Work continues to complete the Withywindle Performance Arena near to Hall Green’s Sarehole Mill. Recently, volunteers from the consultants Price Waterhouse Coopers under the guidance Shire Productions’ Vivienne Wilkes continued with the second phase of the planting of Camomile seedlings in the seating area. The painstaking task involving hundreds of small plants was almost finished and will be completed by members of Shire Productions.

The PWC volunteers at the request of museum staff also undertook other environmental work near the Mill. This included some clearance of the river and construction of a revetment to prevent erosion. The volunteers worked very hard throughout the day and, as well as the valuable results of their work, left a very favourable impression of themselves and their company. Much appreciated.

We are very pleased to report that following persistent efforts, the ford in Green Road has at last received the flashing warning sign we have been seeking. The sign is to alert people to the danger caused by rising waters and to show when driving through the ford is unsafe. It has taken a lot longer than originally expected to get the sign installed due to technical difficulties.

The River Cole is prone to flash flooding and while the river looks peaceful enough in normal weather conditions it can rise very quickly. The force of the water when the river is in spate is also greater than might be expected and is more than enough to carry a vehicle downstream and trap it under the bridge. This has happened on several occasions. Your three Hall Green councillors observed for themselves one such incident involving a trapped car at the time of a flooding this autumn.

The first of our photographs shows Councillor Paula Smith by the new sign and the second gives an indication of the depth of water that can occur when the River Cole is in flood.

My Hall Green colleague Councillor Jackie Hawthorn advises:

“With winter fast approaching many of us like to ‘do our bit’ by feeding the ducks and geese. (Our photograph below shows the pool at Priory Fields.)

Unfortunately, most of us feed the birds with bread and, surprisingly, this can be killing them with kindness. If all that they get to eat is bread, they will starve! One reason for this is that bread swells in their stomachs making the birds feel full and therefore stopping them from eating the healthy, natural food that they need for proper nutrition.

The feeding of white bread also upsets their diet leading to a Vitamin E deficiency and a protein excess causing a condition known as ‘Angel Wing’. In this ailment one or both of the birds’ wings droop and turn outwards with an excessive growth of flight feathers, thus crippling the bird and stopping it from flying. Rotting bread can also cause other deadly diseases and encourage parasites, particularly a duck enteritis that, with a single outbreak, can kill all the birds in the area. Bread can also cause potentially serious impactions of the bird’s crop (the pouch in the bird’s gullet).

Feed them instead on waterfowl seed (which also has the benefit of floating) or corn, pearl barley, sunflower seeds or, best of all, worms and slugs from your own garden!”

Councillor Hawthorn is happy to advise local residents on all aspects of animal welfare issues. You can email Jackie as:  Jackie.Hawthorn@birmingham.gov.uk 

The Nominated Neighbour Scheme has been launched jointly with the West Midlands Police and its partners to reduce distraction burglaries. In the scheme a neighbour is nominated to assist on behalf of an elderly or vulnerable person living nearby.

A large yellow card is displayed when someone calls at the door of a vulnerable resident. Rather than opening the door to a stranger, all they need to do is show the card through the window. It gives the house number of the nominated neighbour that the caller should then go to. That neighbour then checks the credentials of the visitor, and goes across if the person is bona fide and stays with the person they are helping until the visitor has gone.

The intentions are to offer reassurance and cut down on bogus callers and distraction burglars. We welcome this scheme. The area in which the scheme will begin its operations has previously had several distraction burglaries so there is a very good prospect of improvements.

On behalf of the Hall Green Focus Team, Councillor Paula Smith comments: “We take it for granted that when someone calls it is for a genuine reason, but quite often more vulnerable people take too much at face value. We have seen the terrible results when pensioners and others are robbed of their savings. Anything that can be done to reduce these incidents is to be warmly welcomed and applauded.” You can contact Paula by email as:

 Paula.D.Smith@birmingham.gov.uk

Proposals have emerged to reconfigure the West Midlands Fire Service making ten station closures and building eight new ones in their place although the number of fire engines would remain the same. One of the stations identified for closure in the scheme (which is already receiving fierce opposition) is Billesley, one of four on the eastern edge of Birmingham, the others being Hay Mills, Sheldon and Ward End. The proposals call for new stations in Hall Green and Stechford.

No sites have been identified for the new stations and it is hard to see where any new station in Hall Green could be put. It is claimed that response times would be improved, but we are not convinced about this. Attendance times in our part of the city are good and any minor projected improvements cannot be guaranteed, as the locations of new stations are not known. The consultation document is thin on detail and evidence. The proposals will be costly and we do not support changes that cannot be shown to bring about an improvement in safety.

Billesley station is in good condition, is well positioned to serve the surrounding area including ourselves and your councillors work well with local fire officers. Hall Green Ward Committee has recently awarded the station a grant towards the cost of community facilities there, officers attend our Ward Advisory Board and the station holds safety days. For the record, Hay Mills is practically a new station, Sheldon is, to say the least, robust (being built to withstand a nuclear attack on the city in the Cold War years) although maintenance has been neglected, Ward End is a well-built modern station in good condition.

The sale of existing sites would only cover the purchase of new sites. The building costs would still create a charge on the budget funded by council tax payers. Any capital already available could be used to enhance or rebuild some existing stations. It is wasteful to knock down perfectly good stations.

There is a ‘consultation’ process for all of this, running only until January 7^th. You can download the consultation document from the WMFS website at www.wmfs.net

and email your comments to consultation@wmfs.net

We hope that this exercise will be genuine and reflect the wishes of the people.

After a year of operation of my website and some 38,000 visits made to the site during that time, I thought it would be a good idea to refresh the overall appearance of the pages. The colour combination will also match up somewhat better with my blog (http://michaelwilkesblog.blogspot.com for which there is a link on the left) which people tell me that they find interesting. I hope that the new scheme is to your liking too - and thank you for visiting!

That was the motto of the late lamented Birmingham Municipal Bank from its foundation around 1916 right up to its closure on 31 March 1976.

As readers of my blog and the Birmingham Post will be aware, I’ve been campaigning for the re-establishment of a Municipal Bank for some years. Never was it needed more than now and I’m pleased to say that the City Council accepted (with support from all parties) my resolution last week that consideration be given to this. There is a desperate need for a real alternative operating on near-forgotten principles of service with fairness and responsibility. Many people recall the Municipal Bank (and still cherish their ageing passbooks) and the security that it offered with the council guaranteeing deposits.

The idea would be to offer complete security to small savers and fair and consistent interest rates for saving, to encouraging thrift - even explaining what this is to some younger people today. As well as “Security with Interest” (note the order) there are mottoes inside the old headquarters building on Broad Street reflecting virtues worth re-adopting today such as: “Saving is the Mother of Riches” and “Thrift radiates Happiness”. In other words real prosperity comes through saving in a trustworthy institution and you don’t have to be miserable while you’re doing it!

The Council no longer owns this building, but there are plenty of alternatives, especially as the Council plans to reduce the number of buildings it occupies. Furthermore, a Birmingham Municipal Bank could keep both money and jobs in the city and be the means through which the oft-suggested ‘Brummie Bonds’ could be issued to allow ordinary folk to support civic projects (the Town Hall restoration would have been a good example) while offering a secure return.

There will be some way to travel however since Government legislation makes the establishment of civic banks difficult and restricts the services they offer. But a start could be made with a savings bank (as was done in 1916) with the scope broadening later if lobbying of the Government to restore former powers proved successful. This would be complementary to existing Credit Unions, which perform valuable if small-scale services. And while it is true that the commercial banks could attempt to stifle such an initiative (as they tried to do in 1916) I’m sure that such resistance could be overcome.

Birmingham could lead the way again - just as it did in 1916 and indeed in the earliest days of commercial banking. We are often told that the City should distinguish itself. What better way than by knocking aside the obstacles and putting people first with the renaissance of our own Birmingham Municipal Bank?

I’ve recently returned from the United States where we have been visiting relatives in Massachusetts – hence the longish gap in posting new items on this site - for which apologies. Before this next posting I thought that I would wait a day or two longer to see the result of the United States presidential election the campaigning for which I have had the opportunity to observe at close quarters.

An inspiring victory in my view for an outstanding candidate running a positive campaign on liberal social and economic values. On my blog (see the link on the left-hand sidebar) I reflect on matters related to both Birmingham and Boston. Here, before the next fully local posting I noticed an admittedly tenuous connection (apart from the support of relations!) between the president elect and Hall Green.

The picture above shows the Obama family home. Does this not bring to mind a characterful building that we once had in Hall Green? It reminds me of Highfield House before the developers razed it to the ground (I have just had them written to about the state of the site). But returning to a positive note, let us hope that the benefits that the new president brings will extend in good measure to our own country and the rest of the world.