I didn't get to speak at Council yesterday. Having called for an extra thirty minutes to discuss our motion on the Local Transport Plan, the coalition then called the vote before the extra time was up. There was some talk of the issues raised being dealt with by scrutiny. Given that the Scrutiny Chair seconded the Cabinet Member for Transportation's amendment, that seems unlikely. It would seem difficult to conduct scrutiny effectively when the Committee chairs and the Cabinet are all part of the same coalition..though I am well aware that this was the situation when Labour were in control as well, it hardly inspires confidence in the process.

That said, at least in scrutiny I feel like we are actually able to get work done on occasion. I'd hate people to think that the six hours a month we spend in full Council is all that councillors do, because from the point of view of the average member of the public in the gallery, I don't think any of us come across in a very good light.

I managed to poison myself by eating leftovers this week, hence no posts since Wednesday. I had recovered enough by today to go into town and to do a bit of filing and shredding at home. I'm still trying to work out what is useful and needs to be kept, and as I am a bit of a hoarder anyway, what might be useful at some point in the future and where to file it. After only eight months on the Council, I can see that I'm going to have to get ruthless about this in the future unless I want to be walled in by paper in the next couple of years.

Thursday, I went to an event hosted by Base K/S, the youth information shop which covers Kingstanding and Oscott wards. They have been running a young mothers group for several months, and this event was to launch a calendar they have produced, and to try and address some of the misconceptions about young women with children. It was very thought provoking - we talk a lot, especially in Kingstanding, about reducing teenage pregnancy, but maybe not enough about how young women are affected by having children and the sort of support that they need. It's easy to think of teenage pregnancy as a problem to be solved, or another statistic to be reduced, so it was a revelation to me to hear some of the members of the group talk about their experiences - good and bad  - and about their children. 

On a different note, has anyone else seen a large yellow poster which says 'Arthur Balfour was the 33rd Prime Minister', and if so do you know what it is for? Someone mentioned this to me the other day, and I've seen three of them on the way out of Birmingham today. There's no mention of who or what they are advertising, and I'm curious. Any ideas?

It seems I’m having a high profile week, by my standards anyway. A photo of me and some of my colleagues from the Birmingham Women’s Aid event was in the Birmingham Post last week. Typically I didn’t see it, so I’m going to head over to Central Library later to see if I can track down a copy. And today, I’ve been talking to the press about this blog – the Great Barr Observer have tracked me down online and hopefully are going to do a piece on it.

I’ve also been writing a press release today as we are going to get 23 Police Community Support Officers working in our area in the next couple of months, which is excellent news. They’re not exclusively working in Kingstanding of course, but Kingstanding will be very much a focus for this initiative, as we are a ‘priority neighbourhood’.

The central Kingstanding Police beat is one of the busiest residential beats in the West Midlands, and visible police presence (or the lack thereof) is one of the issues that is constantly being raised with us as Councillors. The PCSO’s have to be out on the beat for 80% of their time, which should help to address some of those concerns and forge better links between the police and the community. The first five PCSOs start work next week, so we’ll be able to see how things progress over the next few months until they are all in place.

I had a meeting this morning to discuss recommendations for the You Are Your City scrutiny review I’ve been working on. It’s been a very interesting review, and the working atmosphere has been quite amiable for the most part. We even had a minor breakthrough in relations between the Labour and Liberal Democrat parties this morning when we joined forces in arguing against the use of a semi-colon in the phrase You Are Your City; Clean and Safe. On issues of grammar at least we were in agreement. Obviously my grammatical ability today far outstrips my mathematical ability; I made the mistake of saying that 4.6 million pence was the same as 4.6 million pounds at one point – a clear reminder of the need to engage my brain before opening my mouth from time to time!

Spent the weekend in Gateshead for the Labour Local Government Conference. Conference was good, but I was rather more taken with the Angel of the North than anything else! We stayed at the aptly named Angel View Inn which has a great view of the sculpture. I'd always imagined that it was out in the country somewhere, so I was quite surprised to find that it is in fact just off the A1. I like Local Government Conference generally, mainly because it doesn't involve going to a seaside town beginning with B. Brighton, Blackpool and Bournemouth are all fine in themselves, but going to the seaside in February just feels wrong.

I'm doing various things in the ward this week. We are looking at advice bureaux provision in the ward, and looking at adding an extra bureau and finding a new location for one of the existing ones. I'm also meeting with the Police and Transport West Midlands about problems with anti social behaviour on one of the main bus routes through Kingstanding. On Friday, I've got another meeting for the Mobile Phone Masts scrutiny committee - this should be a particularly interesting meeting as we have asked the mobile phone operators to attend and answer questions. One of my jobs for this week is to go back through my notes and make up a list of questions - some have already been addressed, but quite a few issues were raised at the public meetings that I'd like to get more information on if possible.

This map shows the Kingstanding Ward boundaries:

If you live within the area shown on the map, and you wish to contact your local Councillors, check our Contact Details and Advice Bureaux Times here.

Not in Kingstanding? Find your local Councillors, MP or MEP by searching with your postcode at writetothem.com

I had a good meeting with Travel West Midlands and the Police today. We've been having particularly bad problems with anti social behaviour on one of the bus routes through Kingstanding, and the Councillors got involved before Christmas, as there was a potential threat to the continuation of the route. The Police already had an operation planned, which went into effect, and today's meeting was mainly to look at progress and what more could be done.

There are problems both on and off the buses, but one of the particular concerns was the large number of bus windows being broken by stones or other missiles being thrown from the pavement. Having been on a (moving) bus when someone has done this, it is scary when it happens, and obviously could be very dangerous to passengers, drivers, and other road users. It's also generally treated as criminal damage, despite the obvious (if not neccesarily intentional) threat to the person. So one of the things we talked about is whether attacks of this type could be considered as a more serious offence of causing danger to road users - if the Police can get someone on this, I think it will send out a strong message about how serious an issue this is.

On another issue, I caught part of Tony Blair talking to the people on Channel Five tonight. I just heard the last question on climate change and Kyoto, because I was watching the Channel Four news where Margaret Beckett was talking about the same issue. She was quite vague - talking in terms of choices that people will need to make over the next 10-20 years in terms of changing lifestyles and consumption. Blair gave rather more detail on the international aspect, but a lot of the emphasis was on scientific discovery and potential new developments. I'm quite pessimistic about the whole issue, particularly with the U.S still refusing to sign up to Kyoto - how long will it be before making choices has to become active enforcement to try to address the problems of climate change?

Reading List for February 2005:

French Revolutions by Tim Moore

Plague's Progress: A Social History of Man and Disease by Arno Karlen

Prime Minister Portillo and other things that never happened - Duncan Brack and Iain Dale (eds.)

Second City Politics: Democratic Processes and Decision-Making in Birmingham by Kenneth Newton

The Undergrowth of Science: Delusion, Self-deception, and Human Frailty by Walter Gratzer