Extended gym at Frankley leisure centre

Last week Keith and Sue enrolled at the newly extended gym at Frankley Community High School. This was housed in the former Lyttleton Suite but had become a victim of it's own success and needed a larger room.
Last year we decided to donate some Community Chest in order to fund the refurbishment of the room and the gym is now up and running.
Keith and Sue will be taking advantage of their leisure cards in order to maintain the high levels of fitness we busy Councillors need.

Trying out the equipment

Cleaning up Great Park

This morning Keith and Sue have been out with Violia's Social Responsibility Team, all volunteers, to carry out a clear up to a well used path on The Great Park.
This is close to the rear entrance to Morrison's, which generates a lot of rubbish, and goes up towards Green's fitness centre.
Many thanks to Green's for allowing us to use their car park but their customers do seem to think it is OK to throw away their empty hi-energy drink bottles over the fence.
We also removed 3 trolleys from the river as well as a lot of rubbish and leaves which Keith can be seen clearing.

Keith gets stuck in

The Violia team

No room at the (Village) inn

On Sunday Keith and Sue popped over to the NEC for an exhibition. The train service is excellent and much more relaxing than driving, as well as being greener of course.
On the way back we decided to get some lunch and went to the Village Inn at Cotteridge. No such luck, there was not a space to be had in the car park. So off to the Two for One at the corner of Lickey Rd and Groveley Lane. This also was packed out. We decided to try the Barnt Green inn which we had not visited for some years. Even here, at about 3.30pm, we had to wait for a table. On the way back we took a look at the Old Hare & Hounds and their car park was very full.
Now the Village Inn is not some exclusive venue for the well off, it does a really good carvery for about £9 and is aimed more for families on a budget but it makes you think about whether all the doom-mongers amongst us are right in everything they tell us about the state of the country. Last week Keith was in Nando's just off Broad St with some friend's (yes, even Conservatives have friends) which was very busy and across the way there was a long queue of young people waiting to get into a night-club, this on a Wednesday night. It seems that despite the rise in fuels, food and energy and pay freezes lots of people still have some disposable income which they choose to use to get out and enjoy themselves.

Running around Cofton Park.

Last Saturday was a busy one.
Keith started with an advice surgery at Frankley. Several people turned up as this is a very busy one for Keith.
Afterwards straight to Colmers School for the Northfield Constituency Convention where Ken was acting in his role as Constituency Chairman. This was well attended, mostly by community groups who do so much across Northfield as well as local politicians.
Then it was on to Cofton Park for the McCain X-Country Challenge. This is the 2nd time the event has taken place here and attracted large numbers of athletes and spectators from all parts of the country.
Keith and Sue welcomed the Lord Mayor as well as cheering on some of the competitors. A very successful event which adds to the growing reputation of Cofton Park as the place to be.

Some of the country's top athletes were there...and Keith.

Why you shouldn't buy a Sat-Nav from a market stall!

The athlete's village

Strung out

McCain X-Country Challenge