Tornado Residents

Capacity Building

Building the ability of residents in a neighbourhood to the point where they can take part in and own the process of renewal is a complex and exacting task which requires the experience and skill of at least one Development Worker.

At least one employed person per neighbourhood is essential, possibly several. It is worth, for a moment, considering that (1) a successful faith organisation needs not just a priest but a team of people who hold a congregation together or (2) a factory whose effective functioning depends on a number of shop stewards. So, also, a neighbourhood needs a limited number of employees and a large number of volunteers to help it to cohere and thrive.

Some feel that a network of street champions, stewards or entrepreneurs acting as Good Neighbours is essential. Others think that a well organised series of residents groups can help underpin and sustain a Forum for the neighbourhood. Either way, all concerned need to appreciate that as a neighbourhood slowly moves from being atomised and weak to being well organised and strong, that it will pass through a series of stages all of which will require support and understanding.

In addition to builders of capacity and civil renewal, we already know that we need.

• A park keeper and a youth worker for Balsall Heath Park
• Ditto for Farm Park
• Area Caretakers in the most devastated areas (x3?)
• A community events/arts organiser
• A person who will facilitate us in putting together this major renewal package.

As well as residents needing capacity building, officers and councillors need it. B: CEN or Fircroft College could put on a course.

Safety

Short term

• Fences, ladders, gates etc all need attention.
• Better lighting.
• Change phone boxes by Newport Road.
• Collective clearing of asbestos.
• Fire hazards to be moved.
• A good independent advice centre is needed for some weeks.
• More extensive CCTV say some. Others say, won’t this move the problem elsewhere.
• We need an inter-agency action/review group to liaise with residents on a weekly basis.
• Ensure that back alley-ways are gated.
• Monitor standards of contractors and coordinate these with BCC.

Long term

• Neighbourhood Wardens are an invaluable aid.
• Amongst other things, they are able to start and sustain Neighbourhood and Business Watch schemes and be the eyes and ears of both residents and the police.
• A Neighbourhood which has a police station can develop it as a Safety Centre. One which does not have a police station could develop another local facility as such a Centre.
• Detached Youth workers and a youth engagement strategy are most essential requirements.
• Much crime is opportunist. A good police safety officer can help to ‘design’ much crime out of an area.

Environment and Parks

• Street Stewards who are an almost essential part of Civil Renewal need a J.D which includes knowing, and passing on to neighbours phone numbers and contacts for moving abandoned cars, rubbish and graffiti removal etc.
• A key feature of environmental improvement is education. A liaison officer to help schools to build the local environment into their curriculum is important.
• Benches are useful – providing they are made of materials which can be easily maintained.
• Area caretakers in the most devastated areas are essential.
• We need an environmental education strategy.
• We need more sturdy and fireproof bins and for them to be emptied. Plus, we need recycling bins.
• The beat sweepers to be integrated with the Green Team.
• Rats and rubbish are a priority. We must become far better at rubbish removal.
• Could Ladypool Road be pedestrianised or made into a one-way traffic system.
• Council to adopt and clean avenues.
• Bird tables to stop rats.
• Recapture the many confused open spaces. Give them to residents and Forums to look after.
• Lets have a comprehensive re-cycling plan.

Parks

Short Term

• Tree planting with the help of the Jungle, Forums and Schools.
• Who owns all houses so we can ask them to maintain gardens and trees.

Long Term

• Each park to gain a development plan with good landscaping and design.
• Balsall Heath needs a play/family centre. Pickwick and Farm Park need a covered shelter area and sports equipment.
• Each Park needs a ‘Friends of the Park’ group.
• We need to preserve the Astro-turf and to develop cricket pitches.
• We need a major tree planting (British) exercise.
• Balsall Heath park to be a flagship for regeneration and recovery.
• Approach environmental agencies.

Prosperity ending poverty and training

• These neighbourhoods are essentially residential and businesses should conform to life in a residential neighbourhood. However, each neighbourhood might benefit from a person dedicated to helping small businesses to take advantage of various opportunities including forming a business association. So, we need a business manager who will work with all businesses and all associations who will bring together different interests overcome barriers and help to market the area.
• A key part of prosperity is not just local businesses but ensuring that local young people and adults are well trained and able to take up jobs elsewhere in the caring and other professions.
• The reduction of insurance premiums might be linked to crime reduction.
• We need a better system of linking local skills to jobs in Birmingham and to raise the sights and ambitions of local people.

Family, Youth, School and College

• The more effectively a child is supported at home, the better will be their performance at school. So, parenting and other support mechanisms are invaluable and needed.
• Helping schools to work together in a neighbourhood consortium and open their facilities to the community. The idea of the extended school.
• Balsall Heath is developing an kind of Federal Academy. Others could do this – or plug into it.
• Primary Schools need outreach workers and to open up more to the community.
• St Pauls road opposite Clifton School to be converted to a walk-way and the school and park integrated.
• Each school is near a park. Why not ask each school to ‘adopt’ its park, name and plant trees.
• We need a fully integrated youth policy/strategy.
• We need a Home Start in Balsall Heath and probably also in a Sparkhill and Sparkbrook.
• We need coordinated, integrated play schemes in holidays with indoor and outdoor facilities.
• Can we have a coordinated plan for children and young people?

Image and Communication

Short Term

• Specialist advice on insurance and asbestos in needed for some time.
• We need public noticeboards throughout the area, especially in the worst affected ones.

Long Term

• Moseley as well as Balsall Heath already has a Magazine. Others could do so with their help.
• Welcome signs and distinctive colours can mark entry and exist gateways.
• Key features of an area need to be colourfully and attractively displayed.
• What is each area’s USP and central feature? Can we mark it and sell it?
• What are each area’s worst spots? How can they be eliminated?
• Distribute the Heathan in the roads beyond Balsall Heath Park.
• Keep the consultation and newsletters going.
• We need more parties in the park, communal meal, November 5th Bonfire etc.
• We need to celebrate local unsung heroes.
• Festive lights to go beyond Ladypool Road and up Church Road.
• We need to create a sense of pride and belongings in each neighbourhood.
• Each neighbourhood needs its own ‘brand’ image and colour.
• Market the Balti Belt but with the residential context of neighbourhoods.

Information

• We need to know where the displaced people are and when they can return.
• How many
  • Trees were lost?
  • Shops damaged?
  • Houses damaged?
  • People were not insured for (a) property (b) ….?
  • Cars damaged and written off?

Emergency Fund

Short – Medium term

• Some iniduviduals and families are suffering special hardship. Children have lost toys and books. Parents have lost furniture and precious belongings. We need to set up a special Hardship Fund, raise money locally and Birmingham Wide and oversee it carefully to help such people and to capitalise on the vast local will of residents to help these in distress.
• The fund needs a worker and the support of the Lord Mayor.
• The distressed also need Counselling. The elderly and disabled need special consideration.
• People need to be helped back into their houses ASAP.
• The committee must be representative.
• With winter approaching we need to get a move on.

Fund raising events

• Concert/cabaret
• Bonfire night
• Schools and faith groups
• Publicity
• Use Villa, Blues and Edgbaston

Management of services and assets

For decade after decade each and every one of Birmingham’s 400 Schools were managed and financed by just 15 Councillors and a large Education Department. The local management of schools (LMS) was a radical idea. Just 16 years ago every school was given its own budget, its own Governing body of local people and became semi-self governing. They’ve all been better for it.

Today, the Balsall Heath Forum view is that devolution and the localisation agenda should be pushed down to each neighbourhood which could be similarly made semi-self governing with its own:

• Budget
• Neighbourhood Strategic Partnership led by residents
• Neighbourhood Development Plan
• Neighbourhood Manager

Little wonder that most neighbourhoods have no purpose or focal point or sense of ownership over local events when there is no local manager, budgets or plan. No sooner said, than it makes sense to develop these.

Neighbourhood Management joins up previously separate services and budgets delivered over vast areas and makes them tailor-made to the needs of each neighbourhood.

So, in place of the Area Agreements covering large, District-wide, administrative areas, let’s have ones which relate to the neighbourhoods where people live.

• There needs to be a Civic and Community Centre in each neighbourhood.
• Each area also contains many public assets – parks, Sports Centre, land and buildings. These are not well maintained or used economically. We need an assets survey for each neighbourhood and, when capacity is built, these should be passed to residents, voluntary organisations and faith groups to manage. If this is done in an enterprising way then, as in other neighbourhoods elsewhere in the country, those assets such as housing could be used to fund a variety of local activities.

Balsall Heath be the only neighbourhood at this stage which is interested in this. But, others might like to consider it.

Guide Neighbourhoods and Residents for Regeneration

Using Good Practice in more developed neighbourhoods to help residents and professionals in less developed ones makes so much sense that the Home Office has backed Balsall Heath to advance the idea.

It might be helpful to think back, for a moment, to the time when the Council gave Birmingham’s second NDC £50m to Aston.

Then, 8 neighbourhoods got together under the title of Community Unity and said: “Let’s not give it to one of us or it will sink. Let’s all sit in a room and we’ll divide it up between us”. The Council insisted it went to one and we all know that it nearly did sink it. The rest stayed together and helped each other under the banner of Community Unity.

The Tornado has given us a second chance to get neighbourhoods to cooperate and divide a large sum between them amicably in cooperation and mutual support and not in competition. Some will be able to use more in the early days, because they are ready. Others will need more in later days when they too are up to speed.

Further, if these 4 neighbourhoods can cooperate, then with Community Unity, Castle Vale and others we really can start Birmingham’s Rolling Programme of Vibrant Villages and include many, many, more neighbourhoods as time goes on.

This should help not just Birmingham, but set an example to all 88 L.A’s which contain many excluded neighbourhoods.

We must show that residents can do things well and professionally.

The Council

Short Term

• The Council needs to meet representative residents, listen to, act on and answer their requests.

Long Term

• The Council needs to enable and trust residents to be in the lead of the renewal process.
• A fundamental change is needed in the relationship between the Council, Officers, Councillors and residents. It will be difficult to achieve this, but it is essential if renewal is to work this time.
• Central Government also needs to change. We need to move from ‘fine words’ to ‘fine deeds’. If local government is to change, then central government needs to give it the space, time and funds to do so.

Reconstruction

Short Term

• Join up insurers, builders, waste removal.
• Put in eco-friendly roofs.
• Period features to be maintained.
• Better street facilities for disabled people, parents with buggies etc.
• Start and finish times for repairs needed.
• Fund the Social Tarpaulin and Capacity Builders to help to prepare the long term package.

Long Term

• We need a major package to be funded by HMG, Europe, Lottery, GOWM etc
• This package to be built up out of individual Neighbourhood Development Plans for:

• Moseley
• Sparkhill
• Balsall Heath
• Sparkbrook

Each neighbourhood needs its own Neighbourhood Partnership and budget.

The plans must be (1) resident led and (2) resident implemented in association with their partners and (3) the Council must not be the accountable body.

Each neighbourhood plan can then be put into a wider, post Tornado package.

There already is a Balsall Heath neighbourhood development plan and a Moseley one. We also need to build in the best of the District Plans.

Costs – over 5 years
(just draft to start people thinking)
How can it be spent overtime and not all at once?

Category/Theme	1,000
Capacity Building	3,000
Safety	3.000
Environment and Parks	5.000
Prosperity and training	5.000
Family, youth, schools and college	20.000
Image and communications	500
Emergency Fund	250
Transfer of ownership and Management of services and Assets	5.000
Guide Neighbourhoods – aren’t they funded already?	2.000
The Council – to help it to adjust its budgets and services and get training.	2.000
The reconstruction package	250
Contingency	4.000
Total	£50M

• What about a ‘Community Chest’ fund for small groups.
• Who will account for the above – the Council or an independent body?
• Can the above be broken down into neighbourhoods with these up to speed able to spend their share quickly and others, who need time, able to spend their share later.