Tornado Residents

Sparkbrook District Tornado Bulletin No. 6, 16.08.05

Residents Meeting – 9 August

Sparkbrook District Tornado Bulletin No. 7

Sparkbrook District Tornado Bulletin No. 8

Tornado Action Meeting
Last night’s residents tornado meeting was a great success. 70 residents attended, from Balsall Heath, Moseley, Sparkhill and Sparkbrook.

During the meeting, in groups, residents put forward ideas and for the renewal of the area. These ideas were collected up at the end and will now be put together in the form of a report. The report will be presented back to the residents at the next one of these meetings, which will be held on Wednesday 21st September at 7pm, at Clifton Old School. With the approval of that meeting, the Tornado Action Group will present the proposal to Officers and to the Government, and begin to petition to bring the ideas and requests into reality.

This event was successful due to the co-operative and co-ordinated efforts of residents and community organisations. St Paul’s Community Development Agency supplied the hall, tables and chairs and the crèche was provided by St Paul’s Nursery. Community Wardens advertised the event and made a hot meal for us all. Balsall Heath Forum co-ordinated the night. But most importantly, the people who orchestrated the procedures were the residents of the tornado striken area. Residents have been holding meetings, building contact lists, sharing information and experiences, asking questions, and pushing for positive action, since the first day of the tornado. This meeting served as a platform from which the Residents Action Group can take the concerns of the whole area to the officers and governors who are able to make decisions on all of our lives.

Street Reps
Several people have put their names forward as Street Reps for their street. This is helpful as it means that information can be disseminated directly to residents. Nicky Barron from Balsall Heath Forum currently runs a Good Neighbour Scheme. She supports existing Street Reps in the area, and is looking out for new ones. Residents themselves are gathering details of people offering to be Street Reps, and so are Birmingham City Council. If the details are shared between the organisations and residents, then anyone, with any information, can share it, through the network. What do other residents think about this?

Residents Groups
Several people in the tornado area have said they would like to set up residents groups. This can be difficult practically in terms of finding the time and resources to set up and advertise meetings, invite guests, petition officers and so on. Balsall Heath Forum can support people with these processes through their good neighbour scheme. Please call Nicky on 446 6183 if you would like them to assist you in setting up your group.

Appeal Fund
Several residents are wondering what has happened to the appeal fund. The Birmingham Foundation have offered to manage the fund. What is needed is a local person to work with the Birmingham Foundation to help to co-ordinate how the fund is delivered to the community. Could you, or anybody you know, take on this role? If so, why not call Birmingham Foundation and let them know. Their telephone number is 326 6886.

TORNADO EVENTS THIS WEEK

Organised by residents for residents

Wednesday 21st 7 p.m.
at St Paul’s Clifton Rd

Come and enjoy a
COMMUNAL MEAL
Hear how residents raised money and recovered from the flood in Carlisle, and prepare our PLAN FOR RENEWAL (free – crèche available)

Organised by the City Council

Tuesday 20th 7 p.m. at St Paul’s Clifton Rd:
Meeting for residents affected by the tornado
to share information on progress to date
and to plan and co-ordinate support services

Saturday 24th 10:30 – 18:00
Clifton Rd Junior School, St Paul’s Road
A community planning day with John Thompson

drop in at any time or stay all day

phone Alison Lansdown on 464 0325 for details

Hi everyone
The meeting to raise any queries that you may have about the Birmingham Foundation, who have offered to organize our Appeal, will be on Tuesday at 5 pm at the Balsall Heath Forum Tree House in St Paul’s Road. If you have questions but cannot be there, please let me, or Ted Ryan, know.

I hope that Residents will be ready to decide to go ahead with this (or not) at the community meal on Wednesday.

I have pasted below an article from the Evening Mail, sent to me by Richard Marsh.

I hope to see you at least one of the many meetings this week.
Esther
449 6675
19 Queenswood Road

Hi I am just letting you know about 2 events that are happening which I feel is important to us and think that we should try to attend.
1. HARVEY MANSFIELD from Birmingham’s FOUNDATION will be visiting the BALSALL HEATH FORUM today 20th 09.05 at 5pm. He will be taking about setting up funding for those that have been effected by the TORNADO.in order to get some sort of funding for us so that we can at else replace some of our basic household needs that was lost, I feel that it would be good for him to see that we are still very much int rested in funding for ourselves and that we are willing to hear suggestion of how we can go about this.

2. PAUL HEN DY from CAR LISLE will be here Weds 21st Sept 2005 at 3.30pm at The TREE NURSERYat. He will be here to have a chat about his experience with events like ours and how funding was set up. He will then have a tour of the area, and also attend the residents meeting at 7pm which will be held at CLIFTON OLD SCHOOL.

I think that we should attend these meeting as they and for us , on behalf of us, and about us. therefore we should all be there to have a say.

please try to come and tell anyone you think should be there, in case we may not have been able to get in touch with them.

Thanks a lot
Brenda

A new version of this is now available here

If you are recognised as a tornado resident by the council, you should
receive this by post as well.

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