Tornado Update
Last night two meetings took place, one organised by the City Council at St Paul’s in Balsall Heath with about 40 residents present, the other organised by residents at the Community Development Trust in Moseley with about 20 residents present. I hope that the organisers of both meetings will provide notes of actions agreed and, in due course, provide an update of the result of these actions.
The NEXT MEETING organised by the City Council is not on Tuesday, but on WEDNESDAY 31st August at 7.00 at St Paul’s, corner of Hertford Street and Clifton Road.
Following these meetings things have progressed today:
1) A stall has been allocated to us at the Farmers’ Market in Moseley on Saturday to publicise the effect of the tornado and that, contrary to the belief of people who live outside the area, we will be living with the problems for a very long time.
Bez Pitcher is organising a collection of laminated A4 photos of the area, and a display of short descriptions by residents of what happened on July 28th, what has happened since, and how this has affected our lives, including any silver linings to that very black cloud.
If you have any suitable photos for this display, please send them to me by e-mail, or deliver them to Bez at 31 Queenswood Road (phoning 449 4050 first to make sure that she is in).
If you would like to send the short written piece by e-mail I will print it on a post card - these will be put in a box on the stall for people to read - or you could write the card yourself and deliver it to Bez.
People will be needed at the stall all day to talk to passers by, give out information and collect information - from about 9 a.m. to about 3 p.m. Can you help for a while? Please let me know by replying to this e-mail or by phoning Bez on 449 4050.
2) Further discussions have taken place about how to make sure that information about decisions taken by the Local Authority and others are passed on to residents, and to make sure that the needs and views of everyone affected by the tornado are heard by decision makers.
The Sparkbrook Ward Support Officer, Becky Jones, agreed to include a paragraph in the next Tornado Bulletin stating that Street Representatives/Street Champions are needed, and asking people who are interested in taking on this role to come to a meeting to find out more
about it (or send in their details if they are unable to attend).
All community groups in the area (the Forums, Residents Associations etc) will be contacted and asked to attend the same meeting, with details of any Street Representatives/Street Champions/Good Neighbours who are already active (or send in their details if they are unable to attend). If you are aware of a group in the affected area that may not be known by Becky Jones, please send me details, or send them direct to her at
Becky_Jones@birmingham.gov.uk.
3) The need to preserve the damaged trees in the area and to plant new trees is recognised by the Moseley Society and the Moseley in Bloom committee and both are offering help to residents.
There will be a Moseley Society meeting to which residents are invited to share experiences of the tornado and hear from a climatologist about how the tornado was formed and the chances of a recurrence, and also hear advice about tree planting - Tuesday 30th August 7.15 - 9 p.m. at St Martin de Porres School.
Advice can also be given by natalie@moseleyinbloom.org.uk
That will do for now
Esther Boyd