We have had some varied experiences lately.
On Friday the 17th Keith & Sue attended the funeral of former Councillor Gordon Green at St. Nicholas Church in King's Norton.
There was a very large turnout as befitted Gordon's life and a beatiful service.
Gordon was the country's youngest headteacher when he took on Kings Norton High and was the President of the NUT in 1983. When he retired(?) He didn't put his feet up but became a Councillor for Longbridge and served until 2004.
Keith was honoured to pay tribute to Gordon at the Councill meeting in April and we would like to express our condolonces to his family in this place.
There were some Labour luminaries in attendance including Ian Ward, Cath Grundy, Laura Ross, Hugh McCalliog and Stuart Stacey. The Deputy Lord Mayor, Randal Brew was there but no sign of his former colleagues Steve Bedser or Robert Flello MP. How soon they forget.
The following day Ken, Sue & Keith were off to TwickenHam to watch Moseley RFC win the final of the cup competition. Also there was Ian Ward, deputy leader of the Labour Group. This time we were all united behind Mose and really enjoyed watching them beat the top placed Leeds Carnegie. A great day all round.
Since then it has been the usual round of meetings. Sue's workload has been particularly busy with both Adoption Panel and Licensing. This always requires a tremendous amout of reading in preparation for both meetings. Some of the adoption cases make for harrowing reading but of course confidentiallity is of the utmost importance. On Licensing Sue was at the meeting which discussed the reforms to the Taxi regulations, this went of pretty quietly after much fuss and bother and mis-apprehensions by some taxi owners, not helped by some press stories.The press do not always help on these occassions but to be fair that is not their job. Their job is to sell newspapers. It will be interesting to see the circulation figures since the revamp of the Post.
Sue also sat on the case of the Fordrough Pub. This followed the incident when a local man trying to break up a fight was, allegedly, punched and hit his head, leading to his tragic death. The pub was closed by the magistates and this was to attempt to decide the future of the license. The case was adjourned for 3 weeks to see if agreement could be reached between the licensee and the police.
Some excitement on Monday, Keith & Coun Adrian Delaney were at the Dingle pub on Frankley Beeches Rd, the pub is closed by the way, to inspect the state of the raodway which borders Weoly and Longbridge Wards and look at getting it cleaned up, especially the strip of land which border the golf course and is used for fly-tipping. Suddenly there were police cars everywhere and a helicopter. We followed the chopper into Frogmill Road and found several police cars and a van prked up. There was a young man in the back of a police car and we were informed that there had been an armed robbery at the Arden Road Post office and they were looking for the weapon. A visit to the shop found it closed off by the police and witnesses being looked after outside. It seems, and this is not confirmed, that customers and staff in the PO tackled the offender and he was forced to run off. Well done to the police for their swift response but it begs the question that if they can deploy 3 vans, about 6 cars and a helicopter to a major incident like this, how come they can rarely send 1 car to a more minor incident?
Ken & Keith were at the Council House yesterday for the HR & Equalities Committee which Keith Chairs. This was highly detailed and technical and overran for some time.
Today Sue & Keith are off to Deelands Hall to visit the Lunch Club there.
