The last two weeks have been a non-stop effort by all three of us.
The Longbridge Area Action Plan Examination in Public, to give it it's official title is taking place at the Innovation Centre on the site. We are rather impressed at the way the Inspector, Jill Kingaby is conducting the enquiry. She tries to find common ground between differents interests and succeeds the majority of the time. There is a disagreement between the Council and St. Modwens and AWM over the money which will have to be paid through section 278 and section 106. This item has been adjourned for three weeks for negotiations to take place, expect some hard bargaining but there should be a deal by the time it resumes.
One thing that struck Keith was the attitude of some of the professionals toward local people. These highly educated and highly paid people, including several QCs tend to be a little superior to local residents such as Sid Grey who is representing the people of Frankley. What they forget is that when they get into their big cars and drive off to their big houses the rest of us remain behind to live and work in the area. They can make the decisions and decide on the future of Logbridge but it is us locals who have to live with the consequences and our views must not be discounted as being unimportant in the grand scheme of things. We did have a former Labour Councillor turn up who made some outlandish statements which caused some amusement but the trouble was that Sid Grey was then lumped into the same category which is very unfair to a man who has fought for his neighbours for umpteen years for no reward and deserves to have his words listened to with respect.
