We recently featured an item welcoming the proposals for an extra care retirement village on the former Denso factory site off Shaftmoor Lane. We now understand that the applicants have withdrawn their original proposal. This does not mean however that the scheme, or something very much like it, will not go ahead in due course to the benefit of residents in Hall Green and neighbouring wards.

The planning process has many detailed requirements, and Planning Department officers are working with the applicants so that a revised scheme can be brought forward. This sequence of events is in fact not uncommon in complex planning applications, and we trust that there will indeed be a retirement development on the Denso site.

There’s been quite a fuss of late concerning the absence of apostrophes from certain road nameplates following a proposal to make this deficiency official. In fact, many signs in Birmingham and other towns and cities have been doing without the apostrophe for years.

One example here in Hall Green is St. Peter’s Close which has no apostrophe on the nameplates (alas the tinny sort already in poor condition with the coat of arms invisible and one of which is still broken awaiting replacement).

At least the full stop on the abbreviation for Saint is included here (unlike the much nicer cast iron type signs in St. Paul’s Square in the City Centre - one of which does have an apostrophe!)

Other names in our part of the City that manage without apostrophes are Pipers Green and Viggers Court and longstanding absences are found in the cases of Scribers Lane, Baldwins Lane and Smirrells Road. Other local instances are Reddings Lane and Brooklands Road although you may need to know more of the background in individual cases to be sure of formal correctness.

For example, if an apostrophe was included it would be King’s Heath rather than Kings’ Heath but nearly everyone I know has always written Kings Heath. In my opinion, preferred usage should accord with the wishes of local people, but otherwise I cannot claim to be greatly exercised about the issue of nameplates nor, incidentally, have I ever received a complaint from a constituent. So perhaps this particular subject is not such a sign of the times after all!

I was very pleased when Birmingham Liberal Democrat MP for Yardley, John Hemming, began a campaign among MPs at Westminster to bring Britannia back to the national coinage. It is encouraging that this very popular cause has received support from Members of Parliament in all political parties.

The ideal candidate for the return of Britannia would be the £2 coin that presently carries an Olympic symbol that will presumably disappear after the London games in 2012.  So Britannia could return in three years or so. Of course, she should never have been removed from our coins in the first place.

Perhaps if we do regain that which was lost, by that time we may also reclaimed some of the other national assets that have been so carelessly discarded such as jobs and industry to mention but two - but probably not nameplate apostrophes!

More about Britannia and other important aspects of national pride and tradition  - as well as those possessive apostrophes - can be found on my blog at:

http://michaelwilkesblog.blogspot.com

The blog also contains many other items of general interest.

I had yet another site meeting with council officers on Friday February 6^th to try - once again - to move things forward on the long-delayed redevelopment of the derelict block of flats at the corner of Creswell Road and Lakey Lane. The snow did not put us off!

The sale of the block has still not been completed, with the would-be developer seemingly playing hard to get. But this does not excuse the huge delay by council officers in starting this process. If the current developer does not complete the deal, I have asked for the sale to be pulled and another developer (that I have named) approached with a view to producing a better and more comprehensive scheme.

There is to be a further meeting, this time with the venue being the council house, later in the month to which the developer will be summoned to review ‘progress’ and consider next steps. As previously mentioned, I have asked for a paper to be produced considering options for improving the Lakey Lane Parade.

This report is now being prepared by Council officers from the Regeneration Department. It would certainly make a great deal of sense if any overall considerations could involve the acceptable redevelopment of the derelict Oak pub.

This site, also on a prominent corner, was sold to a developer who intended to use the site for residential purposes. Sadly however, I understand that since buying the property the gentleman concerned has died, and therefore the matter now rests with the deceased’s estate. So little progress is likely on the Oak site for some time.

It is very much to be hoped that despite the delays and setbacks we will eventually emerge with a scheme - or schemes - that will get rid of the eyesores, provide good accommodation, lift the appearance of the neighbourhood and give us a local centre with useful shops that residents will choose to use in considerable numbers.

At a recent meeting of the Hall Green Constituency Committee, there was a lively discussion of several important local issues including the planned extra care retirement village on the former Denso factory site off Shaftmoor Lane.

The badly vandalised Denso site (formerly, in the days before globalisation ran through Birmingham industry, our proud Lucas factory) on Shaftmoor Lane is a very large one and the proposed village is of comparable scale. There will be 278 flats (129 one bed and 149 two bed) together with support facilities within a mainly 4 and 5 storey building. It will provide accommodation for residents over 55 within a part residential, part care home, and part community facility. Plans are to incorporate a ‘village street’ including a shop, hairdressers, a health and fitness suite, a woodworking and craft room, a greenhouse, a library and an IT suite. The facilities would be open to qualifying non-residents from the surrounding community within Hall Green, Springfield and Acocks Green.

“In giving general support to the proposals I welcomed the proposal for some form of public art or garden to commemorate the association with Lucas, but noted what I considered to be insufficient provision for parking,” said Councillor Michael Wilkes. “I hope that the views of local residents will be incorporated and that the scheme will move forward in a timely way.”

At the meeting, there were also lively discussions on the role of the Arts in the constituency and how Arts champions such as the CBSO can be more closely involved. Residents may recall the much-appreciated performances given by the CBSO and SAMPAD at the Tolkien Weekend a couple of years ago. Even broader issues discussed included Birmingham’s Big City Plan and the Wellbeing Strategy for older citizens. The next meeting of the Constituency Committee is on Tuesday March 24^th at 7-00pm at Hall Green Secondary School, Southam Road, Hall Green.