New job…

Sorry I haven’t posted for a while. I started a new job two weeks ago and i’m still settling in. It is now the end of the municipal year so when I post next i’ll explain the party political group structure and what happens at our Annual General Meeting on Friday when we pick the new Leader of the Conservative Group, who will in turn become leader of Walsall Council. If you have any questions on this then post in the comments and i’ll try and address them in my post.

National Conservatives want your views on opening up data

Coincidential timing! The national Conservative Party are interested in hearing your thoughts about data sharing in national government to engage with the electorate. Have a look here: http://www.conservatives.com/News/Blogs/Making_Government_data_work_for_you.aspx

Seeking permission for Walsall Wood memorial

Walsall Wood will feature on the agenda at Full Council on Monday evening. It will be nice to focus the attention of the Borough’s councillors solely on Walsall Wood for a short period of time.

I will be presenting this report (http://www2.walsall.gov.uk/CMISWebPublic/Binary.ashx?Document=6942) to ask councillors permission to errect a memorial mine head on land at Oak Park. It will still have to go through the planning process – the reason it is coming to Council is because the councillors when sitting as Full Council are also the trustees of the land on behalf of the Cannock Chase and Pelsall Miner’s District Charity which reverted to the trust of the local authority.

I will be asking “that Council acting as trustees on behalf of Cannock Chase and Pelsall District Miners Charity, for the land approves the installation of the piece of public art to the site at Oak Park, Walsall Wood subject to planning permission being granted and consent being given for the long-term maintenance of the installations”

I have posted about the Walsall Wood consultations, steering group etc many times before on this blog. Many of you have got involved and I thank you for that. There is still a chance for you to comment on the work as it goes through the various planning stages. As the report states:

“Community consultation has been undertaken recently to ensure that the
opinions of the Walsall Wood community have been considered and more than
90% of the forty one responses that were received concerning the Mine Head
were positive. A planning application has also been submitted to the planning
authority and through neighbourhood consultation it will give residents of Walsall Wood a further opportunity to comment on the Mine Head proposals.”

I will let you know what Council decides to do – I am hopeful after presenting the report to the controlling Conservative group this evening. Please comment on the planning application as it goes through the consultation period. Pictures of the proposed memorial are in the report i’ve linked to above.

Moving into the 21st Century

A very happy Easter to family, friends, constituents and colleagues.

A few thoughts reflecting on the Corporate Scrutiny meeting last Thursday. My colleague, Cllr Marco Longhi, has already posted on the subject here: http://marcolonghi.wordpress.com/2009/04/10/new-media-social-networking/

We discussed the ICT Stretegy and a value for money review of the Communications Unit. I believe that it’s time ICT and Communications begin to overlap and use each other more. The key point I raised is that communicating with the residents of Walsall is a two way process and it should strengthen accountability, educate and participation. The Council need to provide value for money but they also need to tell people what services they offer and what they can do to use them or change them. How can we do this in the modern age whilst maintaining more traditional forms of communication? Is issuing 900 odd press releases over a few months really the best way of talking to residents? Also what can the Council do with the data it has in order to inform residents and councillors in their decision making? Should it open data up to public through API’s etc?

The topic is a lot bigger than the time allotted at the meeting so we have agreed to set up a working group to look at the issues around Communcations and ICT. I hope to be on this group with Cllr Marco Longhi and we’d like you to join in too. If you are a resident, professional or just someone with an interest then come along. Details will be thrashed out in May so i’ll post more then.

If you are interested then get intouch. Maybe we can start something in Walsall that will get picked up by the public sector across the country…

Your opportunity to comment on Walsall’s New Children & Young Peoples Plan

I’ve been emailed the following link. The Walsall Children and Young People’s Plan for 2009/10 – 2011/12 is now open to consultation and they recommend that all groups working with Children Young People and Families in Walsall take a look and forward comments on via the feedback form.

Link is here: http://www.walsallva.org.uk/2009/04/08/your-opportunity-to-comment-on-walsalls-new-children-young-peoples-plan/

Canvassing in the sunshine

This week we’ve started canvassing in the ward. Hopefully, at some stage, you’ll see us around and about with blue rossettes on so if you see us then do say hello and come and have a chat!

As ever it is difficult to get around everyone in the ward but we’ll work on it. We have over 10,000 electors in the patch – so no small task. If you have any particular issues you’d like to raise drop me an email and we’ll come and canvass your patch. Richard Shepherd MP will also be joining us as and when he can.

How can Councils use the web to serve you?

I’m quite interested in both Information Technology and Communications. My IT interest stems from getting a computer when I was really young and facination to make the machine do new and menial tasks for me. Communcation is of interest because it’s so important and we don’t realise just how much information we are bombarded with every day.

So as I sit on Corporate Scrutiny i’ve asked for a debate on communications and IT as I see the great need now to overlap the two. I think the Walsall Council website does a basic job of providing some information – but what can it do to empower people? How can it help councillors make decisions and how can it make citizen’s get their money’s worth out of the Council they pay for?

We’ll be debating the role of this on Thursday at 6pm in the Council House. Corporate Scrutiny is a public meeting so come along to watch. If you have ideas and want to participate then please comment below, email me, tweet me or give me a call! Here are some questions for you:

- What do you need from the Council website? Information, payment facilities, education on what the Council does, accountability, transparency, particpation in decision making, consultation, petitions?
- Do you want to know more about services in your area? Should content be postcodea and map driven like sites such as fixmystreet.co.uk?
- Should the Council use email lists and RSS feeds to update citizen’s via their inboxes and mobiles?
- To what extent should a Council or councillors use twitter and facebook to engage with citizens?
- How can new media, internet, etc help people like me to make good decisions on your behalf?

Also on wider communications issues – what works and what doesn’t? Do you read Walsall Pride, read local newspapers or would you prefer less Council material and more Party political material – afterall the Parties form the policies.

Please think outside of the box and let me know your thoughts and ideas.

Well done to our local schools

A big well done to our local schools who have been identified as improving standards. A special mention for Walsall Wood Primary which has been acknowledged as the second best improving in the country – a great achievement.

Congratulations to the staff, pupils, parents and governors at all schools in Walsall Wood and Aldridge on their hard work.

Can you help us to help you?

Today i’ve added a new page to my blog site which provides details on a variety of different ways you can get involved to make a difference. Many people these days shy away from joining political parties – which is a shame as it is a perfectly healthy thing to do in a democratic country. However you can still make a valuable contribution through voluntary work – and it doesn’t take up a lot of time either!

Did you know that there are 8760 hours in a normal year? Yep, that’s 8760. Can you spare just 1 of those hours helping to change our country for the better?

If so get in contact – more details at: http://mikeflower.wordpress.com/help-us/

We’re also having a branch event on the evening of Friday 5th June – kick off at 7pm. It’s going to be a BBQ and will be held at Aldridge Conservative club – so why not come along and meet your neighbours, councillors and Member of Parliament? We anticipate tickets will cost just £5 and there is a fully licensed bar. Please come along, call the office or drop me an email if you’d like to come along! All monies raised will be reinvested in campaigning across the ward.

Blog refresh and tweeting

I’ve decided today to refresh the way the blog looks. Hopefully it should make it a little easier to post from my iPhone that way.

Also we now have five Walsall Councillor on Twitter. They are:

Cllr Marco Longhi – Pelsall, Chairman of Corporate Scrutiny and representative on the Passenger Transport Authority

Cllr Garry Perry – Pelsall, Cabinet member for Stronger Communities

Cllr Adrian Andrew, Pheasey Park Farm, Deputy Leader and Cabinet member for Regeneration

Cllr Eddie Hughes – Streetly, Chairman of the Children Services Scrutiny and represenative on the West Midlands Police Authority.

A good mix of some very useful Conservative councillor so do feel free to interact with them. Oh and one more person:

Cllr Mike Flower – Aldridge North and Walsall Wood

Proposed changes to Streets Corner Centre

Please see below a letter from the Council to local residents in Streets Corner, Walsall Wood:

Adult Social Care Services are working on changing and improving our services and how people get in touch with us. We support and advise Vulnerable Adults and Older People. This includes adults with physical disabilities, people with occupational therapy needs, people with learning disabilities, people with visual or hearing impairments and carers.

We plan to make Social Care Services more modern and give people more choice and control over the care services they receive. Most Council’s across the UK are making similar changes to their Social Care Services. This comes from national guidance from the Department of Health called Putting People First. In Walsall, the People First team is leading on this work. One of our first tasks is to develop a Response Centre with a single phone number, this will be linked to the corporate First Stop Shop and have linkages with health. There will be no face to face contact at the Centre; communications will be through various other means.

The proposed location for the Response Centre for Walsall is the former Streets Corner Day Centre site, Brownhills Road, Walsall Wood, WS8 7BS. As a local resident, we would like to tell you more about our plans for the centre and also get your views, comments and queries.

We are holding a public meeting on Wednesday 1 April 2009 at 6.30 pm in the Community Building, Walsall Wood JMI School, Brownhills Road, Walsall Wood. Refreshments will be available.

If you would like to know more please contact:

People First Team
1st floor offices, 28 The Square
Lichfield Road
New Invention
Willenhall WV12 5EA
Telephone 01922 655833
Email peoplefirstprogramme@walsall.gov.uk

Please note that as I am on the planning committee you should contact Cllrs Sears or Harris with your thoughts.

Attention parents: it’s the National Child Measurement Programme

I don’t normally have a go at New Labour or the national government on this blog but i’ve really really had enough of them. Not a day goes past when I don’t groan at some New Labour-Blairite initiative, target or phrase.

I opened my inbox today to find a rather irate letter from a parent to the local NHS and copied to me for my attention. When I read it I had to do a double take. A quick bit of research later and I can confirm that there is actually something called the “National Child Measurement Programme”. It was introduced through legislation in the Government’s belief that you really can legislate to make people thinner.

Now I hope everyone agrees that we want to have healthy children – that isn’t in doubt. But is measuring them, putting them into a database and writing to their parents to tell them they are “ver overweight” really the answer? Is this the best they can come up with? Is obesity now reduced to two simple numbers: weight and height? Is there no individual – a person with a story and feelings – behind these statistics?

This is crazy. Surely everyone is different and there are different reasons and factors behind everyone’s health. Why haven’t Labour delivered on their promise for a school nurse in every school? This would give everyone a personalised health check, not some statistical exercise. It might even make a difference!

Another example of the stats obsessed state knowing better than the rest of us. Nanny!

Read the letter here: http://mikeflower.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/di450_0903260848.pdf

A penny for your thoughts on the new bin service

Well it’s been some weeks now since the new recycling and waste collection service was introduced in Walsall and in Aldridge North and Walsall Wood. To date i’ve had one complaint about a bin not getting collected but I have to admit i’d been expecting a lot more! Am I to take it from the silence that people are happy and impressed or have people taken issues up directly with the Council?

Let me know what you think in the comments box. Would be good to hear your thoughts so I can pass them onto my political colleagues.

Schools full in Walsall Wood?

I’ve got a meeting tomorrow with the acting Head of Children’s Services and the Chief Executive of Serco Walsall who run the LEA on behalf of the Council.

This year we have had record numbers applying for schools in Walsall Wood. Great news that people have so much faith in our local schools – that’s down to the hard working staff, governors, pupils and parents who pushing all three of our schools forward.

However with schools oversubscribed it means people who live in Walsall Wood are getting disappointed and face sending their children to primary schools outside of the community.

Have you experienced this? If so then please contact me. If I can confirm that all our schools in Walsall Wood are full then i’ll be interested to hear what they are going to do about it!

Removing illegal advertising boards

Have been meaning to put this up for a while so apologies for the delay. Last month we finally got the advertising hoarding down on the Anchor Bridge. It did take a petition to Full Council to make it happen so it shows that petitions can make a difference. In this case it turns out they put the advertsing boards up without planning permission and as you can see they’ve been made to take them down.

If you see something similar and think something like this needs planning permission then do contact council enforcement officers who may be able to help.