Councillor Mike Flower

Are you a Conservative who wants to improve your local area? If so, you are an ideal candidate to become a Conservative councillor.

Becoming a councillor is a uniquely rewarding experience. It gives you the opportunity to help your local community and be part of a dedicated team providing key services for your area.

Being a councillor is also a great way to gain political experience and useful skills in public speaking, debating and problem solving.

Serving councillors are a broad mix of people from the local community. By becoming a councillor, you really can make a difference to your local community.

Who may become a councillor?

To be eligible you must be:

-A British subject or a citizen of the Irish Republic or the EU and resident in the UK.
-At least eighteen years old on the day you are nominated.
-Either on the electoral register for the council area in which you are seeking election, or have lived or worked in that council area for at least the last twelve months.
-A member of the Conservative Party. If you have not already done so, you will need to become a member of the Conservative Party.

If you are interested then drop me an email: mike@mikeflower.com

Recently there has been an increase in contamination of some recycling loads in the Borough. This means that some households are putting food waste, nappies and even excrement into the green recycling bins. When it’s tipped onto the wagon it contaminates the whole load and that means it gets rejected by the recycling contractors and costs significantly extra to dispose of. The Council provides the services to collect all these items, we just need people to take a minute to put them in the right bin.

I don’t want the Council to not collect bins – we just need a small minority to help the rest of us by doing their bit.

The brown bin expansion was approved this evening by Cabinet. That will bring the total to 102,000 households with a garden waste service and should be everyone that needs one. It will be in place for Spring next year so good news for those extra 20,000 households. I think the waste collection service in Walsall provides a really good offering to residents. Most people don’t realise that garden waste is not a statutory service and some councils charge residents extra for the service, charge them to buy their first bin or don’t even provide a garden kerbside collection at all. Value for money.

So what next to improve the waste system?

I have been experiencing a bout of blogging fatigue recently. Any tips on how to beat blogging fatigue would be gratefully received. This is my attempt to kickstart blogging!

You may remember I asked for your thoughts in August on how to improve the waste collection service. See: http://mikeflower.wordpress.com/2009/08/05/what-next-for-rubbish-collection/

I’m pleased to say that tomorrow night (Wed) I am asking Cabinet to approve the completion of the brown bin (garden waste) service across the Borough. Here is an extract from the press announcement:

“We now have an excellent opportunity to make further headway in our recycling service which is already up there with some of the best in the country.

“We have already seen recycling rates improve dramatically since the introduction of our new waste service at the beginning of the year and we are on target to be recycling 45% of all household waste by the end of 2009 – five years earlier than required.

“The expansion of the brown bin service would help take us up to the next level, as well as meet demand from local people and create a much fairer, borough-wide service for residents.

“It is also an opportunity to further reduce the amount of waste that is dumped in landfill sites, which can contribute towards global warming and significant negative impact on the environment.”

Have a read about it here: http://www.walsall.gov.uk/news/garden_waste_recycling_scheme_to_be_extended.htm

Any other thoughts on how the Council should improve the waste collection system next?

Although Aldridge Ambulance station isn’t in my ward, as an Aldridge North and Walsall Wood councillor the communities I represent do have a vested interest in the ambulance station in Aldridge.

I understand that planning permission has been submitted to the Council for Morrisons to extend onto the site of the current Ambulance Station.

I wrote to the Chief Executive of the West Midlands Ambulance Trust to ask him for the lowdown and in fairness to him he responded very quickly. He wrote:

“My team have confirmed that Morrisons who own the store and land adjacent to Aldridge Ambulance Station have indicated to the Trust that they would like to buy the site for their store expansion. At this stage we have said that we may be interested but no more than that.

The store has applied for planning permission and we have made our staff aware of the interest. Part of that plan is for a response post for a Paramedic Rapid Response Car to be retained on the existing site.

We now have a detailed piece of work ongoing which is looking at stations within the area and trying to establish whether or not we can create new locations that will improve performance in the area. A number of locations have already been looked at and subsequently rejected due to either being in the wrong place or having poor access and egress.

At this stage this is no more than a review, but if we believe that changes will result in better response times then the Trust will consult with all stakeholders appropriately before any changes are recommended to the Board.”

So that is the current state of play. Generally it makes sense to have a review and then apply for planning permission, not the other way around. I have formally written to the Council to highlight my concern about any application that will have an effect on the ambulance site. I know Richard Shepherd MP also has concerns.

This is one we all need to keep a close eye on.

Councillors across the Borough have received a lot of comments over the past few months about the new bin system. It seems to have gone down quite well. Great. But what next?

A scattering of thoughts:

Some people would like their green recycling bins emptied weekly.
Some people would like brown bins for garden waste as some properties still don’t have them. One resident suggested to me that food waste should instead go in the bin with garden waste, collected weekly, and the grey bin should be collected less often.

The Council are going to be reviewing the system shortly to see what works, what doesn’t and what can be done differently.

My aims would be: good service, value for money, a weekly collection for products that smell, reduction of waste being sent to landfill.

I don’t have a monopoly on good ideas so i’m throwing it open – how would you next improve the waste collection service?

Driving down the Lichfield Road from Shire Oak (which is currently one way thanks to the utilities companies!) you may have noticed that a huge chunch has been taken out of the side of the reservoir.

The site is owned by South Staffs Water and as it is their land then they are entitled to knock down the reservoir and flatten should they want. Or can they?

They actually received outline planning permission to build residential on the site and as part of that approval a number of planning conditions were included which included conditions on demolition. So in effect they restricted themselves.

When work started residents complained to us the councillors, and planners reviewed the case. Work was stopped a number of issues such as bat surveys and tree reports had to be submitted. South Staffs really should have got their paperwork in order before jumping in all guns blazing.

I now understand that the planning conditions have been met so I assume work will resume shortly. We will, of course, keep an eye on what is happening up there. It is important that that junction doesn’t get any worse and that the natural reserve behind is protected.

Given up trying to get WordPress to work on the iPhone – it’s beyond me! Will try to get into a better habit of blogging, honest. Lots going on at the moment. Top of my list is my mate’s wedding in just under two weeks at which I am the best man. No pressure then! Does anyone have any tips for the best man speech? Answers on a postcard…

For some reason my iPhone WordPress app keeps filing my posts into a drafts folder it won’t let me open – so I’ve lost some posts. Can anyone offer advice?

This evening we had the first meeting of the social media focus group. When I was on Corporate Scrutiny last year we set up the group to look into new ways of communicating with the public, and for the public to communicate with the Council. Actually this issue is a lot wider than social media and I think opening up data is also a key point.

There were councillors there from other parties and council officers of all ranks and departments. We all sat there as equals with no protocols or formal meeting structures to bounce around some ideas – what do we do already, who should get involved, what should be the outcome, etc. It was really positive and people were there because they genuinely wanted to be.

We need to look at communication flows – how can the Council educate the public about what services it offers and how can the public educate the Council about what they really want?

Everyone went away to think about what was discussed, what we think the outcome should be and how the public should be involved. Ultimately I want this process to really involve the public because that’s what it is all about!

Btw – as of today I have swapped portfolio with Cllr Rachel Walker. I will now look after the environment portfolio, whilst Rachel will look after Children’s Services. I have a full time job and after a few weeks in the role it became clear that there would be too many daytime commitments I wouldn’t be able to attend. Rachel has more flexibility so it made sense to do a swap!

Our Member of Parliament, Richard Shepherd, is one of our best kept secrets in Aldridge-Brownhills. Watch this short video which demonstrates why he would make an excellent Speaker.

Just returned from campaigning out and about in Aldridge. We split our time between the Coppy Hall estate canvassing residents and then moved onto Aldridge Town Centre. I joined Anthea Mcintyre and Dan Dalton who are Conservative MEP candidates and also Councillors John Rochelle, Eddie Hughes and Keith Sears – plus other activists. The weather was good, people’s spirits are high and we were well received by people. Clearly MPs expenses has had an impact on everyone but I think although people are rightly angry about this issue, most acknowledge that we have a very hard working and principled MP in Richard Shepherd. I hope he will consider standing for Speaker of the House of Commons – we need someone to defend the rights of people in the Commons, just as he has done for us in Aldridge-Brownhills for thirty years.

Enjoy your bank holiday – lets hope the sun continues to shine!

Well I didn’t expect to have over 400 page hits over the last 24 hours! I’ve had an interesting mix of messages from councillors and the public. Two things and then i’m moving on:

- An experienced Northampton Borough councillor once said to me, “I like to believe in something and debate policy as much as the next but it shouldn’t get personal and we should be able to go to the pub afterwards and still be able to have a pint together.”

- My message to people on Children’s Services – i’ve been in the job just 25 hours. Please give me the time and the chance to get to know it and do something with it.

Moving onto Aldridge North – I attended another protest outside of the bail hostel on Saturday. Residents are determined to keep the pressure on the Probation Service. Cllr Garry Perry has posted about it on his blog and he will ensure that it is kept on the Safer Borough Partnership agenda until it is closed.

There is some confusion over a meeting with the bail hostel people. I haven’t received an invitation, nor have the other elected representatives. I find that a bit odd seeing as the Probation Service spokesperson said we had been in the Express and Star.

In the meantime I am trying to set up a meeting with the Council, Probation Service and Ministry of Justice to see if we can breathe some life into their idea – now of two years ago – to look for an alternative site. Work in progress… will keep you updated.

I’ve just come back from a meeting of Full Council and return feeling completely deflated.

I guess I thought i’d return full of enthusiam as tonight is the night Council appointed me as Cabinet Member for Children’s Services. What a fantastic opportunity – both for me and for all young people and children in the Borough!

This was a massive portfolio so the Leader has decided to take Building Schools for the Future out of the portfolio and into the hands of Regeneration. The Leader has also decided that he will personally deal with the issues around Sneyd School, because it is such an important issue. As such therefore this issue is largely in the hands of the Leader. This then gives me time to learn about Children’s Services – education, child care, adoption, contract management, youth services… the list goes on! Hopefully when I get to grips with it I can begin to have a positive impact.

As the saying goes “you can’t eat an elephant in one sitting” so i’ll be doing what I can to learn about the portfolio section by section over the next few weeks and months. I’ll post more about this position and my hopes another time and focus back on the Council meeting.

What I witnessed today was nothing less than shameful. Councillors shouted down councillors, councillors spoke and others heckled so loud they couldn’t be heard, councillors picked arguments with the Mayor, the public gallery booed councillors as they voted name by name and tried to shout down speakers. Councillors of all parties joined in. One councillor who made his maiden speech was heckled and jeered – even in the Commons people get a chance with their maiden speech. I just didn’t get it. It didn’t achieve anything.

I sat there and genuinely wondered why i’d become a councillor. We’re all supposed to be “corporate parents”, community leaders and role models and yet the behaviour from many people was bullying and intimidating. If the people of Walsall had seen it then none of the 60 of us would be reelected. Some people must think its a bit of fun but if teachers held staff meetings like that or children behaved in a classroom like that then there would be serious consequences. Why would any person give up their evening to sit there and accept that behaviour? I just hope other Council meetings don’t head that way or I may think twice about my participation in them.

The final administrative hurdle has been passed for the Walsall Wood Mining Memorial to be build on Oak Park. Planning permission was granted by the planning authority yesterday. Coupled with Council’s decision to give permission for it to be built on the land then it should be all systems go! Will post an update as and when.

The Council’s thirty-four Conservative councillors met on Friday evening to elect a new leader, deputy leader, treasurer and secretary for the group. Cllr John O’Hare was stepping down as leader to take up position as the Borough’s Mayor.

The group elected Cllr Mike Bird as Leader, Cllr Adrian Andrew as deputy leader, Cllr Rose Martin as treasurer and Cllr Barbara McCracken as secretary.

As the Conservatives have thirty-four seats out of sixty the Leader and Deputy Leader of the Conservative Group will also become Leader and Deputy Leader of the Council (subject to a vote at Full Council).

It is also Mike Bird’s job to select the cabinet – a group of councillors who take the executive policy decisions and look after a portfolio/department. I was suprised to receive a call from Mike on Saturday morning to ask me to join the cabinet as the portfolio holder for Children’s Services and Young People. This is also subject to a vote at Council.

Some people may think I am a little young to be on the cabinet but it is only by doing a job and getting stuck in that one can gain experience. I won’t be perfect at the job (who is?!) but I will do my best.

The Conservative group meet again on Wednesday to iron out the committee places and chairmanships. There will be some changes for Aldridge North and Walsall Wood as I will no longer take a place on the Development Control committee this year – Keith or Anthony will take over. I also won’t be on Corporate Scrutiny anymore – a committee i’ve really enjoyed – but hope to still get involved with the communication and new media working group.

So all change and some interesting challenges ahead. My first question to readers then – what do you think of Children’s Services in Walsall? What works, what doesn’t work and what should I look at first?