Representing Stirchley Residents
Please be aware, Cartland Road will be closed overnight from Thursday 10th February for five weeks. The road will be closed from 7pm until 5am, between Pershore and Vicarage roads.
This is to allow for resurfacing work, which are due to finish on 8th March 2022. Information on bus diversions can be found at Transport for West Midlands’ website.
The last year has challenged all in every part of life. Some changes can be swiftly charted. The challenges of isolation, work, poverty, skills, health, learning and active well-being remain. The pandemic has however given them new shape and depth but we may now be clearer on what may work and what may have to change.
Stirchley Neighbourhood Forum, thanks to the informed and faithful commitment of those who have sustained and supported our work, has continued to meet and to develop what we do alongside our Councillor Mary Locke, and Karen Cheney with her City Council colleagues at Stirchley Baths. With them and many other local partners we have welcomed and worked with the newly planned development of the former Tesco site, other sites whose use may change and the wider High Street renewal initiatives. Corners have been turned. More will come and be met successfully. We continue to work with police, library, health, transport and education providers to ensure that their work responds to Stirchley’s needs.
Our core work is of course exactly as our name says. Forum is first and last a gathering place of experience, wisdom, needs, opportunity and action. Our Neighbourhood Forum is utterly committed to offering this for the benefit of Stirchley’s excitingly varied residents. We are not confined to the High Street. Our commitment is to the whole ward including the Pineapple (Dad’s Lane) estate, housing, industrial and business areas away from Pershore Road and to areas brought in since 2018 to the new Stirchley Ward. We have already begun to develop new work in housing especially in relation to sheltered housing and multi-occupation sites, new and old.
The future demands that we continue all this. We want, from now on, however to explore the ways in which we might be a means, on behalf of residents, to gather together Stirchley’s many different stakeholders. Stirchley is never short of creativity and enterprise, whether in work, business, learning, healing, culture or social change. We are however as a Neighbourhood much in need together of a means of effective communication and where appropriate for joint working and partnership. Within all else that the next twelve months offers must be sharp focus for the sake of all who live here and all who care for its future.
My very large thanks to all who have attended meetings and supported us and especially to our Committee for their faithful work and wise insight. Paula Aubrey our Treasurer has not only been assiduous in keeping our books straight and in enabling the Stirchley Together funds to operate effectively but also in ensuring with Pastor Matt and his colleagues at Stirchley Community Church that we have a steady welcoming place to meet. Julie has been indefatigable on Zoom, Margaret, Heidi and Stacey give wisdom and a wide range of contacts and of course Sandra Cooper, our vice-Chair, Planning Officer and Acting Secretary has worked with assiduity, commitment and deep insight to further the Forum’s work.
It has been a great personal joy to be their colleague in the service of Stirchley. Please join us.
Rob Morris, Chair
To read the full annual report from 2020 – 2021, click here.
Well, it’s June already. Not quite ‘sizzling June’ but give it time.
A planning application has come in for 1456 Pershore Road (opposite Stirchley School – used to be a newsagent) to turn from retail to hot food take away. Application no. 2020/01992/PA accessible on Planning Online.
The Forum policy is currently to oppose any such application, particularly as this is so near the school and the City Council has a policy of supporting healthy eating. Unfortunately the Planning Officer has given the impression that they will have no objection which seems a little strange. Please take a look and let us (and Planning) have your thoughts. Consultation ends 22nd June.
https://eplanning.birmingham.gov.uk/Northgate/PlanningExplorer/Home.aspx?formButton%253Areport1=Access+Planning+Online
There has been a new application for an alcohol license for 1469 Pershore Road (near Stirchley School currently Stir Stores) which has planning permission for use as a cafe during standard retail trading hours. A recent planning application for late night opening was withdrawn in the face of objections from people living nearby. Maybe those of you who did such a good job in putting together objections to the Mary Vale Road licensing application would take a look and let us know your thoughts? Closing date for comments is 17th June.
Many of you will have noticed that building work has restarted on the site. We are told that, subject to any changes in government advice, the proposed opening date is 9th July. They have had over 1,000 applications for 80 jobs.
Karen Cheney has informed us that there will be a virtual Ward Forum meeting on 10th June (please note that this is the Council meeting not Neighbourhood Forum meeting).
Items on the Agenda include;
She says, ‘We are starting a trial of holding virtual ward forum meetings and Stirchley Ward is one of the wards within the pilot. The Stirchley virtual ward forum meeting will be held on June 10th 6.30pm- 8pm
The virtual meetings will be run on “Teams Live Events” and in order to join the Stirchley Ward Forum meeting you need to use the link below
Link for joining Virtual Stirchley Ward Forum Meeting
A few things to be aware of
Please feel free to pass on my e-mail to others in Stirchley who you think would like to attend and do not hesitate to contact me if you have any further questions.
Monday 8th June should have been our June meeting.
We now have the facility to hold meetings using Google Meet. If you are interested in attending such a meeting please let us know and we will arrange a meeting and send you an invitation. This is very much in the nature of experiment but could be a bit of an adventure!
Likewise if anyone would like to take minutes it would be greatly appreciated!
I hope that you have found this of interest. Please contact us on stirchleyforumb30@gmail.com if you wish to join a meeting on 8th or wish to contact us for any other reason.
We’ve got a bit of a different meeting for March, in fact it is a Special General Meeting. This means it is a meeting “called to discuss business usually considered at the Annual General Meeting or issues seriously affecting the Neighbourhood Forum such as a change to the Constitution.” It will take place on Monday 9th March 2020.
For anyone coming to the Forum meetings for a while, these won’t be a surprise; they’re mainly around making sure the Forum covers the whole Stirchley Ward (which changed since the Forum’s constitution was introduced), and a few other bits around how we tell people what’s going on.
You can read the constitution, with the proposed changes here.
Please note, due to Easter Monday there will be no April meeting, but we’ll be back the month after on Monday 11th May.
We wanted to help advertise the upcoming Stirchley Ward Forum meeting. This is not the monthly neighbourhood forum, instead it’s a meeting run by Birmingham City Council and Councillor Mary Locke.
The meeting will take place on Wednesday 19th February at 7pm at The Grace Church, Dell Road B30 2HZ.
Residents are invited to come and meet our local councillor and join in discussions with the cabinet member for street scene & parks. There will also be an update on the ward plan.
A reminder again that this isn’t the our neighbourhood forum meeting (that’s Monday 10th February), but an additional meeting. Hopefully we’ll see you at both!