On Monday we attended the funeral of Cllr Adrian Delaney's partner Heather. There was a massive turnout at the church, including a lot of Heather's colleaques from JobCentre Plus where she had worked for some time. She was obviously very popular and her passing leaves a gap in all our lives.
Yesterday we were at New Frankley in Birmingham Parish Council for a meeting with Planning officers and Cllr Neville Summerfield, Cabinet Member for Regeneration. This was to discuss the ongoing redevelopment of the Frankley Centre. After a long lapse we now have a report going to Cabinet on 24 Jan with a recommended bidder for the site. Keith also proposed a Consultative Group along the lines of the Longbridge Consultative Group, this was recieved very well so hopefully once the report has gone through Cabinet we can set this up and meet with the developer and make sure they understand what local people want from it all.
Afterwards Sue went to a meeting of the Forestdale Community Park group and Keith had a meeting with a housing association about a particular tenant's problems but also a general conversation about the area in general. Hopefully we can, between us, put support in place to help the tenant but also open a channel to discuss other issues.
Today Sue has been at the Fostering Panel. This is a heavy agenda with an awful lot of homework to do before the meeting.
Keith was at his first meeting of the Employees Cousultative Forum. This is a meeting with Education Trade Unions and the Cabinet Member to discuss issues concerning schools and those that work there. It is a strange affair with a very lukewarm response from Trade Union representatives to lots of government initiatives.
A name from the past raised its head today. At PMQs a Labour MP named Robert Flello stood and read out, supposedley as part of a question, a long list of Labour achievements. As this went on opposition members got restless and the Labour, sorry, Commons Speaker, Gorbals Mick, called for quiet whilst the Honourable Member tells us the good news.
Robert Flello was Richard Burden's bagman for some time before becoming a Councillor for Longbridge. He soon jumped ship to become an MP in Stoke. This contribution sums up his political career to date.
