December Full Council

When analysing the agenda for the Full Council Meeting in December, I quickly realized that I would have a busy meeting as there were a number of very important debates taking place that I wanted to participate within.

I read the extensive report presented by the Cabinet Member for Sport Leisure & Culture, Cllr. Martin Mullaney and was surprised to see a number of key exclusion that I felt I had to bring to his and the chamber’s attention.

The Perry Barr Constituency Community Sports Physical Activity Network that has over 85 club members from a diverse range of sports and diverse ethnic groups reflective of the local community was not mentioned in the report despite being nominated as not only one of the best CSPAN’s in the city but one of the most active in the constituency.

They have worked with over 4,800 young people in the constituency through the 101 projects that they have delivered with the Youth Activities Fund that has been supported by the Community Chest. They have clearly filled the vacuum of other mainstream projects that had in the past delivered provision in the school breaks to divert young people away from negative activity into positive activity.

I was also surprised that the report didn’t include any mention of the Birmingham Cricket Parks League that engages hundreds of participants in the summer for cricket over a number of weeks in our parks, in particular Perry Hall Park. I also mentioned how embarrassing it is for us as city that this fantastic grass root level project has access to only one or two portable toilets in Perry Hall Park between hundreds of cricketers of all ages and absolutely no access to any water.

The report also failed to highlight any considerable partnership work with the fantastic professional sports clubs that exist in the City of Birmingham including Warwickshire Cricket Club, Birchfield Harriers and as I described in the chamber – the greatest football club in the world, my beloved, Aston Villa FC.

However, the most notable point that I made in this address was something that really worries me as a very proud Brummie. Birmingham City Council loaned £20million to Edgaston Cricket Ground to support its development into one of the best cricket stadiums in the world, in fact I would rate it as the best in the country with the possible exception of the Lords Cricket Ground. Yet, despite this, the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) have decided not to allocate Edgbaston an Ashes Cricket Test match when the Australian team are touring our country in 2013. This is truly a scandalous decision. I asked what representation the Cabinet Member made to the ECB for the people of Birmingham who would be deprived of Ashes cricket – I don’t think the Cabinet member responded to this point.

The second debate that I contributed to in the meeting was a motion presented by the Opposition Leader, Cllr. Sir Albert Bore and seconded by his deputy Cllr. Ian Ward regarding the proposed cuts to the BBC in Birmingham. The BBC spends in excess of £15m in the West Midlands each year, which is worth up to £29m to the economy. With the loss of 150 skilled positions, by the end of 2012, there will be almost no television or radio made for the national networks from Birmingham.

Furthermore, there will be great difficulty in accommodating some of the ethnic programming that brings so much colour to our city. Birmingham is soon to be an ethnic majority city and programmes such as Midlands Masala, Gospel Lounge and Chat Back with Bishop Joe Aldred, all on BBCWM, will face huge challenges.

These programmes do not just reach out to the ethnic communities but to all communities and helps educate all on the best of all cultures that exist in our diverse city. This helps break down barriers that may exist between communities to promote social cohesion.

These programmes also highlight some of the key issues affecting our BME communities and gives the BME communities a voice that doesn’t exist elsewhere.

The Shows has been very instrumental in helping with community cohesion. For example, in the middle of the riots Joe Aldred of Chat Back and Arshia Riaz of Midlands Masala co-presented a show. It was generally felt that they helped with the healing and calming process that was necessary to end the riots and stop any further friction and tenson that may have existed between the black and Asian communities.

These programmes also make the BBC more accessible to black community workers, performers, promoters and people with remarkable stories to tell.
A recent example of this was last week when a local black inventor and business man came on Chatback to tell listeners how he has been working with prisoners in Featherstone prison and how they have just invented a special stove that will help the poor in the Third World.

The programmes cover a variety of issues including natural disasters across the Third World, for example, the Midlands Masala coverage of the and support in fund-raising during the Pakistan floods was exceptional.

Therefore it would be an absolute tragedy for the community, if these programmes did not continue to broadcast from Birmingham in its current format. It is imperative that the BBC ensure that Midlands Masala, Chat Back and Gospel Lounge remains West Midlands based programme broadcast from Birmingham.

We all pay £150 a year for our license fee. Think of that money as an investment in public broadcasting and then ask what return are our Midlands citizens getting on that investment, when huge swathes of BBC production is being moved elsewhere, and virtually nothing is remaining here. With 114,000 undergraduates and postgraduates, Birmingham provides one of the most skilled graduate pools in Europe. Many of these graduates are in new and emerging fields of the creative industries – we need the BBC, we need good, decent jobs for them, or they, and their skills will leave the Midlands region.

My third contribution to the meeting was on an issue that I have spent a lot time on during recent years. I have in the past represented Birmingham’s Private Hire Drivers as a Unite Representative in negotiations with Birmingham City Council and West Midlands Police. A motion proposed by the Joint-Chair’s of the Licensing Committee around endorsing Birmingham City Council as the lead player in the region for unifying conditions of license for drivers. An amendment was presented by Labour colleagues that I supported in my address to the chamber.

I wanted to endorse the motion’s consideration of the safety of the public, which is paramount but also wanted to take the opportunity to highlight the issues around the safety of drivers. I mentioned issues that arose following the tragic murder of Mohammad Arshad in the summer of 2009 and the work that I led on with West Midlands Police in reviewing policies and procedures of how the police deal with the Taxi community across the region. I enquired whether the Licensing Committee would be keen to also take the lead on sustaining this work as the Police are no longer able to continue with this due to re-structuring.

I also presented 3 petitions on behalf of the residents of Lozells & East Handsworth Ward:

• On behalf of Handsworth Against Cuts presented a petition signed by over 800 residents encouraging Birmingham City Council to ensure the Handsworth Library doesn’t face any further cuts to service.
• On behalf of residents of Frances Road Lozells encouraging Birmingham City Council to look at making Frances Road one-way
• On behalf of residents of Crompton Avenue Handsworth encouraging Birmingham City Council to look at the front access into the properties