Councillor Mike Flower

Uploaded from mobile phone by Cllr Mike Flower.

While out leafletting with Keith this evening we spotted a bizzare bit of signage on the Lichfield Road in Sandhills. 40mph or 30mph?!!! Look closely….

A happy St Georges day to you all. I popped down to the Council House this morning and was pleased to see the flag of St George flying above the Council House. Even better - i’ve been told that the Council will start flying the Union flag on a daily basis. Good stuff!

May is nearly here and elections loom once again. Having been re-elected last year its not my turn this time but that of my colleague Keith Sears. How quickly the year has gone. In fact how quickly the year and a half have gone. It doesn’t seem like yesterday since I was plodding around in the rain, in dark November, delivering leaflets and knocking as many doors as I could. November 23rd is now 18 months ago! So much has happened and has been and gone - and yet so much remains the same. If you’d have said to me 18 months ago that i’d be walking around Walsall Wood as a councillor with David Cameron then I probably would have laughed long and hard!

Its a good time to reflect on some of the things i’ve done over the past year - starting with committees.

Development Control: This has been my favourite committee and one I feel I made a difference on. We met every three weeks and meetings have often run from 5:30 to 9pm and beyond. But its good to have a different perspective on things, fight for a bit of common sense and my overarching theme is that I am unwilling to sit there rubber stamping issues. Otherwise we might as well delegate the lot and go home! This evening we had another case. 304 houses/flats to be built in Darlaston. Multi million pound scheme that needs to last a century and house thousands of people. Considering they were going to have to contribute a lot of money to the Council (ie - the taxpayers of the Borough) it needed to be got right. Yet we turn up to find that discussions are ongoing and six pages of extra information is tabled. I was pleased to get the application deffered. We can’t decide on something that is still a work in progress. We owe it to the taxpayer and to people that will live there in the future. A little bit more time will give everyone something to enjoy. I’ve managed to get some mobile phone masts turned down too. I’ve won some battles and lost others. Its been a good experience.

LEA Governor’s Appointment Panel: does what it says on the tin really. I’ve been vice chair for the year and never had to chair a meeting yet (before you ask I get no extra allowance for that and quite right too!). They last about ten minutes and to be honest it really is a rubber stamping exercise. Still someone has to do it and it’s been done.

Regeneration Scrutiny: I’m not really sure what to make of the scrutiny process. Some discussions we had on skills and development in the town centre have been really interesting and we’ve had good input into. Other than that i’ve not found it that rewarding - personally. All the councillors on there have been a pleasure to work with. It did give me a constant excuse to keep mentioning Shire Oak junction!

Full Council: Met every eight weeks when all sixty councillors get together. Really its an official opportunity to question the portfolio holders on the cabinet, propose motions and approve reports that become policy. The cabinet is the real decision making body now so Full Council’s main roles are to approve the Budget and appoint the Leader and Cabinet. A lot of these meetings have been long and not the most effective. I fear that is always going to be the case when you get 60 of us in one room together! Still a 2.9% tax rise is good incomparison to other councils and below inflation.

LNP and CAG meetings: It feels like these are every three to four weeks but they vary. I have to admit I am not the greatest fan of this system because i’m not sure it is entirely effective. We tried to get a community action group to focus on Walsall Wood - which was voted down. Thats meant we’ve had to do a lot of our work outside of the LNP system to keep momentum going - like the Walsall Wood Regeneration. There’s nothing wrong with that. I think LNPs are still trying to work out what they are there for. In terms of public engagement however ours hasn’t been the most effective - I think I counted 5 members of the public at the last LNP meeting. I have to admit I quite like Birmingham City Council’s ward committee system which seems to work quite well. Might be something to look at in the future.

Walsall Wood Allotment Charity: Another productive meeting which occurs every four weeks. We’ve managed to help a lot of people out who are struggling and hopefully brought a bit of light to a few people.

University of Birmingham Court: Its been a busy year at the University with high level management changes and the restructuring of the University into a college system. Once the changes have settled in the real challenge now is for Birmingham to strive to be that best University outside of Oxbridge/London. It has ambitions that will not only help Birmingham but the wider West Midlands and Walsall aswell.

So those are just a few of the meetings I go to officially. More thoughts on the year over the next few days….

Have a look at his latest video at: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=kO1uKS3MHXg

We were thrilled yesterday to welcome the Conservative Party Leader, David Cameron MP, to Walsall Wood. He came to visit one of our primary schools - Walsall Wood JMI - which is the most improving school in the Borough. It was a lovely visit and David spent quality time with the children talking to them about being an MP and the things that matter to them at school.

There is a good write up in the Birmingham Mail here: http://www.birminghammail.net/news/top-stories/2008/04/08/david-cameron-visits-midland-school-97319-20734183/ and you can watch part of it on the Express and Star website here: http://www.expressandstar.com/2008/04/08/conservative-leader-david-cameron-praises-school/

Afterwards David met with Walsall Conservative councillors and candidates as pictured below.

Looks like I was deleted off the Internet for the best part of a month. Think I have things working again. There is LOTS on so i’ll be posting a lot of updates on here over the next couple of weeks.

Mike

Walsall residents are being urged to come forward with hotspots for alcohol-related crimes.

The Safer Walsall Borough Partnership is currently working on a Designated Public Place Order to rid the town of booze-fuelled problems on its streets.The orders have proved successful in Yorkshire, Coventry and Lincolnshire - and Walsall could be next.

But to ensure the orders have a positive impact on Walsall, the public must come forward with areas they know are affected by alcohol-related incidents.

“We need residents to come forward and tell us about areas which they know are problem spots for anti-social behaviour caused by alcohol,” said Councillor Garry Perry, Walsall Council cabinet member for safer and stronger communities.

“If people do not let us know about what is going on in their area, we cannot put this order where we do not know there is a problem.

The Safer Walsall Borough Partnership’s anti-social behaviour unit can be contacted on 01922 648291 or by email on ASB@walsall.gov.uk. Alternatively drop me an email: flowermd@walsall.gov.uk

Happy New Year to all readers, constituents, friends and family. One new year resolution is to try and get the posting rate back up on the blog! Plenty going on so I might aswell blog about it…

For those of you wondering what the Christmas cheer was - it was in the Express and Star that Monday evening. Here is the cutting for you:

An early Christmas present for Walsall Wood will be revealed on Monday. I’m very pleased and excited about it.

Watch this space….

You may remember I went out with the police last December. Read more about it here: Doing a shift with the police.

Well today I was called to give evidence in a trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court. I won’t write anything else about it until the case has been concluded but hope to reflect on my experience and my thoughts on the criminal justice system.

Apologies if I have been hard to get hold of over the last couple of weeks. I actually have plenty of things to post on this site over the next few weeks as quite a lot has been done.

Guess what I was doing a year ago today…. election night

Ever since I was ten i’ve come to appreciate the importance and significance of Remembrance Sunday. Back then I was parading around in the cold as a little Sea Scout in Walsall Town Centre wondering what was going on at the front but knowing that it was important. Today I had the honour of placing the wreath on the War Memorial in Walsall Wood on behalf of the people of Walsall.

I was delighted to see so many young people there. Scouts, guides, brownies, girls and boys brigades. It is important that like myself 14 years ago - they too understand why the 11th November is so important. Never has so many owed so much to so few for they gave their tomorrow for our today. We are allowed to have a democracy, freedom of speech, worship and the individual - because people laid their lives down to protect these values. For that we are eternally grateful.

One beautiful moment from today. As we stood at Aldridge War Memorial - under the dark cloudy skys - just as we starting saying “Our Father who art in heaven..” - the sun burst through the clouds and lit up the Cenotaph. That speaks for itself.

Here’s a story I’d like to see repeated in Walsall:

Road sign clutter removal starts

The removed signs will either be scrapped or recycled, said a council spokesman.

What do you think?

Today is my birthday - so I took the day off work, switched my phone and Blackberry off and enjoyed a day of peace and quiet!

Normal service resumes tomorrow…