Welcome to my latest Parliamentary newsletter. In my first newsletter since Christmas and the New Year, let me wish you all a Happy New Year. Space prevents the newsletter covering all of what I have been doing over the past month. However, hopefully it provides a flavour of some of the local issues I have taken up as well as my actions in Parliament. You’ll find updates on food banks, community...
The End Child Poverty coalition has today published figures providing a new Child Poverty map of the UK. The figures reveal that more than half of all children in the UK’s very poorest areas are now growing up in poverty – compared to one in ten, in the areas with the lowest child poverty rates. In Northfield 34% of children are living in poverty and four constituencies in Birmingham feature in...
Aldi are consulting on an initial proposal for a new store off the Redditch Road, Kings Norton. A public exhibition is being held on Thursday 18th January from 3pm to 7pm at North Hall, St Nicolas’ Place, The Green, B38 8RU to enable residents to find out more about the proposals. Along with Councillor Peter Griffiths and local Labour campaigner, Alex Aitkin, I would encourage local residents to...
This morning alongside the Northfield Labour team I visited the site of the new Northfield Pool and Leisure Centre for an update on progress at the site. Once completed, the new facility will include a 25 metre / 6 lane swimming pool, a training / learner pool, wet and dry changing areas, a fitness suite, a dance studio and a community room. Progress at the site is going well. It is scheduled for...
In recent years, the rise in the number of local people requiring the support of food banks has been alarming and 2017 was no different. During 2017, the B30 Food Bank based at Cotteridge Church provided food to 7501 people, including 4350 adults and 3151 children. That would not of been possible without the incredible generosity of local people who donated 63,541kgs of food. Government policy...
Many local residents will be aware that a new planning application has been submitted for a crematorium off New Inns Lane on the Birmingham/Bromsgrove border. This is the third application that has been lodged by the developers looking to build on the land. Throughout the previous planning applications I, along with Councillors Andy Cartwright, Carole Griffiths and Peter McDonald have made...
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.