The Government are failing to listen to the public who know that the major problem with Britain’s roads is the pothole epidemic and the failure to maintain our road infrastructure properly. Ministers care more about a top-down reorganisation of the Highways Agency, who manage 2% of strategic roads, than fixing the 98% of local roads – a third of which are in urgent need of attention. The...
It’s two weeks into the New Year and we’re at the point where many of us forget about our resolution of shedding a couple of pounds. With that in mind, this week is National Obesity Awareness Week. Almost a quarter of children in Birmingham (23.4%) are classified as obese, compared with 10.1% nationally. Meanwhile the number of recorded cases of diabetes is double the UK average, affecting almost...
We are now just four months away from the most significant general election in a generation.
On May 7 people in Northfield and elsewhere will have the opportunity to make one of the most important choices they have made in many years.
My final newsletter in 2014 covers everything from residents’ problems with green waste, parking charges and London Midland’s ‘Leaf Fall Timetable’, to historic votes on international aid and Palestine, and the Remembrance events that people in the Northfield area took part in to commemorate 100 years since the outbreak of WW1. You can read it here. And don’t forget, you can read a...
Public Discussion with Richard Burden MP 6.30pm, 29 January 2015 Northfield Baptist Church, 789 Bristol Road South, Northfield, B31 2NQ I know that many people in this area want politicians to talk about immigration. And so we should. It is a really important issue for local people and that is why I am writing to you today. People are concerned about the management of immigration, and they are...
The Overview and Scrutiny report into Birmingham City Council’s Green Waste policies and charges published today is a serious piece of work that demands serious attention by Council leaders. Today’s findings underline that there are real issues with the Council’s green waste charge and that its introduction earlier this year was badly mismanaged. As a result public confidence in the system...
I was Labour Member of Parliament for Birmingham Northfield between 1992 and 2019 and a former Shadow Transport Minister. I now chair Healthwatch in Birmingham and Solihull, and the West Midlands Board of Remembering Srebrenica. I also work as a public affairs consultant. I am an effective community advocate and stakeholder alliance builder with a passion for human rights. I am a trustee of the Balfour Project charity and of Citizens Advice Birmingham, and a former Chair of Medical Aid for Palestinians.