoided doing some of it at midday as it was a bit hot. Good thing I had some sun lotion in the car, or I would have ended up looking like a pork scratching. Dog bite count was zero, although there were some close shaves...

Scottish Parliament visit

I'm in Edinburgh with work, so I took the opportunity to meet up with John Lamont MSP for a lunchtime tour of the Scottish Parliament. John was elected in May for the constituency of Roxburgh and Berwickshire, and deservedly so. He's been working very hard there for many years, building up his support and engaging with the electorate on bread-and-butter issues that matter to them, whether it's a lack of dentists, proposed hospital closures, even rod licences!

I was very impressed by John's work ethic and he's running an amazing number of surgeries now he's been elected. John was kind enough to show me the Parliament chamber (I was tempted to sit in the Presiding Officer's chair, but didn't) and his office, complete with something called a 'Thinking Pod'...

A very interesting and informative tour, and I'm sure I'll be seeing John again at Party Conference if not before. Keep up the good work mate!

What a shower

There was a special edition of Newsnight last night, with all six Labour deputy leadership contenders. Here's my verdict:

Harman: Lose the power dressing.
Johnson: Likeable, but it's as if the Eighties never happened.
Cruddas: See above.
Hain: Statesman-like, but boring.
Benn: Dull, but at least he didn't use any notes.
Blears: Disaster area. Go on Labour, elect her.

Yesterday's real headlines

• The Bank of England raises interest rates to a six-year high.
• The projected cost of the Government's ID card scheme rises by £400m to £5.31bn.
• Tony Blair doesn't resign as Prime Minister or even as leader of the Labour Party, but talks about it a bit.

Coincidence? You decide...

Yesterday, today and tomorrow

So there you have it - the last of the English council results have come in. And let's not pretend otherwise, they're a great set of results for the Conservatives, on top of a great set of results last year. Even some of the Labour bloggers are honest enough to say so.

Tomorrow, Tony Blair will almost certainly announce that he's standing down as Prime Minister. He'll try to take the rap for these results, or at least be blamed by the rest of his Party for them. His ten years in office have been a missed opportunity, and I've been racking my brains this afternoon trying to think of anything positive he's achieved since D:Ream's Things Can Only Get Better rang out that day in May 1997.

The only things I can come up with are ASBOs (which hopefully one day won't be needed anymore) and the continuation of the Northern Ireland peace process, which was started by his Conservative predecessor John Major with the Downing Street Declaration. Yesterday, people across Northern Ireland witnessed the product of the process so far when the DUP, Sinn Féin and the other parties sat down together in government.

But as one Labour Prime Minister gives way to another, let's not forget the tax rises, the billions wiped off pension funds, the rewriting of the government's own fiscal discipline rules, the economic problems stored up for the future. This isn't just the legacy of Tony Blair, it's the legacy of Gordon Brown.

Well done Nigel!

Bournville Councillor Nigel Dawkins has been selected as the Conservative Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Birmingham Selly Oak. Having grown up in Selly Oak Constituency, I remember the heady days of the late, great Sir Anthony Beaumont-Dark, the Constituency's last Conservative MP.

Nigel was selected by an open primary, which is a new innovation for the Conservatives and British politics in general. This allows anyone, regardless of political affiliation, to vote for their preferred candidate. As a party, we're trying very hard to broaden our appeal, and hopefully this will go some way to doing just that.

The incumbent (Labour) MP is standing down, and with a fair wind and a healthy swing, let's hope that Nigel can win it for us. Well done Nigel, and good luck!

Elections Reflections

I've been on holiday in Suffolk over the weekend, and I've had time to gather my thoughts about last weeks elections.

Lows

1. Having my car broken into and my sat nav nicked while I was leafleting. (For the record, it wasn't on display and there were no suction marks on the windscreen). On the plus side, the police officer who attended was very professional.

2. Getting two parking tickets while I was leafleting. I got one of them despite texting the new service you can use instead of pay-and-display, because the replacement car I was driving (see 1) had a different registration number than the one they had on record for me. Particularly annoying.

3. Waiting for hours for someone to deliver 67 postal votes to be included in the count. This meant that we didn't get a result until far later than usual.

4. Losing our outright majority in Solihull, but I'm sure we'll get it back next time.

Highs

1. All the people who helped me in so many different ways, be it leafleting, advice or just being there. You know who you are. Thanks.

2. Those 732 pieces of paper that showed that 732 people had taken the time and trouble to write an 'x' next to my name. If I knew who all of you were, I'd come round and thank you personally.

3. Our three gains in Birmingham. Very many congratulations to Barbara Wood in Kings Norton, Colin Hughes in Billesley and in particular to my friend Gareth Compton in Erdington, who trounced Susanna McCorry on a huge swing to the Conservatives.

4. Albert Bore going out of his way to compliment my campaign in his re-election speech. Always good to receive compliments from your political opponents.

5. Being attacked (in all but name) in at least one of Labour's leaflets. You know they're getting scared when they do that!

6. Seeing Labour run around Ladywood leafleting like crazy to try and counter my active campaign. The amount of effort they put in was evinced by the number of Labour activists at the count. This must have hampered their ability to operate in Birmingham's more marginal wards.

7. In the early hours of Friday morning, finding out that John Lamont had become a Member of the Scottish Parliament for Roxburgh and Berwickshire. I met John at the Conservative Party Conference last year, and I know how hard he's been working.

8. Looking at the BBC website (above) and seeing that we've gained 898 Conservative Councillors and 38 Conservative Councils in England.

I've thoroughly enjoyed being the candidate for Ladywood and I'll carry on trying to serve the people of Birmingham in whatever way I can. And as I said in my speech at last week's count, I'll always be proud to call myself a Conservative.

Thank you!

Thanks to everyone who voted for me yesterday. A clear second place is a very positive result for the Conservatives in Ladywood, and many congratulations to my colleagues across the city and country for the remarkable gains we've had. More later...

Vote for Peter Smallbone TODAY!

Thursday 3rd May is the day that you can vote for positive change in Ladywood Ward. Please vote for me.

Don't forget - polling stations open from 7am until 10pm
Don't forget - you don't need your Polling Card or ID to vote
Don't forget - voting only takes five minutes

Out and About

My team and I did a load of leafleting round Icknield Port Loop over the weekend. I spoke to many residents during our rounds, and the following themes came out:

1. Recycling collections. Not all residents are getting their boxes returned to their front doorsteps - I will get the Council to sort this out.
2. Illegal dumping and litter. Residents aren't happy that dumped fridges etc just get a sticker put on them, rather than stronger action being taken. One resident suggested putting a skip at the end of the road from time to time to take litter and larger items. I don't know about the viability of this, but again I'll take this up with the Council.
3. Noise. Some residents are unbelievably inconsiderate. I've suggested making a complaint directly to the Council - the offender shoudn't be able to find out who you are.

All in all, a great weekend's work and I'm looking forward to the election on Thursday May 3rd.

Finally, great to see such an amazing turnout in the French presidential election. If only we could get 85% in Ladywood!

Gordon Brown Ate My Pension

We had some fun yesterday handing out a spoof tabloid newspaper at New St Station, illustrating Gordon Brown's shameless tax raid on UK private pensions. This was part of a national campaign at commuter hot spots and accompanied Shadow Chancellor George Osborne's 'No Confidence' motion in the House of Commons.

Labour had a rent-a-mob handing out something or other, but they didn't stay as long. No sign of their candidate either...

Then it was off to another part of Ladywood Ward, where I finished off a round of leafleting. Finally a campaign meeting. Phew!

Register to vote by Wednesday 18th April...

...or you won't be able to vote in the election on Thursday 3rd May.

It's easy - just download the voter registration form, print it out, fill it in and send it off.

If you don't know whether you'll be around to vote on the 3rd, then just apply for a postal vote. Download the postal vote registration form. Again, you've got until Wednesday 18th April.

It's Official!

Last night, I came home to find a letter from the Council telling me that my nomination for the Ladywood Ward election on 3rd May is valid. Bring it on!

Just like last year, I'm the only candidate who lives anywhere in Ladywood Ward!

What Happened at the Ladywood Ward Committee

Sorry I've not posted anything for a while - I've had a touch of 'man flu'. Back in business now...

The Ladywood Ward Committee took place about a week and a half ago. Cllr Albert Bore even stayed for the first 45 minutes! Here's what happened.

The News Team's Swimming Pool Presentation

This was a well constructed combination of reportage and archive footage. It was particularly interesting to see the demolition of the Monument Road baths, over which the old Labour council presided.

Neighbourhood Policing in Central Ladywood and Summerfield

Presentation by Sgt Des Lambert. The main purpose of neighbourhood policing is community engagement, and to this end the police work with the Council, the Housing department and so on.

Sgt Lambert warned us about a recent spate of bag snatching on roads such as Gilby Road - thieves target this area in the hope that people have just visited cash machines on Broad St.

He also told us about a recent survey that the police have distributed. If you received it, please fill it in - you can return it for free.

The whole of Ladywood Ward is now an alchohol exclusion zone! This means that if you see anyone drinking in public anywhere in the Ward (including all of the City Centre), they are committing an offence.

Environmental Wardens in Ladywood Ward

Environmental Wardens patrol the Ward, looking for litter, graffiti and other similar problems. They also perform an education function and have enforcement powers.

Cllr Hartley piped up and announced that Ladywood has been judged the cleanest Ward in Birmingham! Er, really? Tell that to the people that contact me about rats around Ladywood Middleway!

You can contact the Wardens on 0845 113 500.

I raised one of my pet issues, that of noise. I consider noise to be an environmental crime, but it doesn't appear to be a priority for the Environmental Wardens, which I found a bit disappointing.

Grant Approvals

Various grants were approved, including the one for the City Centre Neighbourhood Forum (of which I am a Committee Member).

Coach Parking in the City Centre

This is a problem whenever the ICC has a major event on. This has been significantly improved since the police started threatening coach drivers with penalty points. Well done!

16,219

• There are 16,219 voters in Ladywood ward.
• The ward's Labour councillors were elected with about 1,300-1,600 votes.
• That means that out of all the voters, only about 10% voted for them.
• If only 11% vote for someone else (like me), that person wins instead.

Pretty simple!

P.S. I do wish that more people voted...

Friends of Edgbaston Reservoir AGM

Edgbaston Reservoir and the surrounding roads are within Ladywood ward. The Friends of Edgbaston Reservoir is an organisation that tries to preserve the character of this jewel in the crown of central Birmingham - they have been at the forefront of the opposition of the proposed Tower Ballroom redevelopment for example.

None of the Ladywood Labour ward councillors attended the meeting. I don't know why. You'll have to ask them...

Nick Bird from ISIS was first up. ISIS is a sort of development corporation part-owned by British Waterways. They control all 28 acres of land inside Icknield Port Loop, which is a canal loop adjacent to the Reservoir.

This whole area is ripe for redevelopment, alongside adjoining land owned by Advantage West Midlands (a development corporation funded by central government) and Birmingham City Council. All these organisations apparently co-ordinate activities in something called the 'Landowners' Forum'. I must admit that this was the first time I'd heard of this body. Nick said that the Forum 'could work better', which set a few alarm bells ringing. I must find out more about it, and who from the Council participates. It is absolutely imperative that the area is redeveloped as a contiguous area - we should aim for a situation where it's almost irrelevant which 'player' owns which bit of land. All of them have a public service remit after all.

ISIS's bit will be a mixed-use, housing-led development. A figure of 1000 residential units was mentioned. 1000 units? How are all the inevitable cars going to get in, park, and get out again? This needs some serious thought. Nick mentioned that a 'car club' might help - something that's been tried in New York. Perhaps.

ISIS is doing a bus tour of the area showing people their ideas. Sadly I couldn't find the timetable on their website, so all I can say is to look out for it!

I thought that ISIS were good to come to the meeting, but the whole thing is lacking detail at present. In particular, architectural style and housing mix have a huge influence on how an area 'performs'. We need to avoid 1000 identical, boring, grey flats built on the site. Similarly, we need to avoid wacky designs - the kind of buildings that architects build just to impress other architects. Nick gave some assurances that the development won't be 'another tentacle of city living'. However, we all know that 'pile 'em high, sell 'em cheap' often appeals...

The remainder of the meeting involved discussions around the Tower Ballroom site and Harborne Walkway (a disused railway track bed now popular with walkers). I won't go into too much detail on the discussions as I think it's only fair to wait until the FER has published their meeting minutes.

All in all, a very worthwhile evening. Thanks to St Augustine's Church for hosting the meeting in their hall, and to TNT News for filming it.

Ladywood Ward Committee, Tues 20/03/2007

The next Ladywood Ward Committee will take place as follows:

• 7pm, Tuesday 20th March 2007
• The Boughton Hall, Ladywood Community & Health Centre, St. Vincent Street West, B16 8RP (http://tinyurl.com/36eftl)

Topics will include:

• Neighbourhood Policing in central Ladywood / Summerfield
• Report from the Environmental Wardens
• Televised report of the Ward Committee meeting on 10 February 2007 relating to the development of Icknield Port Loop

Download a poster for the meeting.

Hope to see you there!

UPDATE 14/03/2007: Agenda just published. You can read it here: http://tinyurl.com/3xadyt

Recent round-up

I've been busy this last week or so:

Thursday 22nd February saw the City Branch AGM. We have a brand spanking new committee, full of ideas and enthusiasm, all determined to make the Branch the place to be for Birmingham's graduates, city centre workers and anyone else who wants to join.

On Thursday 1st March, a load of us from City Branch attended Birmingham University Conservative Future's drinks event at the Mailbox. The event was very well attended, with guests including Caroline Spelman, MP for Meriden and Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Richard Shepherd MP and our very own Cllr Deirdre Alden, Conservative Parliamentary Spokesman for Birmingham Edgbaston. My memory of the evening gets a little hazy towards the end, but I do remember winning a bottle of wine in a raffle I must have entered.

Yesterday saw a record attendance at my canvassing/surveying event in Ladywood ward. We got a lot done - still a lot to do, but hopefully you'll see me or one of my friends before the election on Thursday 3rd May.

After that, we scooted over to Quinton to do some canvassing for Cllr Len Clark, a long-standing and popular local Councillor, who I'm sure is set for victory in May.

Weekend Survey

Along with some other local Conservatives, I spent some time over the weekend surveying parts of Ladywood ward. I spoke to loads of local people and I was very interested in what they had to say. I'm trying to get round all of the ward before the election, so if I haven't come knocking yet, chances are I will!

On a different subject, I'd like to welcome Cllr Stephen Bentley who has left Labour and joined the Conservatives on Telford & Wrekin Council over the weekend, citing disillusionment with the Labour administration. The Conservatives are making constant progress in our region against a backdrop of Labour waste and failure - welcome Cllr Bentley!

Target: Kings Norton

Kings Norton (its park is above) is a ward in the South of Birmingham, and it's one we're going to win on 3rd May. We have a strong candidate in Barbara Wood, and to show my support I'll be leafleting there tomorrow morning. We're all meeting up at about 10.30 am - if you'd like to join us, please drop me a line...

UPDATE 18/02/2007: Yesterday's leafleting went very well - the only snag was that my MP3 player ran out of power before the end...

Ladywood Ward Committee - second post

A few more details have emerged about the next Ladywood Ward Committee:

• Saturday 10th February at 10.00 am
• St. John's and St Peter's Church, Darnley Road, B16 8TF (http://tinyurl.com/yj7l4x)
• Agenda items include a swimming pool for Ladywood ward and a discussion of the Icknield Port Loop development. Download the full agenda at http://tinyurl.com/2xjp8q.

Again, the cheek of the Labour councillors never ceases to amaze me. In power for twenty years, their only achievement was to close Ladywood's only swimming pool at Monument Road. Now that they realise the Conservative-led administration is here to stay, it's on the agenda faster than you can say 'no petting'. Coincidence..?

Also, let's hope that Cllr Hartley controls the meeting a bit better and stops it being used as a sandpit for one or two, and enables it to be a forum for all.

Conference comes to Ladywood ward!

Yesterday, Conservative Chairman Francis Maude MP offically announced that the 2008 and 2010 Party Conferences will be held at the ICC, in our own ward of Ladywood. Francis Maude commented, 'Following the success of our 2006 Spring Forum in Manchester, we are delighted to be bringing our main conference to England's second city.'

This is a massive vote of confidence in Birmingham and its Conservative-led Council under Mike Whitby. The Conference is likely to generate about £20 million of economic activity for the ward and the surrounding area.

I can but wonder whether our own hugely successful City Branch drinks event last December played some small part in the decision...

UPDATE 05/02/2007: Watch The Stirrer's interview with Francis Maude and Mike Whitby about the announcement at http://www.brightcove.com/title.jsp?title=472121918&channel=353512426.

Terrorism-related arrests

I just want to say a few words about the recent arrests in Birmingham under the Terrorism Act. We live in an uncertain and unstable world, and threats can come from anywhere. The police have clearly been working hard behind the scenes in difficult and challenging circumstances. If what we've been hearing in the media is true, the police have foiled a very serious plot and they deserve our gratitude.

For obvious reasons, the police have to remain quite tight-lipped about some of the specifics, in case it affects ongoing operations or the due process of law. However, West Midlands Police did release a statement earlier via the Key Individual Network. You can read the statement at http://tinyurl.com/29zgle.

If you'd like to join the KIN to receive this kind of information, please go to http://tinyurl.com/y5h40t.

At times like these, it can be tempting to believe that the police are deliberately targetting one community or another. However, nothing could be further from the truth - it's just that the nature of the threat means that sometimes it can look that way on the surface. The police are trying to protect us all and and they continue to have my full support.

City and Sandwell General Hospitals: What's happening

Last night, I attended a public meeting at Ladywood Arts & Leisure Centre, discussing the changes at City Hospital and Sandwell General Hospital. Neither is in Ladywood ward, but we're reliant on these hospitals providing a good service.

It's fair to say that the meeting wasn't well attended; this goes for the Ladywood Labour councillors too, none of whom was there.

You can find full details of the proposals at http://www.towards2010swb.nhs.uk/. In summary:

• Concentrate inpatient planned general, orthopaedic and some other surgery at City.


• Concentrate inpatient emergency general/trauma and inpatient lower bowel surgery at Sandwell.


• Create a PDU (Paediatric Assessment Unit) at City.


• Concentrate children's overnight stays at Sandwell.


• Level 1 neonatal unit at Sandwell.


• Level 2 neonatal unit for younger, sicker babies at City.

I asked a question about recruitment of nursing, medical and other staff from developing countries - I don't think we should be depriving these countries of this essential resource, and we should be capable enough of providing our own. I was told that there is no barrier to recruiting anyone from any country. Strange, because I thought that the Labour government had announced a moratorium on recruitment from developing countries. Can anyone shed any light on this?

New con trick in Birmingham city centre

I've just received this email from West Midlands Police that I thought I'd share with you:

Police in central Birmingham would like to take this opportunity to advise you about a new trend whereby pairs of young people, both male and female, are approaching people with clip boards or pieces of paper and allege that they are collecting sponsorship, donations or conducting a survey. These groups speak to and distract victims whilst they are stealing their valuables, sometimes by covering the victim’s property with the clip board or magazine and stealing valuables from underneath.

Some of these offences have been occurring in cafes and pubs.

We ask you to be aware of the security of your belongings. If you have any information or concerns please call Steelhouse Lane police station on 0845 113 5000. Or call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
In an emergency please call 999.

Jewellery Quarter competition

Are you a Jewellery Quarter jeweller? Fancy making a name for yourself?

30 years ago this year, Lord (then Sebastian) Coe won his first major title: the 800 metres at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Spain. Birmingham City Council’s Creative Industries Team is looking for someone to produce a gift for Lord Coe to commemorate his arrival on the international scene, to be presented when he attends this year's Championships at Birmingham's NIA.

There's a £500 prize up for grabs, plus a further £500 for production costs.

The deadline to submit your design is 26 January, with production in February. For further information, contact Shasta Rashid: shasta.rashid@birmingham.gov.uk / 0121 303 2462.

P.S. Prize if anyone can correctly identify the attached trophy...

Ladywood Ward Committee

The next meeting of the Ladywood Ward Committee will take place on Saturday 10th February at St. John's and St Peter's Church, Darnley Road, B16 8TF (http://tinyurl.com/yj7l4x). No further details as yet, including time. Will let you know when I know!

Today's agenda

Sorry things have been a little slow on here over the last couple of weeks - Christmas happened, then I was on holiday over New Year. It turns out that there wasn't a computer at the top of the mountain where I was. Had a great time though, and I'm raring to take on Labour in May.

Today, I'll be out and about round Ladywood taking the photos for this month's leaflet. I'm tempted to go on the offensive regarding Labour's recent activities in the area: this year's candidate Albert Bore has recently been appointed Chair of University Hospital Birmingham by a four-person panel which was selected by a former Labour Councillor and contained another former Labour councillor, a current Labour Councillor and a known Labour supporter. This additional workload is bound to affect how much time he can give to the people of Ladywood.

There also seem to be some strange goings-on in Ladywood's Constituency Labour Party. Elaina Cohen, a defector from the Conservatives, has recently taken up an official position and looks to be manoeuvring to be Labour's next Parliamentary Candidate after Clare Short goes...

(Thanks to Duncan Borrowman for the image.)

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

That's it really - have a great time over the festive season! See you next year...

City Branch 1st Annual Christmas Cocktails and Canapés

Monday's social event of the season went brilliantly. Guest of honour, Rt Hon Francis Maude MP, was on good form. The cocktails were great and so were the canapés! The event was well attended, everyone had a brilliant time and we made a significant amount for Party funds.

Many thanks to the main organisers Louise and Nick, and to our hosts, Bar One Ten.

Hope to see you all next year..!

Birmingham Conservative Manifesto 2007

We're currently drawing up the manifesto for Birmingham's local elections on 3rd May 2007. What would you like to see in it? Leave a comment, or do my online survey!

My new leaflet

The new leaflet for the City Centre and Jewellery Quarter is going out now. In this leaflet, I concentrate on:

1. Postal voting. It can be far easier and more convenient to vote by post. Download the form!

2. City Centre park. The first new City Centre park for over a century is being planned, and the designers have been shortlisted.

3. Safety in the Jewellery Quarter. A network of cameras is going up, and the police are moving to a community policing approach.

4. Achievements since 2004, when the Conservative-led administration took over. Plans to double recycling, £127 million for affordable housing...

5. A short survey on issues affecting you. You can also do it online!

'But Pete, aren't you blogging tactical information, which could be useful to your opponents?' I don't care - bring it on! In fact, you can download my new leaflet here: http://tinyurl.com/yc4ysa.

What happened at the Ladywood Ward Committee

Last night's Ladywood Ward Committee meeting took place at Barford Primary School. Thanks to the school for hosting it - if I'd known there would be sarnies, I wouldn't have brought crisps with me! ;-) Now down to the issues...

Icknield Port Loop Development Initiative

The meeting heard from Planning and the major landowners: Isis, Concept Developments and Advantage West Midlands. First thing to say is that it was encouraging that they attended in the first place and appear genuinely interested in hearing what residents have to say.

Planning's target is to produce a family-friendly development with affordable housing. A draft masterplan for the Loop is being prepared and should be presented to the Committee in early 2007.

Isis is a joint venture company with British Waterways being the major player. Their objective is to do something more creative than just sell off land to the highest bidder. They've been talking to local interest groups (still some work to do there), and consistently found that residents want decent amenities, houses not just apartments, and that congestion along Icknield Port Road needs to be addressed.

Concept Developments is focussing on the Biddle and Webb area and envisage a mixed-user scheme including housing.

Advantage West Midlands is committed to a comprehensive scheme, but this may not take the form of a single planning application as the different players move at different speeds.

I asked whether the owners had spoken to Joe Holyoak, who recently presented a development plan for Edgbaston Reservoir (pictured). The areas are contiguous, and it's important that both schemes are consistent and sympathetic with each other. All said that they had.

One attendee made a very good speech about the owners getting excited about the development, looking at it as an opportunity to bring some European-class architecture to the area, and putting Ladywood on the map. Couldn't agree more.

All in all, a good start.

Summerfield and North Summerfield Housing

A brief but informative report told us that the current aim is to reduce the number of houses that have been converted into flats, and the amount of antisocial behaviour, including prostitution.

The investment in the area (e.g. better railings), had led to landlords putting their own money into the area, a sort of virtuous circle. Anyone who's visited the area recently will be aware of the transformation that's taken place over the last couple of years, and the Council hopes to use the project as a model to roll out across similar areas.

Barford School Playground Extension

There have been many objections over several years to this scheme; one of the main issues is that it requires altering a public right of way. A public enquiry is unlikely and final approval is in progress.

Asset Management Planning

Little to say about this one other than Ward service delivery will follow a hub-and-spoke model, with major centres delivering the bulk of services, and smaller distributed centres delivering a scaled-down equivalent.

Meeting Conduct

I was very unhappy with the way the meeting was conducted by Cllr Kath Hartley. One or two people were allowed to dominate, sometimes speaking flippantly for no apparent reason. In particular, I was shocked that an allegation of racism (albeit semi-serious) from one member of the public was allowed, with virtually no comment from the three Councillors present. The meeting is descending into a playground, and it must be stopped.

Additionally, Cllr Hartley waited for the owners of the land at Icknield Port Loop to leave, before asking members of the public to lobby more vocally for a swimming pool at the site the next time this comes up for discussion! Labour was in power in Birmingham for twenty years, and the only thing they achieved was closing Ladywood's only swimming pool at Monument Road. Now that they're out of power, they've put it on the agenda again, and they're asking the public to come in on this political maneuvering. Desperate...

Monthly drinks last night...

Last night, we had the City Branch monthly drinks event at Utopia The Bar on Church Street in the City Centre. It was great to see some new faces, especially the guys from Birmingham University Conservative Future. The evening was a mix of lively discussion, a few laughs, and a few beers.

BUCF have some great events coming up, in particular Boris Johnson is paying them a visit on Friday 1st December. I've seen Boris speak at a few events, and he's great - it's always worth making the effort to go and see him.

City Branch has a wine tasting event next week, on Thursday 23rd November at Centenary Plaza, Holliday Street. Eight different wines with expert tuition for the bargain price of £10. Contact social@citybranch.org for more info!

Ladywood Ward Committee 20/11/2006

The Ladywood Ward Committee will meet as follows:

• Monday 20th November 2006
• 7pm
• The Hall, Barford Primary School, Barford Road, Birmingham, B16 0EF

Items on the agenda include:

• Icknield Port Loop Development
• Issues concerning Summerfield and North Summerfield Area
• Barford School Playground Extension

You can download the full agenda at http://tinyurl.com/y3kpeh.

Hope to see you there!

What happened at the City Centre Neighbourhood Forum Public Meeting

The City Centre Neighbourhood Forum Public Meeting was on Monday 23rd at the Council House. It was quite well attended considering it was a cold night in late October - a quick show of hands told us that the leafleting we did was the main reason people attended.

Chief Superintendent Debbie Harrod, who is in charge of city centre policing. Main points:

• 96.1% of city centre visitors feel safe.
• Priorities are violent crime, business crime and retail crime.
• The local police are currently moving to the neighbourhood policing model.
• The police have a long-standing policy of never responding to building or car alarms - if you want them to attend, you'll need to describe a crime.
• They have an 'architectural liaison officer' to ensure that new developments are built with security (e.g. CCTV) in mind.

I asked the Chief Superintendent whether she was confident the police know where everyone lives, which is obviously important if we need to evacuate again. She replied that she was not confident and that you should contact the police on their non-emergency number 0845 113 5000 if you wish to make sure. I do wonder whether there should be a more proactive approach from the police on this one...

Lots of interesting questions from people, although probably too many on specific incidents, which of course the Chief Superintendent found it hard to comment on.

Phil Brook, recycling officer for Birmingham City Council. Main points:

• Each Birmingham household produces an average of 3/4 ton of domestic waste each year!
• Birmingham's recycling performance is 'about average' when compared with other large metropolitan areas.
• Last year's 18% target was almost hit.
• Next year's 20% target should be hit.
• This is against a background of waste production increasing by 2-3% per year.
• Some of Birmingham's paper-based waste goes to a local cardboard mill - this is more tolerant of paper types than paper mills.
• At present, only 1/4 of households receive a recycling collection.

Some interesting questions and answers again - possibly too much technical information though. Phil asked all of us to contact his office to arrange recycling collections for our buildings (currently almost no-one has one). Phil can be contacted on 303 1935. I suggested that someone in the Council should sit down with the Yellow Pages and phone all the management companies - there can't be that many!

Bob Blackaby spoke last (and briefly) on a new survey for city centre residents. I remember doing one about five years ago when I moved in from Selly Oak. He will be surveying about 12,000 properties and was looking for suggestions for survey questions. I made the point that the main three issues people talk to me about are (a) noise (b) planning (c) car parking and these should be reflected in the survey.

That's all for now...

A little bit introspective but...

news.com has some really good pictures of the worst (chiefly US) political websites.

When I started blogging, I promised myself that I wouldn't be like many other political bloggers out there, and try to appeal to non-bloggers. So I'll make this my yearly introspective entry then...

Clare Short finally does the inevitable...

According to Guido Fawkes, Clare Short has resigned the Labour whip. More details when I get them...

Update 24/10/2006: I've left the dust to settle before posting again. The BBC News website has a good article detailing what's happened. As you might expect, she's given the New Labour government both barrels, talking about an '...arrogant, error-prone government...' and '...the prime minister engaged in a series of half-truths and deceits to get us to war in Iraq.'

Strong stuff, but she did stand on a Labour platform barely eighteen months ago when she was reelected. When interviewed on Radio 4's PM programme a few days ago, she refused to be drawn on whether she should be standing down as an MP to give the electorate an opportunity to decide if they're happy with this fundamental (and it is fundamental) shift in her status. It seemed obvious to me that she thought that instigating a by-election would be the right thing to do, which is why she stuck to the 'we'll have to agree to disagree' line.

Harborne - a hotbed of political activity

Harborne is a suburb in South Birmingham, in Edgbaston Constituency. I was there this morning at the Farmers' Market to promote the Conservative's Action Day on the NHS, along with Deirdre Alden, Parliamentary Spokeswoman for Edgbaston. We were there last month too, but it looks like Labour's trying to rip us off, because they also turned up today. They sloped off before the market finished, but what can you do..?

See you there next month..!

Siôn of the Red

Birmingham Labour MP Siôn Simon's pointless video 'parodying' David Cameron has been removed from YouTube. I'm a fan of political satire, but Siôn forgot the golden rule: it has to be funny in the first place...

City Centre Neighbourhood Forum

The Birmingham City Centre Neighbourhood Forum is holding a public meeting this month. The Forum exists to represent the interests of City Centre residents and is supported by the Council. This meeting will hear from:

• Chief Superintendent Debbie Harrod, discussing the new licensing laws
• Bob Blackaby, talking about how City Centre living has changed over the last 5-10 years
• Phil Brook, a Council recycling officer, explaining recycling options for City Centre residents

• Location: Council House, Victoria Square
• Date: Monday 23rd October 2006
• Time: 7pm

The meetings are always well attended and informative. I hope to see you there!

At conference... part 2

Just a couple of conference highlights:

Fringe meeting by 'big swinger' Grant Shapps MP about how to win elections. Personally, I think it's the kind of thing that every delegate should attend. Great advice.

Tory Reform Group fringe meeting on foreign policy, attended by (among others) Sir Christopher Meyer. I've blogged about this already, but what a great speaker.

Meeting up with some old and new friends, for example my old university chum Jo Shinn, now political reporter for the BBC Asian Network. She's done brilliantly since those days at York. You go girl!

David Cameron's speech. A true performer, and a real sense that the Conservatives are back in business.

At conference...

...finally. After arriving on Sunday, I was only issued with my Conference pass this morning. Didn't seem to matter that I'd delivered the form personally to our regional office in Coleshill in August - they had no record that I'd ever applied. After numerous taxi rides to get new photos taken, tracking down someone with a cheque book (credit cards are apparently too new fangled to be accepted), I then had to wait for the inevitable 'police checks' to be done. I'm sure the Treaty of Versailles was negotiated in a shorter time.

We need a full investigation into this fiasco, and not by some party mandarin - someone independent and credible.

On the plus side, I went to some great fringe events. It was a particular pleasure to listen to Sir Christopher Meyer, a former high-ranking British diplomat. Incredibly engaging and informative. Well done to the Tory Reform Group for organising it.

Why there is no hope under New Labour

I rarely blog about national political issues as there are others who do it far better than me, but today there's something I want to talk about.

Earlier this week, I was listening to the normally innocuous Radio 4 programme, Word of Mouth. It addresses issues of language, word usage and so on. Eighteen minutes into the programme, they started talking about something that almost made me crash my car. Visit the Word of Mouth website and click 'Listen to the latest edition.' I promise it's worth it.

The presenter Michael Rosen had two guests: former management consultant David Craig, author of Plundering the Public Sector, and Tony Thorne, author of Shoot The Puppy.

They quote Blair in a speech on the public sector, '...whether it's the transformation in primary schools... all of them have actually been through change and reform, and that's why it has to be continued and extended.'

David Craig speaks from his experiences as a management consultant, '...we wanted to sell bigger projects, lots of consultants, and big IT systems. And we came up with this idea of organisational transformation. We published a book called Transforming the Organisation... When our book came out, the Economist reviewer said that any client stupid enough to buy this concept of transformation would find that he was employing an army of consultants for a century... But the thing really took off under New Labour, who adopted the tranformation concept hook, line and sinker... Guys, we didn't mean it seriously, nobody actually needs to buy transformation, it was only a trick, only a way of selling lots and lots of consulting with lots of IT systems behind it.'

Here's another Blair quote: 'But recently we have moved increasingly from a centrally driven approach - necessary to address the worst of the problems we inherited - to try to make change self-sustaining by the use of incentives, user choice and contestability of service.'

Of course, this sentence is meaningless jargon. According to Craig, it really means '...we're going to privatise anything that moves...' Blair can't use the word 'privatisation' because everyone knows what it means. Similarly, 'constestability' equals competition; it's been deliberately smuggled in amongst a load of other buzzwords to get the message across without anyone noticing.

Craig explains that Government policy is formed and implemented by the Downing Street Strategy Unit, run by a McKinsey & Company consultant, and the Downing Street Delivery Unit, run by an Accenture consultant. Craig continues, 'Under New Labour, most of our policies are made and implemented by management consultants, which is why we see politicians speaking like management consultants.'

Gordon Brown doesn't miss out, '...the means by which we can personalise services for the patient, pupil or citizen and enable professionals, like you here today, to pioneer innovative approaches to delivering these services and drive up standards all round.'

Craig again, 'Many people assume that this person Gordon Brown is the dour, down-to-earth Scotsman... not at all like Tony Blair... but actually what we're seeing here is the worst case of being struck by jargon than Tony Blair ever had... it's completely out of control.'

(David Cameron got a bit of a ticking-off for using the phrase 'to leverage', but it's hardly in the same league.)

Massive hat tip to Michael Rosen, David Craig, Tony Thorne and all the BBC Word of Mouth team for helping to expose a serious political issue at least as well as their colleagues at BBC News.

Goodbye Clare

If the reports are true, Ladywood's MP Clare Short will be standing down at the next election. But who wants a lame duck? Maybe she should do what her leader should be doing: going now. You can read my further thoughts on this (and the thoughts of others) by following the link...

Update 14/09/2006: Despite being known in the blogosphere since the start of the week, this information has finally made the national media. One of the more bizzarre reports I heard today is that Clare Short will be campaigning for a deliberate hung Parliament. Surely this can't be true... can it..?

Ladywood Ward Committee

The next Ladywood Ward Committee will take place on Monday 18th September, 7pm at Training Room 4, St Thomas Children's Centre, Bell Barn Road, Lee Bank, Birmingham (http://tinyurl.com/hlfhy).

As always, matters of great importance are discussed, including:

1. New Street Station. I'll like to see some meat on the bones of this one, rather than just hearing all the time about what a great shopping experience it will be.
2. City Centre Parking. Something I've kept a very keen eye on..!
3. Swimming Pool for Ladywood ward. I'll be interested to see the Labour councillors explaining why they closed down Ladywood's only public swimmming pool about 15 years ago, and they're only revisiting the issue now that we're in control...

See you there!

Get connected

West Midlands Police have implemented the Voice Connect Relay system, which is a way of keeping you in touch with ongoing events and issues in Birmingham city centre, for example security alerts. I susbscribed to the service a few weeks ago and it works - today, I received information via phone and email regarding the evacuation of New Street Station. (It turned out to be a false alarm.)

The service is free to all residents of Birmingham city centre. If you'd like to subscribe, you can download the form from http://tinyurl.com/lhnux.

My new leaflet

If you live in the City Centre or Jewellery Quarter, you should be receiving my new leaflet around about now. Localised leaflets for other parts of Ladywood ward will be hitting the streets soon too...

I look forward to seeing you at City Branch's next City Centre drinks event: Thursday 21st September at 7pm, Utopia The Bar, Church St (http://tinyurl.com/lrzj8).

Older people in Ladywood getting a better deal

As the country's population gets older, appropriate care for older people is becoming more and more of an issue. Should the NHS be taking the lead, or should local authorities be doing more to prevent this so-called bed blocking? What about care at home?

Research has shown that older people prefer to live independently as much as possible, for as long as possible. Not rocket science really, is it..?

On Friday, our Conservative-led Council announced that it was spending £44 million on new Special Care Centres for older people. These centres will be located in communities, and offer a range of services, including:

1. Long-term care for dementia patients
2. Short-term care for those in the process of returning from hospital to their own homes
3. Day services such as physiotherapy, stroke clinics and well-being classes

The first of these centres will be The Beeches, a 64-bed centre in Ladywood ward. Good news.

Blogtastic

Blogs are ten-a-penny these days (unless you're David Miliband), but I thought I'd take a moment to mention the blog of a very good friend of mine, Praguetory (http://www.praguetory.blogspot.com/).

PT's got a very interesting slant on a number of issues, and his articles always seem to attract comments from all over the place. Always good to see the perspective of someone living outside the UK too.

P.S. Not been very active these last couple of weeks because I've been on holiday, but if you live in the City Centre or Jewellery Quarter, you should be receiving my new leaflet anytime now...