I think that Acock’s Green needs good and local facilities and features. These facilities should include shops which are mostly locally run, a police station and a library which is open when local people need them, and historic buildings and green spaces which are valued, protected and used appropriately.
If we protect our local facilities to meet our needs, we are helping to keep our local communities strong. This will help local people to enjoy a higher quality of life, with good jobs and a good family life.
I think that planning decisions should be taken as locally as practically possible. The needs and the opinions of the local communities should always be given significant weight.
I would like to see improvements to existing buildings prefered over new building. Rennovation work done by local businesses can then bring work for local people. I would like to see decisions on such local matters being taken democratically by local people.
An elected Town Council could be the right body – if Birmingham is to have an extra tier of elected governance, I would support a Town Council, and not the centralization of power in an elected Mayor.
The Questions
Supermarket developments around Acocks Green have been very much in the news this year, and petitions both supporting and opposing the proposed Morrison’s development on Shaftsmoor Lane were handed into the Planning Department. It would now appear that a decision will be made on this scheme, and another one for an Asda based development in Reddings Lane, prior to the May 3 local election. However, proposed modifications to the much discussed ‘Draft National Planning Policy Framework’ now seem to be seeking to take into account the types of concerns expressed by people, in regard to unchecked supermarket development, both in Acocks Green, and across the country. Do you support these modifications, and, if you were elected what steps would you be taking to help protect Acocks Green shopping centre from decline as a result of ‘out-of-town’ shopping facilities?
Answer: Locally owned retailers tend to support local jobs, to keep wealth circulating in the local economy, and to reflect the character of local communities. In contrast, national chain supermarkets tend to take wealth and jobs out of the local area. I support protection for local shops, and reasonable checks on supermarket development. I would argue in favour of new local shops and street markets rather than new branches of supermarkets. Local markets can help shoppers find what they need at prices which they can afford. Local markets bring more trade to nearby local shops. Locally run markets can also help local people set up new businesses, which may then develop and take on shop premises, too. I would like Birmingham City Council to give the Acock’s Green Business Improvement District scheme the time and support which it needs to do its work. In the face of the new Yardley Swan Tesco, Acock’s Green retailers do not need any further pressure from yet more national chain supermarkets. The Green Party also call for specific new measures and planning policies to protect locally run shops and small businesses.
This July we will know the result of a bid for funding for the Acocks
Green section Birmingham City Council/Solihull MBC/Centro Smart Route route scheme on the Warwick Road. (A Smart Route is a red route with special facilities for buses. If you are unfamiliar with this scheme there is a report on a meeting between Birmingham City Council Transportation Department staff and Acocks Green delegates below here If you are elected will you support this scheme, which will involve the implementation of a single carriageway through part of Acocks Green centre, to replace part of the present dual carriageway there?
Answer: Yes, I support de-dualling as part of the improvement of the Warwick Road through Acock’s Green for all users and local communities. I agree that dual carriageways tend to encourage drivers to go too quickly along this town ‘High Street’. I would like Birmingham City Council to continue to listen to local needs and opinions. BCC also need to keep up-to-date with developments in best practice for ‘High St’ layouts.
If elected, will you actively also support ‘de-cluttering’ (removal ofexcess street furniture) as part of the implementation of this scheme?
Answer: I support de-cluttering. I am very impressed by both Kensington High St and Exhibition Road ‘Shared Space’ schemes, which I have recently visited in London. I would like to see the communities of Acock’s Green enjoying the benefits of these kinds of new thinking in urban road layouts.
Acocks Green people are working, with guidance from BCC officers, ontheir own Conservation Area, proposal. If elected, would you supportsuch a scheme in your work as a councillor, e.g. speaking and voting in favour where possible. If the answer is ‘this depends’ please elaborate.
Answer: I support the Acock’s Green Conservation Area project. I would also like to see investment in all fixed features of historic interest, natural and built. We should develope and use local skills to enhance our historic buildings, so that local people can actively benefit from, enjoy and use them.
Just in time for the 2012 elections, Acocks Green Baptist Hall, (corner of Yardley Road and Alexander Road, Acocks Green.) appears to have put forward a new proposal to demolish the locally Grade A listed Glynne Edwards Hall (This featured in last year’s questions.) At the time of posting we are unclear about precisely how the re-designed building would appear, but page 3 of the new ‘briefing’ document linked to above makes clear, by omission, that the third building on the site, The Glynne Edwards Hall would be demolished: see highlighted section. The, widely opposed, scheme previously put forward to local people, involved the replacement of the Glynne Edwards Hall with a plate glass design. It is not yet clear what form the new design would take. However, owners of the Hall claim that the new scheme, like the old one, would enable them to finance proper maintenance for the two statutorily listed buildings on either side, by letting rooms in the new building. See our main, 2011, Glynn Edwards Hall posting here here for more information about the previous scheme. The new briefing sheet also directs to www.stockfield.org which describes the 2011 scheme, implying the new one is not very different. If elected, would you support or oppose the scheme to demolish The Glynne Edwards Hall. Please give at least one reason in your answer.
Answer: I oppose the scheme to demolish the Glynne Edwards Hall. The local desire to preserve this Hall is a strong reason to stop any demolition. I also think there should be a properly independent review of the true energy, environmental, employment & financial costs, benefits and suggested business case for the whole site.
We are also concerned to protect our local public buildings by ensuring that they remain well used. There has, recently, been concern about reductions in library hour provision in Birmingham Libraries. If elected, would you be concerned to maintain the present 50 hours per week opening provision for Acocks Green Library (Building locally listed Grade A) and, if so what steps would you take?
Answer: I support the current 50 hours per week opening of Acock’s Green Library. I think if we increase the appropriate use of the Library, we should be able to protect the opening hours. I would explore options for this with the library Staff, local communities and the Council.
There has been a proposal that Acocks Green Police Station should be moved from its present location, to a more central one, and the building either then sold or demolished. A sentence in a report to the Police Finance and Resourcing Committee in January reads:
There are no custody facilities at either Erdington or Acocks Green. What is proposed is the REPLACEMENT of each of the stations with new buildings.
This produced a response in the form of impromptu and urgent meeting outside the building in January. In a recent email Bob Jones, Chair of West Midlands Police Authority Finances and Resources Committee promises that local views will be taken into account
‘& and if the best option turns out to be staying where we are then that is were we stay’
What do you feel the future of Acocks Green Police Station should be, and how would you help protect the locally Grade B listed building?
Answer: I support keeping Acock’s Green Police Station as a working police building. As with the Library, I would explore options with all the groups of people who have an interest in our local policing, and who can help us keep the station working.
A public footpath path running between Fox Hollies Road and Fox Hollies Leisure Centre has been closed for the past five years, causing great inconvenience to local people. (See full details of story here) If elected would you support the re-opening of this path so that it can be used by residents of Acocks Green, and nearby areas, who wish to exercise at the Leisure Centre.
Answer: I support the re-opening of the Fox Hollies footpath if this proves to be at all practical.
What support will you be giving to the new Acocks Green BID Manager in her work to make Acocks Green shopping centre an attractive and popular shopping venue?
Answer: I will continue to offer my support to the Acock’s Green BID manager, for example to try to set up a local market that will meet our local needs. Thank you for reading, Amanda Baker, Green Party