October Diary

Tue 1 October - 7:30pm
Acocks Green Neighbourhood Forum - Acocks Green Baptist Church

Fri 4 October - 6:30pm
Surgery - Community Room, Archbishop Ilsley

Tue 8 October - 2pm
Full Council - Council Chamber, Council House (livestreamed - #bcclive)

Fri 11 October - 6:30pm
Surgery - Community Room, Archbishop Ilsley

Mon 14 October - 10am
Partnership, Contract Performance and Third Sector O&S - Committee Rooms 3 and 4, Council House
(livestreamed - #bcclive)

Tue 15 October
5:30pm - Housing Liaison Board - Common Room, St Mary's Close
7:30pm - Hazelwood Road Residents' Association - Hopkins Room, Acocks Green Methodist Church

Fri 18 October - 6:30pm
10am - Transport, Connectivity and Sustainability Overview and Scrutiny Committee - Committee Rooms 3 and 4, Council House

6:30pm - Surgery - Community Room, Archbishop Ilsley

Wed 23 October - 7pm
Acocks Green Ward Committee - Fox Hollies Forum

Thu 24 October - 12:15pm
Hall Green, Hodge Hill and Yardley Gardening Competition - Cascades, Stechford

Fri 25 October - 6:30pm
Surgery - Community Room, Archbishop Ilsley

This isn't by any means an exhaustive list of what I do - just the public meetings, although some are invitation only. 

This used to be in the sidebar, but I'm having problems posting it there. 

Gospel Farm Estate Update - Operation Seabreeze

Last week, there was a meeting including the police, local youth groups, Cllr Barry Bowles from Hall Green ward (which includes a chunk of the Gospel and has also suffered from problems) and some parents and young people from the Gospel Estate. We really wanted to hear from the young people on the estate, identify their problems and try to find some common ground so that we can move forward. We'll be putting together a programme of diversionary activities - subject to funding being secured - and we'll try to meet some of their needs. Hopefully, at least one of the young men will get the golden opportunity of joining a new intake to the Prince's Trust programme - it is an opportunity, because he still has to want to succeed and change his own life. We want to support them, but they also know what the police - and the community - aren't prepared to tolerate. There's something of a deal to be struck here and room for mutual understanding.

The police have also applied for - and just been granted a dispersal order covering the Gospel Estate. This will be in force from the 14 October 2013 to the 14 April 2014 in the first instance. This gives uniformed police and community support officers the power to ask any group of two or more persons to disperse immediately or by a stated time. The officer has to have reasonable grounds to believe that the presence of these people may result in any member of the public being intimidated, harassed, alarmed or distressed. Between 9pm and 6am, they also have the power to take young people under the age of 16 back to their homes. This has had support from councillors in both wards, although I've been very clear with the police that I expect this power to be used with discretion and common sense.

Odds and Ends

From the eternal snaglist:

Lighting column repaired on Langworth Avenue
Reported at about 1am and fixed the following morning. Not bad service there from Amey. Failed street lights have also been repaired on Merstowe Close, Warwick Road and Mayfield Road.

Street nameplates for repair
Oakhurst Road and Weates Yard are both on the replacement list, now.

Graffiti cleared from Acocks Green
Our EDL tagger returned. Not standing for that, nor the APL tag that they also use. The paint used etched itself into the lexan screen of the bus stop, so that has had to be replaced. The police are reviewing the CCTV footage.

Litter bin relocated
Acocks Green School requested that the bin fixed to the railings outside the school be relocated closer to the bus stop. This was done once the bus shelter had been replaced and one of the new bins was fitted.

Give way sign repaired
This was reported through Twitter and has been repaired.

Bollards to be repaired
Station Road/Dudley Park Road/Sherborne Road - these have suffered repeat damage and one light is to be repaired and one bollard reattached to the base.

Guardrail repairs
The damage to the guard rail on the roundabout at the junction of Shirley Road and Olton Boulevard East is scheduled to be repaired - it looks like a car has gone straight into it.

Flyposting cleared
I had my tree loppers out and removed some illegally fixed signs along roads in the ward - the signs have been passed to our Environmental Health Officer so that the company involved can be reminded of the rules. A taxi firm attached a banner to railings in the Green - that's now been removed. If people want to sponsor the roundabout, we can talk! That cab firm are not in my good books after they splattered every piece of highway furniture with stickers.

Problems with logo collar on poles
A couple of the collars with the embossed fox logo that go around some of the new street furniture - particularly the finger sign post and the plant hanger - have sheared. The manufacturers have been called back to fix the problem.

Severn Trent access covers damaged
Spotted a couple of the pavement stop tap access covers that were damaged or missing - Severn Trent have now replaced them on The Avenye and Victoria Road.