Birmingham City Council (BCC) wants to know whether air quality is important to you. In order to find out what residents think, BCC have launched an online survey:
https://www.birminghambeheard.org.uk/economy/birmingham-air-quality/
The survey is already open but will close on 3 April 2017.
The questionnaire is reasonably short – it should take less than 10 minutes to complete but it’s important that as many residents as possible complete it.
Seven local schools that are currently operated by Birmingham City Council (BCC) are considering forming a multi-academy trust. The schools in the group are:
All are reported as being rated ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’ by OFSTED.
Love Brum Schools is an action group that is opposed to the plans. The group is not affiliated with any political party, nor to the Kings Heath Residents’ Forum but education is an extremely important subject for many residents. For that reason, the Residents’ Forum is publicising the group to make residents aware of the plans. The group’s website is lovebrumschools.com. Their site includes a frequently asked questions (FAQ) section that deals with many of the central issues.
This is clearly, and understandably, a very emotive subject and residents will undoubtedly want to know more about the pros and cons. Searching the web with a search term such as ‘academy schools pros and cons’ will produce a list of websites. Two that seem to provide relevant information are published by the National Union of Teachers (NUT) (pdf, 412kb) and specialist education publisher MA Education Ltd.
If you’ve ever complained about the amount of litter around Kings Heath, now’s your chance to do something about it. Your help is needed as part of the Great British Spring Clean.
The idea – backed by Keep Britain Tidy (KBT) and Birmingham City Council – is for neighbours, friends or local community groups to get together and to do a Spring Clean in their neighbourhood.
It’s all happening over the weekend of 4 and 5 March 2017.
Posted by Kate Wilcox:
Birmingham City Council (BCC) has outlined plans for the future of Birmingham’s community libraries. The plan is now out for consultation and everybody has the chance to comment on it.
The key point is that all the city’s libraries have been classified in one of four tiers. Kings Heath library is in Tier 1.
The good news is that it is expected to remain open. It will also be open for the same number of hours each week as now.
Overall the proposals mean Kings Heath library will:
More details about the consultation are available at the following links:
If you want to have a say in the consultation, you have until 27 January 2017 to make your views known. You can do it in two ways:
If you have any interest in Kings Heath library it is important that you are part of this consultation. Please fill in the form and send it to BCC.
Photo credit: Kings Heath library by Tony Hisgett (CC BY 2.0)
Localised flooding can, sometimes, be caused by blocked storm drains, known as gullies. These are found at the edges of the city’s roads. We’re approaching the time of year when these are even more likely to be blocked because fallen leaves can build up across the gratings over gullies.
Now Birmingham City Council has introduced an online form so that local people can report blocked gullies. BCC wants reports to include ‘An accurate location (including landmarks, nearby house numbers or road junctions)’ as well as ‘A detailed description of the problem (e.g. blocked gully or missing grate)’.
If you want to report a blocked or damaged gully, visit the reporting form.
Obviously there is no guarantee that reporting a blocked gully will result in it being cleared. Indeed, the road layout in some places makes it almost impossible for surface water to drain away. If you report a flooding problem and it doesn’t get cleared, then the next step is to report it to your local councillors along with the reference number.
Members of the Moseley and Kings Heath Greener, Cleaner, Safer Environment group were surprised to be told that Amey is ‘moving towards one hundred per cent monitoring’ of highways repair work. The news was delivered by an Amey representative at a recent meeting. Amey currently carries out all highway maintenance work for Birmingham City Council (BCC).
This leads to an extraordinary conclusion: that nobody is currently checking all the work that Amey is doing for BCC to make sure that it’s up to standard.
There should be a considerable amount of work to be checked. The contract with Amey started in 2010, runs for 25 years and is worth £2.7 billion.
However, it seems that BCC has taken action by imposing financial penalties on Amey following complaints from residents that work was not being done or was not up to standard. Amey has disputed the allegations, claiming that all work meets the standards set out in the contract. The argument has been rolling since Autumn 2015. According to the Birmingham Post, it was still not resolved as recently as September 2016.
But why does BCC rely on local residents to monitor the work carried out by its biggest contractor? Given the value of the contract, it must surely be possible to have BCC staff checking every job completed by Amey?
And on a £2.7 billion contract, it should surely have been possible to make Amey pay for the BCC staff needed to check the work.
Kings Heath Neighbourhoods Forum 