Cllr Jon Hunt - "Perry Barr residents will fight for Beeches pool"

Responding to the budget debate, Councillor Jon Hunt said:

If I may, I’d like to start by asking the Leader something very specific in response to some of the comments made today. There is a suggestion in the Conservative amendment that there is a threat to Beeches pool, which is in my ward. I have seen where that’s come from in the budget as there is a section on the Community Leisure Trust which warns about review and potential closure of facilities. It may be that conservatives have some information on the potential closure of facilities.

If that’s the case may I remind you of two things. 

The overview and scrutiny report said if decisions like this go ahead or are being considered, departments should consult ward councillors. Myself and Cllr Morriam Jan know nothing of any proposals. 

I would remind the leader why it is open. 10 years ago, under threat of closures the community responded in a way that has made Great Barr notorious. They signed petitions, month by month until it surpassed 10,000 -and in those days they  were all on paper. A lot were in my house n great piles.  This was because the Pool is widely used, particularly by local schools, and especially since the Newtown Baths, further down the A34 were closed.

So if there’s any question of that being at risk, we want to know.

I would also say to the Leader, talking about Great Barr. Look at temperature in the city. In my community, and what people are talking about with this council, it is deeply, deeply worrying. People are talking about council tax strikes. I tell them – do not go down that road – but from their perspective, not only do they see services getting worse, they see them not being delivered:

Garden waste – stopped. Stop shimmy shammying round whether they will get their money back. Services are  not being delivered,

Yet the buzz word this afternoon is “transformation”.

Ile many, I have been waiting with bated breath for transformation without seeing it, but cabinet members are using the word a lot this afternoon.

In my 20 years as a councillor, the Council certainly has transformed.

When I started, we were a mid-ranking council with aspirations. Now it’s one of the very worst in the country, unable to deal with waste issues, or to understand aspiration. Of course there are ideas, and some keep getting recycled. I felt sorry for my friend Cllr Pocock because I know his heart is in the right place but all he can talk about is transformation in the back offices. The Leader promised a big debate about the city last year. Now he is at least talking about supporting neighbourhoods not just the city centre, but he talked about building over neighbourhoods.

It sounded as though we were all going to e paved over. I don’t think that’s how he means it; build better neighbourhoods – but we know what that looks like in Perry Barr.

Watch out for phrases like “reallocate road space”- in Perry Barr they took two layers of tarmac and laid it out so they doubled the amount of tarmacked space - where there was once a micropark with great potential.  I’m not hearing a real sense of where Birmingham might go. The Labour government certainly has difficulties  but if you look at their local government policy, it’s all about recentralising again – making big councils, just like Birmingham.

The Leader and Cabinet need to raise their game.