Cllr Mumtaz Hussain: Aston Villa is the jewel in our crown

Thank you, Lord Mayor.

Aston is a vibrant place, with a lot of community activity and good sense of community spirit. 

The jewel in our crown is Aston Villa Football Club. It is a beautiful old building with lots of history and it attracts people from all over the country, even from abroad. We are so proud of it, but we know that the people that come to our area, don’t see Aston the way we do. 

People coming to see the football often tweet about Aston looking like a mess. We want to tell them that we are proud of our area, and we would like those people to come and see it looking good.

One of the major reasons why people are shocked by the mess in our area is because of criminal that fly tip. The people of Aston are their victims. Vans come at night to offload waste that they’ve picked up cheaply from other parts of the city.

I’m so grateful to the crew that clean the area, but this is becoming harder to arrange as officers don’t have the resources. I would like to see more done to stop these criminal fly tippers. 

I was shown some videos recently of Birmingham in the 1970’s. The videos showed people struggling back then, living hand to mouth. It’s more or less the same now, nothing seems to have changed. 

I think this is why people feel frustrated. They feel like they are not getting value for money. They aren’t even getting the bare minimum level of service. What they say is, if we are paying more council tax, why aren’t the services getting better? If anything, they are getting worse.

The local authority and the government are responsible for managing the whole city and helping it to prosper. We are one of the richest countries in the world, but people are still so poor in our city. 

Lots of people complain about the state of the roads. The potholes and dangerous junctions. There’s a big problem with road safety, especially around schools. 

HMO’s are a huge problem and they are taking our area from bad to worse. The people living there change all the time, and so much rubbish is left outside homes. It’s a sad thing to see, and I feel sorry for my residents who live in homes that they cherish, living next door to mounds of rubbish. It makes people feel like there’s no point taking care of their homes. It becomes a vicious circle.  We really have got to do something about problem HMO’s because they are ruining the community. 

Residents have a rant because they want a better Aston and they’ve got every right to do that, and I don’t mind listening. I stood because I want so much to make my ward a better place. 

One thing I’ve wanted to do for a long time is to get flower towers in the area. I have been working with Aston Villa and I am hoping that soon we will see these towers go up. 

I dream of Aston looking clean and tidy and well kept, with green parks and flower towers, clean pavements and smooth roads. 

I am honoured to represent my ward of Aston and the good people that live there, and I pray that one day they will live in an area that they can feel proud to call home. 

Thank you Lord Mayor.