Councillor training

I had a two hour training session this afternoon on Development Control (Planning), how it works and the law. It was well attended by councillors.

It is amazing how little room there is for challenging an officer recommended option successfully (we saw this with the Shire Oak application). Arguments have to be backed up by either national, regional or local policy or a court decision or a judgement of a professional. That doesn’t leave a lot left!

The best way for citizens of Aldridge North and Walsall Wood to have their say is by getting involved in the consultation for Walsall’s next Development Framework. This will set the policy (ie the rules of the game) for planning for the next few years. This is the best chance we have of influencing planning. Sadly once applications go to committee it has to comply with policy and if that is contrary to the will of local people then that is tough luck in the eyes of the law – it is too late. It seems undemocratic to me but this is what the 21st century legal and legislative processes have created. As a result Development Control Committee is more of a judicial committee than a representation committee.

So keep an eye out for the “Local Development Framework” – thats where we can really have an influence on the local aspects of planning.

University education

As some of you may know I went to the University of Birmingham and graduated in 2005. Whilst studying in 2003 I was an elected Student Union officer and with it being the height of the top-up-fees battle – I joined in. I just didn’t agree that fees should be charged for people to study at University – never mind fees that vary. My history degree would have cost £9,000 plus living and accomodation costs and that would have amounted to about £23,000 over 3 years. If an A level is paid for by the tax payer then why not a degree? It must be bound to put people off going to University who should have the chance to go. Anyway we lost the battle with the Government and they were introduced.

I’ve now been appointed by Walsall Council as the Council’s representative to the University of Birmingham. All local council’s get a place on the Court which basically meets once a year to discuss the University and elect a university council which acts like trustees of a charity. So its back to the old stomping ground!

Reading through the papers for the meeting it says that 2006/07 was the first year that the £3000 tuition fees were introduced. Nationally there was a decline in home undergraduate applications by 3.6% and 4.7% at Birmingham. Overseas applicants were 8.8% and 11.2% in Birmingham respectively. There was a 3.7% decline in students accepting places at University, 5.7% at Birmingham.

Appears that some people were put off applying to study at University afterall then. Would be interesting to see a breakdown in those statistics.

Surgery tomorrow….

….Walsall Wood Library – 10-11am!

Brown bins: Democracy works!

I’ve just had through the list for the second wave of brown bins in Walsall Wood. Democracy really does work. Everyone who has contacted me asking for a brown bin will have received one by the end of the month. The roads are:

Queen Street, Green Lane, Bridgeside Close, Beechtree Road, Peake Crescent, Vigo Close, Roberts Close, Prince Street and King Street.

Hundreds of new bins will have been delivered in Aldridge North & Walsall Wood. I hope you will all have fun tending to the gardens and filling them up!

I hope it also shows we try hard to deliver for you.

Ward work continues….

Whilst all the post-election formalities have been completed, ward work continues. Here are a couple of things I have dealt with over the last couple of days:

Housing Condition Survey

A resident emailed me about the above, because a Scottish company contacted them claiming to be undertaking work on behalf of the Council and wanted to arrange to visit their house. I checked this out and this is correct. A company called David Adamson and Partners are helping the Council conduct a Housing Survey – to help them create a new housing strategy. I was worried that perhaps it was a stealth re-evaluation of council tax bands – but I have been told it isn’t. If you get a letter like this, please do check with the Council to make sure it is bona fide. Ring 01922 650000 and ask for the Housing Strategy department.

999 calls

Appears people on the Lichfield Road in Sandhills are not on the emergency service list. A resident recently rung for the police and they went to the Lichfield Road in Brownhills. Apparantly the same has happened with an ambulance before. I’ve asked my colleague on the Police Authority to look into this for us. It does seem bizarre and worrying and needs rectifying if there is a problem.

Parking problems on Hillside Close

A resident asked if I could find out who owns the land behind the garages on Hillside Close, off Friezland Lane in Walsall Wood. The reason being – could they be turned into additional parking? Apparantly parking around here is now beginning to block Friezland Lane. The land is not Council owned and is therefore private. There is nothing the Council can do therefore to turn this into parking, without spending vast quantities of money buying the land. I have suggested traffic enforcement on the parking here but this was greeting less enthusiastically! I will go and have a look at the weekend…

Making a Mayor and Annual Council

We had Annual Council on Monday evening. What is this? This is the first meeting after the elections and deals with elections and appointments. The first thing Council does is vote for a new Mayor (who chairs the Council meetings). Conservative councillor Melvin Pitt was elected (pictured above) and Tom Ansell was elected as his deputy. Congratulations go to both and they will do excellent jobs.

Now Walsall is a strange place and at this point the meeting was adjorned until Wednesday evening when we would reconvene at 6pm to continue the meeting.

So tonight we trapsed back to get on with the political side of the meeting. The Leader of the Council was elected along with his deputy and cabinet, and all councillors were placed on committees and external bodies. So thats all done and dusted now and we can get on with our committees, surgeries, meetings and whatever else councillors do – which is nearly anything!

Fellow ward colleague Cllr Anthony Harris has been promoted to the Cabinet – which runs the Council. Anything to do with transport and highways is now his specific domain. I’m sure he’ll ruffle a few feathers. That means I have to take his place on the Development Control Committee. I have been bemused by some emails i’ve had from some residents who make it sound like a promotion! I’ll also be scrutinising regeneration this year which will be really interesting. Lots going on there. I am the vice-chair of the LEA Governors Appointment Panel, so i’ll be vetting school governors appointed by the LEA. We all continue on the Local Neighbourhood Partnership plus myself and Keith have the Walsall Wood Allotments Charity. And to top it off I am the Council’s representative on the University of Birmingham’s Court – which is a ceremonial role. So plenty of meetings there before I’ve even started! Phew!

Planning: Beechtree Road update

The ongoing planning application at Beechtree Road will be heard by Development Control Committee on the 31st May. Kick off is 5:30pm and it is held in the Council Chamber at the Council House. All papers are public so please ask at your local library for them, go online or ring up the Council and ask for them.

I was quite pleased that it was coming to my first Development Control Meeting. I was looking foward to talking and voting against the application. There is no doubt that it is going to cause problems for the neighbours and despite attempts to encourage Accord to change their plans or pull their application – there was no way for compromise.

I have been advised however that because Development Control is a quasi-judicial committee, its members – including me, cannot express any bias prior to it coming to committee. Therefore I have been told I cannot vote and cannot speak at the meeting. Fustrating!!!

I’ve done all I can to help people on this case. I’ve actually spent more time on issues in Beechtree Road than any other road in the ward. I’ve been open and transparent. Spent hours reading into the history, tracking down inspectors reports, meeting people individually, chairing meetings, grilling Accord and planning officers, etc. I’ve rung each person who has contacted me to inform them when its coming up etc. I’ve done all I can to be a good councillor and fight the corner of the residents in Beechtree Road. And I would be delighted to vote and speak against this if I were to be allowed (and if I did, I would be subject to breaking the Code of Conduct and therefore could be suspended from being a councillor).

However I am really disappointed when I get a phone call from a resident having a go at me because “Mike says its going to be a foregone conclusion, its going ahead” and “Mike has been put on the committee to vote in favour of it”. Its not even remotely correct, its just slanderous. In fairness most people have been good to me but misinformation cannot be good for anyone.

I will continue to do my best to represent you all on and to the Council.

Public Meeting called

I am calling a public meeting to establish a Community Group for the Shire Oak area. It will be held at Walsall Wood JMI School on Monday 4th June at 7pm. Further information will be distributed through the local press, in leaflets and in posters shortly. For further information please contact me.

Surgery dates – 2007

There will be no surgery this Saturday as it is the Aldridge North & Walsall Wood Conservative coffee morning at 82 Walsall Road, Aldridge, WS9 0JW – 10:30 til 12pm. I am even baking a cake and trying to outdo Cllr Marco Longhi (Cons, Pelsall). Could be amusing. Please do come along and see us.

I shall post surgery dates for ther rest of the year shortly.

Walsall Wood FC & Oak Park

Tuesday evening we held a meeting at Walsall Wood Football Club trying to move plans forward. Another positive meeting. I also have meetings arranged with Council officers to try and do something with the wider Oak Park site. To be frank the entire site lacks ambition and your three local councillors want to inject ambition into the site. Why shouldn’t Walsall Wood be host to a sporting centre of excellence or something more ambitious? It is a question I am beginning to ask….

The future of grammar schools?

While i’m discussing national politics lets look at another national policy that will have a local effect – grammar schools.

In Walsall we are lucky to have Queen Mary’s Grammar and Queen Mary’s High. I was fortunate to pass the entrance exam to the Grammar School – scraping in at 94 out of 96 if memory serves correctly. I later went on to sixth form at the Girls School and completed my A levels. These are fantastic schools and the best thing is that anyone in Walsall can go there. All one needs to do is take a test and do well in it. There are no fees so it is accesible for all. I remember my year group which was a mix of all religions, backgrounds, areas of Walsall, parents with a variety of jobs and incomes. What other schools in Walsall can you find people from Streetly, Walsall Wood, Pool Hayes, Delves, Willenhall, Pelsall, etc etc? It really was a good mix.

The media have reported that the Conservative Party have abandoned their support of Grammar Schools. Is this true? No. The Party is not going to be pushing for any new grammar schools. However it will continue to support exisiting grammar schools and therefore the future of our Walsall grammars are safe under a Conservative government. I very much hope the Party will look at securing the future of these schools. It is also important, and this is recognised nationally, that standards in education are high at all schools and discipline is also strengthened.

So I hope our Walsall grammars will continue to florish long into the future and that a Conservative government will help our secondary schools to thrive. That way everyone will get a good education.

Don’t hug a hoodie says Cameron

I don’t post on national issues very often but this one came up time and time again during my elections – especially the by-election. It was widely reported that David Cameron said that people should ‘hug a hoodie’ after a speech he gave last year. When I was with David Cameron in Wolverhampton he was asked why he said this by the Express and Star reporter. David Cameron responded by saying that if anyone could show him where he said the words “hug a hoodie” he would give them £100 for a charity of their choice. I’m always one up for a challenge so I did a Google search and it appeared that David Cameron was right – he did never say those words. In a speech to the Police Conference today he said this:

“Aggressive hoodies who threaten the rest of us must be punished. They need to know the difference between right and wrong, and it’s our job to tell them.

“I’m a Conservative. I believe in punishment, I believe in deterrence, I believe in the difference between right and wrong.

“But what do we really want, a society where more and more kids are out of control, a rising tide of crime and punishment? “Or do we want those kids to behave properly in the first place?”

So there we go. Don’t hug a hoodie. Instead lets have discipline and punishment where it is required.

Committee places

The Conservative Group met again this evening and we thrashed out all the committee places for the forthcoming year. Took just under three hours – phew!

Subject to being agreed by Council I shall be:

- Vice-chair of the LEA Governor Appointment Panel.
- A member of the Regeneration Scrutiny Committee.
- Aldridge North & Walsall Wood’s representative on the Development Control Committee (aka Planning).

None of the posts above command an additional responsibility allowance – some people do ask if councillors get extra for being on various committees. You only get extra if you are a chairman or on the cabinet because those roles undertake more work. I also went for the West Midlands Fire and Civil Defence Authority, as we have the only fire station in the constituency in our ward, but I was unsuccessful. You win some, you lose some!

Because I am on Development Control Committee my role with planning applications now changes. I will seek legal advice to clarify my role, but I do believe that I cannot now get involved with planning applications before they come to committee. I think I will find this fustrating!!!! I am confident however that Cllrs Anthony Harris and Keith Sears will do a good job at representing planning cases. We shall have to see how it goes….

Thursday: Aldridge North Neighbourhood Watch AGM

I was pleased to be invited to and attend the AGM of the Aldridge North Neighbourhood Watch. I believe that we have one of the best and most active Neighbourhood Watches in the country. There was a great turnout and it was good to see the local police and trading standards officers from the Council there to answer questions. We shall continue to do what we can to help the Neighbourhood Watch in the good work it is doing. I will try and post some further information later from the meeting.

Wednesday: Walsall Wood Allotments Charity

On Wednesday evening it was back to the grindstone after the elections. We had a meeting of the Walsall Wood Allotments Charity, of which I am a trustee, and considered numerous applications for support and funding. If you would like to apply to the charity please contact Lesley Jones, Clerk to the Trustees, on 01922 650000.