Have You Got What It Takes to be a Games Maker?

Today sees the launch of the London 2012 Games Maker programme. If you'll be 18 or over by 1st January 2012, you can volunteer to be a Games Maker - the Young Games Maker programme is coming in 2011 for younger volunteers.

This is your chance to be involved in something very special and historic. And this isn't just an opportunity for Londoners - for example, some of the football matches will be played at Coventry City's ground. Here's a map of all of the venues.

Get registering at http://is.gd/f8fMX.

Quinton Football Tournament and Family Day Coming Soon!

Don't forget that the Quinton Football Tournament and Family Day will take place on Saturday 25th September from 11am until 3pm at Tennal Park, off Tennal Lane.

The main activity will be the 6-a-side ‘World Cup’ for local schools, but there'll also be:

• Under 5’s Corner
• Face Painting
• Words on Wheels Bus
• Health Bus & Health Checks

The following stalls and services will also be there:

• Local Police
• Local healthcare
• Fire Service
• Children’s Centre
• and many others

For further information, please telephone Sophie Keene, Neighbourhood Manager, on 303 4989, Ken Brown, Ward Support Officer, on 303 2501 or Jo Reeves, Safe Haven Officer, on 626 6054.

The Challenge - Part Two

I returned to Four Dwellings High School today to talk to another group of 16-year-olds doing The Challenge. This group wanted to campaign to reduce alcohol consumption and consequently crime in Quinton. Again, we discussed a few ideas about how I could help. So I'd better get on with it!

Supporting The Challenge

Today, I was very pleased to meet with a group of 16-year-olds who are all doing The Challenge, which takes place in the summer after Year 11.

The programme consists of lots of different activities, including some you design yourself. It lasts two-and-a-half weeks full-time during the summer, plus four days over the following five weekends.

This particular group has decided to campaign around road safety in Quinton, which is something that the local Councillors and Police have been working hard to improve over the last few years. We talked for about an hour, exchanging ideas about how they could campaign and how I could help. They were also interested in what being a Councillor is really like, so maybe we'll see some of them in the Chamber in a few years.

It was great to see some young people engaging so positively in such an important topic, and I wish them well in their campaign.

If you'd like to find out more about what this group are doing, please visit their website (http://qrsc.blogspot.com/) or follow them on Twitter (http://twitter.com/QRSChallenge).

For more details, about The Challenge in general, please visit www.the-challenge.org, call on 020 7921 4203 or text on 07503 849738.

Getting It Done

Local residents raised a few issues at the recent Quinton Ward Committee meeting - here is a progress update:

1. The two large bags of soil have now been removed from Quinton Road West, opposite Four Dwellings School.

2. Litter reported at the side of Tesco in Ridgeacre Lane. The Council has made two site inspections; however, nothing unusual has been identified as yet. The Ward cleaning crew have been directed to monitor this area and carry out additional cleansing as appropriate.

3. Knotweed reported at a particular address. This has been passed to the Housing and Parks Departments who are investigating, and obtaining a quote for dealing with it.

4. Alleged litter spillage and recycling crew throwing boxes around Lower White Road. The Ward Manager has interviewed the crew about their behaviour and reminded them of their obligations. The Council is performing additional performance monitoring.

5. Bin bags out too early in Hollybush Grove. The whole of the Grove was delivered a leaflet detailing their collection days and asking people to comply. If this doesn't work, the Council may need to involve the wardens and look at enforcement action. The Council also delivered similar leaflets to Four Acres, Six Acres and parts of Quinton Lane.

6. The missing litter bin on Quinton Lane has now been replaced.

7. Missed bulky waste collection at a particular address. The items were cleared on the Saturday following the meeting, and only counted as one of the occupier's three free collections.

8. Access to containers blocked by parked cars on Simmons Drive. This was passed to Housing, as they are responsible for the land where the nuisance parking is happening. Housing has written a newletter to the block's residents about the inappropriate parking. The Estates Services team will be monitoring the parking outside the block and placing notices. Ultimately, we may liaise with the local Police to find out who owns any problem cars.

Anything else, let me know!

Today's Health and Adults Overview and Scrutiny Committee

Today saw the monthly meeting of the Health and Adults Overview and Scrutiny Committee. I haven't blogged about this for a while but I thought it was time that I did again...

We spent quite a lot of time talking about 'Delayed Transfers of Care', commonly known as 'bed blocking'. Something that seemed to interest everyone was the level of 'reimbursement for delayed discharges', commonly known as 'fines', that may have been levied on the Council for not being ready to accept discharges (for whatever reason). We should have some definite numbers for the next meeting.

I was interested to know what the actual consequences of bed blocking are: if someone needs a bed, does this mean that they might not get one? It seems that this happens rarely and the main consequences are that more beds are provisioned than need to be, and there's sometimes quite a lot of work involved in finding someone a bed. So the consequences are serious but apparently more financial than clinical.

We also had quite a long discussion on the white paper published by the Department of Health called 'Equity and excellence: Liberating the NHS'. This proposes massive changes to the way that the NHS is organised, many of which I've blogged about before. The response must be in by 11th October, so we need to get our skates on.

We received a short presentation on mental health services for older people. This was interesting and clarified in my mind why older people need specific mental health services, and the point of a separate Foundation Trust for mental health in the first place.

But in my view, the most important comments were made by Jim McManus, Joint Director of Public Health for the Birmingham Health and Wellbeing Partnership during his presentation. According to Mr McManus, in Birmingham:

1. Last winter, there were 48 preventable deaths.

2. Primary care is one of the major contributors to avoidable deaths.

3. We do prevention very badly.

In the world of scrutiny, bad news is often couched in fluffy sentences and I was taken by the directness and seriousness of these comments. Through the Chairman, I have asked Mr McManus to furnish the Committee with further information; if we have enough time to look at joint commissioning strategies, needs assessments and the like, we definitely should make time to investigate these comments further.

Planned Mobile Phone Mast Outside Toby Carvery (aka The Hollybush), Hagley Road West

I have recently been informed that Vodafone plans to install a 48-foot-high mobile phone mast outside Toby Carvery (aka The Hollybush), Hagley Road West.

I went down there today to investigate; the mast would be located between the phone box and the bus shelter on the left hand side of this photo.

The mast would be located at the following distances from local schools and nurseries.

1. Happy Days Nursery: 0.2 miles

2. Woodhouse School: 0.5 miles

3. World’s End Primary School: 0.6 miles

4. Four Dwellings Primary and Secondary Schools: 0.7 miles

5. Our Lady of Fatima School: 0.8 miles

6. Grasshoppers Nursery: 0.8 miles

7. Welsh House Farm Primary School: 1 mile

If you would like to object to these plans, please complete the petition at http://is.gd/e8PQh.

Alternatively, return a paper version of the petition at http://is.gd/e8UCa. No stamp is required.

More Hagley Road Plans

If you live at the western end of Quinton Ward, you might be particularly interested in the planned alterations to Hagley Road to accommodate the proposed Netto supermarket. You can find them here:

http://is.gd/dumrJ

Ss Faith and Laurence Family Fun Day

After my advice bureau at the Quinborne Centre, I went to Ss Faith and Laurence's annual Family Fun Day on the corner of Court Oak Road and (the newly resurfaced) Croftdown Road.

Politicians have a reputation, sometimes undeserved, sometimes not, for turning up at fêtes and the like, cutting the ribbon, having their photo taken and disappearing. So I made sure I visited all of the stands and talked to as many of the exhibitors as I could.

I had some interesting chats with people from Troop Aid, The University of The Third Age, Cerebral Palsy Midlands, Queen Alexandra College, Positive Parenting, Quinton Local History Society, The Crossway, Beech Lanes Neighbourhood Forum and many others. We discussed ways that the Council as a whole or local Councillors in particular may be able to help - hopefully we'll be able to take some of the ideas forward.

Well done to Reverend White and all at Ss Faith and Laurence for putting on such a great event - already looking forward to next year.

Hagley Road Improvements

The Conservative-led Council has recently published proposals that are intended to reduce congestion and improve traffic flow into and out of the City Centre along Hagley Road. You can have a look at them here:

http://is.gd/dlF0Y

http://is.gd/dlF8u

http://is.gd/dlFba

If you'd like to comment, please let me know your views, or email craig.newton@birmingham.gov.uk by Friday 16th July.

Great News for Bus Users in Welsh House Farm

From 25^th July, the 636 bus will be extended from its current terminus at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital into the City Centre, terminating on Upper Dean Street, close to the markets. This will provide direct access to the City Centre for residents of Welsh House Farm.

Get your bus pass out!

STOP PRESS: Four Dwellings Building Schools for the Future Scheme to Continue

There has been some uncertainty lately about the fate of the Four Dwellings Building Schools for the Future scheme, as the new Government works to manage the £156bn budget deficit it inherited.

The Government today announced that the Four Dwellings scheme will continue to completion, which is excellent news. We may see some changes to the plans to ensure that best value is achieved, but the scheme will carry on.

You can read more in the Department for Education's press release:

http://www.education.gov.uk/news/news/bsf-review

At Harborne Carnival

Up at eight this morning to get to Harborne High Street in time for the annual Carnival. Quinton ward includes an area that most people would consider to be part of Harborne, so it's good to support this event.

Lots of people came to visit the stall and there was a great atmosphere. Looking forward to next year already!

Labour’s Legacy – The Last Will and Testament of Labour 1997–2010

To my successors, I leave no money, only waste, debt and the deepest cuts of modern times.

To the young people of Britain, I leave one in five of you without work.

To pensioners, I bequeath you lower pensions. I reduced the value of pension funds by billions. I leave you working longer for less.

In 13 years, I have wasted the inheritance left to me.

Of the gold bullion my predecessors bequeathed me, I sold over 350 tonnes at the worst possible price.

I have spent and spent and spent again - and every man, woman and child will have £22,400 to pay for my profligacy.

I have taken your hard-earned money and wasted it. I lost £3 billion in benefit overpayments and paid the dead £10 million in tax credits.

I leave Britain a bigger deficit than France, Germany and Japan, greater than Greece, Italy and Portugal.

I leave 2.47 million of you without a job.

With more time I could have done more.

I leave no apology, no regret, no comfort, and not an ounce of contrition.

I leave you years of painful and difficult decisions.

This is my legacy to you.

From the document here.

Quinton Ward Committee

The next Quinton Ward Committee will take place at 7pm on Thursday 3rd June at the Quinborne Centre, Ridgacre Road, Quinton, B32 2TW.

You can find the agenda and more details at http://is.gd/ctdzd.

All change - in Quinton and in Westminster

Now everything's calmed down a bit, it's time to write about the last couple of weeks.

Firstly Quinton. I'm very sad that we've lost Jane James as one of the local Councillors. Jane ran a very good campaign, and the narrowness of the overall result (just 150 votes or so) reflected this. Jane was a great Councillor and will be sorely missed. Hopefully this will just be a temporary 'holiday' away from Council and Ward business.

Our Parliamentary Candidate Deirdre Alden was also unlucky not to win the Constituency by a similarly narrow margin (about 1,200 votes). Deirdre is a very genuine and hard-working person and has dedicated herself to the campaign for many years. I do hope that we'll still see lots of her in Quinton.

Now to more positive news. Naturally, I would like to welcome the new government as it starts work on its programme of change. The coalition of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, with the Conservatives as the larger party, mirrors the progressive partnership we’ve had in Birmingham for the past six years. We’ve demonstrated locally that such an arrangement can be stable, successful and can be made to work for everyone’s benefit.

I thought it would be useful to pick out a few key policies that are particularly relevant to Quinton.

1. Council Tax will be frozen for at least one year, possibly longer. It won’t be difficult for us to meet this challenge locally as we’ve only had below-inflation rises since the current partnership entered office. The Council will also publish details of all spending above £500.

2. The local Council will be given new powers to make it much harder for people to build by ‘garden grabbing’. Unfortunately, we’ve seen quite a lot of this in Quinton and the Council has been powerless to act until now.

3. The local Police will be made more accountable and responsive to local needs through oversight by a directly elected person.

4. We will give the Council and the local Police powers to permanently close places that persistently sell alcohol to youngsters, and double the maximum fine for doing so. We will also ban the irresponsible sale of alcohol as a ‘loss leader’; that is, below cost price.

5. Communities, charities, parents and teachers will be able to set up their own local schools.

I look forward to working with the new government as it puts these policies into action.

Two hours left!

Just got time to do a quick post - you've got about two hours left to vote for Jane James and Deirdre Alden. Polling stations open until 10pm and you don't need your polling card to vote!

Quinborne Open Day, Saturday 22nd May

Hope you can make it!

Happy St George's Day - Birmingham's No 1 for Events!

Can I wish everyone in Quinton Ward a very Happy St George's Day. I don't believe I'm alone in thinking that this particular day may have been a little overlooked in the past, but no longer, and certainly not in Birmingham.

The independent group StGeorgesHoliday.com has ranked Conservative-led Birmingham City Council No 1 in commitment to St George's Day events, beating Manchester into second place. Something else to celebrate today!

Manifesto Launched in Birmingham

Today in Birmingham, as well as the monthly meeting of the Council, we also had the regional launch of the Conservative Manifesto for the General Election.

Any accusations that we're light on policy were firmly put to bed today, if they were ever true in the first place. Among the tons of policies in the manifesto, here are a few corkers:

1. We will reverse Labour's unnecessary and damaging National Insurance increase.

2. We will implement an emergency Budget within 50 days to get rid of most of Labour's budget deficit - the largest racked up by any government in peacetime.

3. We will give parents the opportunity to take over and run schools themselves. Not an 'abdication of responsibility', which is what Labour's Parliamentary Candidate thinks, but a policy to give power and control back to ordinary people, which has to be better than Labour's centralised state targets.

4. We will allow everyone to choose any healthcare provider they want that meets NHS standards and prices.

5. We will get rid of mixed-sex wards, unlike Labour who pretended to.

6. We will give Birmingham City Council the right to shut places that sell alcohol to underage teenagers.

7. We will implement a points system and a ceiling on non-EU economic migrants to the UK. Labour's policy has no ceiling.

8. We will cut the number of MPs by 10%. (Yes, the Tories do cut some things!)

9. We will reintroduce the link between earnings and the basic state pension.

10. We will start building the high-speed rail link between London and Birmingham immediately.

And here's one that might have passed you by - we will substantially reduce the amount of government advertising and use the money saved to keep your Council Tax down. Has anyone else noticed the sheer number of government adverts at the moment? I was listening to the radio the other day and virtually every advert in every break was a government one of one form or another.

So there you have it. Vote for change - vote Conservative.