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Welcome to Liam Byrne's website. Here you can find more about Liam's campaigns to build a community we're proud of, how to get in touch and what you can do to help.
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One of the promises I made at the last election, was to campaign for hundreds of new family homes in the constituency.
Here’s a quick update on where we’ve got to.
New homes are proposed along key corridors and at Sustainable Urban Neighbourhoods including Bordesley Park, Stechford, Meadway and Shard End.
An outline planning application for residential development has been submitted for the B&Q site at Stechford, and other residential development opportunities are now being explored (there is the potential for Supplementary Planning Document to bring further sites forward, if we fall short).
The planning application approved for redevelopment of Shard End Crescent and adjoining maisonettes is of course already in hand. This development is going to provide a new local centre, a library and 191 new houses and flats. Barrratts are the developers, and they are being supported by funds we won from the Homes & Community Agency (HCA).
On the Meadway, there are still on-going discussions with HCA about a new residential/ district centre, and this has been identified as a ‘New Town Centre’ within the city’s Core Strategy.
Second, the Bordesley Park Area Action Plan is developing ideas for an Area Action Plan with options identified that will go to a public consultation in Autumn.
Finally, potential housing sites across City are being identified through a review of Strategic Housing land Availablity Assessment (as part of the Evidence Base for Core Strategy) This includes the former Yardley Sewage Works site.
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One of the most important parts of our Hodge Hill 2020 plan is a the idea of a new retail quarter centred on Alum Rock, to really give a lift to a shopping hub which already attracts shoppers from as far as Oxford, Edinburgh, and Cardiff. This would be excellent for jobs.
Last year, I persuaded the Council and AWM to prepare the Washwood Heath Regeneration Framework Study which is complete. The study identified a number of opportunities including employment land to north (LDV etc) and Fox & Goose.
The report really focuses on the potential of Alum Rock Road Local Centre and provides market evidence for the growth of centre and the demand for small independent retail units.
Now, new growth could be accommodated on sites within centre and upper floors but also by extension of centre to east (potentially as far as Naseby Road initially). Changing local planning policy would need to be picked up through the Bordesley Park Area Action Plan.
The study also identified other opportunities at Alum Rock (ie. Crown Buildings) and proposed environmental enhancements within Local Centre. Discussions are also on-going with the owners of Leyland Club site.
Finally work is progressing on an Outline ERDF proposal – to include Washwood Heath – and aimed at encouraging new and improved business space. More on this in the Autumn.
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One of the biggest opportunities we have to bring new jobs to the area is to redevelop the Alstom-LDV site in the north of Washwood Heath. Together, this site is now the second biggest development site in Birmingham.
It is ‘zoned’ as planner say, for industrial use within the City’ Unitary Development Plan and will be retained for core employment use in the City’s emerging ‘Core Strategy’ for the future, but progress is much too slow.
The Alstom site itself is owned by developer, St Modwen, which has planning permission for industrial redevelopment and the site is affected by current High Speed 2 rail proposals – part of both sites shown as maintenance service depot. Public consultation on HS 2 proposals has been put back by Government until after Christmas – and frankly we have to ask how many jobs could we really get on the site if it is all tied up for marshalling yards.
Let me know what you think. The Officer working Group established to consider implication of HS 2 is chaired by David Bull. More on this in the Autumn.
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I mentioned the timetable for blowing up the two towers on the Bromford now awaits the departure of the nesting Peregrine falcons…if all goes according to plan, this is the time-table I’ve been given…
It’s a 4 step plan.
- 2 July: tenders for appointment of demolition contractor
- August: appoint demolition contractor
- End August/ beginning September: start removal internal soft stripping
- April 2011: blocks finally destroyed
There are two issues;
1. Peregrine falcons are nesting in the blocks. The blocks can’t be destroyed until they’re gone
2. We need Central Networks to remove and re-site existing sub-stations. The latest date for this is end of October 2010.
I’ll keep you posted on news.
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Hold the date!
Friday 8th October 2010, 10.30am and 2.30pm, Beaufort Sports and Social Club, Coleshill Road, Birmingham, B36 8DX.
Do you run a voluntary group, or local charity? Big or small, if you’re working to improve our community locally, I’d like to invite you to our third
Meet the Funders Conference.
As part of our Hodge Hill 2020 plan, we want to see voluntary groups and local charities grow in strength – and over the last couple of years our successes have mounted, with local groups taking over local halls and buildings, major awards from the Heritage Lottery Fund, and this week £1 million awarded from the Big Lottery Fund.
The purpose of the meeting is to bring major funders like Big Lottery Fund,
Heritage Lottery Fund, UnLtd and others to explain to local groups how they can help, and the secret to successful bids.
I’m also keen for groups to network with each other.
I’ll send out further details in September, but in the meantime;
* Please hold the date
* Tell me if there’s anyone you know who should be invited (if you have their email, that’s even better)
* Let me know if you can’t come but would like a briefing from the conference.
* Send me a two line description of your organisation or ambition. I’d like
to circulate a networking guide at the conference
* Help me publicise the event. If you can help publicise the conference I’d be really grateful!
If you need any further information please do not hesitate to contact my team on 0121 789 7287.
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Here’s the link to my Guardian economics column this week; high-lights the risk of unemployment becoming long-term job loss. Let me know what you think
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I was out in the rain for my weekly street surgery on Swanage Road, Muntz Rd, and Grange Road today. Parking, street cleaning and rat runs were the issues. Oh and one chap who said we need to change the voting system. Let me know if there’s anything else we need to follow up on.
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Nick Robinson’s documentary on the formation of the Tory Liberal government tonight contains a staggering admission from Nick Clegg – that he’d changed his mind about cuts before the election, but chose not to share this with the electorate.
The Guardian has the story here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/jul/29/nick-clegg-changed-mind-cuts
This shows Nick Clegg simply misled voters. He’d clearly decided before the election that David Cameron was his partner of choice.
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As local resident will know, the Tories aided and abetted by the Lib Dems cut nearly £30 million from our local school-building programme. We have a few schools still going ahead – and one of them is a new Saltley school, not renewed on any major scale since 1928!
Liam and Saltley pupils plant a tree from Prince Charles
Here’s the update I’ve got on plans, overseen by the amazing head, Anne Cole…
Mrs Cole
Our Ref: HT/MAC/jmc
14th June 2010
Mr Liam Byrne, MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA
Dear Liam
Thank you for your recent letter and interest in the Saltley BSF project. In response to the specific questions you have raised:
1) The Building Schools for The Future programme is seen by the school as fundamental to providing the local community with the school it deserves to meet the educational requirements of local children in the 21st century.
Saltley School was originally built in 1928 and many of the school buildings and classrooms are outdated and in need of major repair works. Classrooms generally are too small with 30 pupils being taught in rooms as small as 35m2 (against a government recommended size of 56m2).
The School’s smaller gym is not fit for purpose and will be demolished whilst the School’s largest gym is prone to flooding every time it rains heavily. A key part of the plan is to provide a new Sports Hall to cater for the needs of the pupils and the community.
All of the specialist teaching areas urgently require modernisation and new equipment.
We can also create a purpose built dining hall to replace the current modular building.
The BSF project also allows for Saltley School to admit an extra form of entry of pupils per year. This is required to address the deficit of local school places due to the rising local population in this area.
2) The school is now applying for planning permission having agreed the 1:200 designs of the refurbished/remodelled school. Financial Close is scheduled for the end of 2010 and building work will start Dec 2010 / Jan 2011.
The school has been planning this project for over 4 years with full consultation with parents, pupils, staff and the local community.
The school has also been active in helping shape the Birmingham BSF project as a whole by helping select the preferred bidder and acting as schools representatives throughout the sample scheme programme. Saltley’s Business Manager was part of the FM working group that drew up the Birmingham BSF FM contract which was rated in an independent gateway review by 4Ps as ‘The best FM contract in the country’. Work is ongoing in this area with Birmingham Schools Representatives working with BCC and Catalyst to ensure that the schools achieve the best value for money possible through the BSF process.
3) We envisage the new Saltley School being a state of the art teaching facility with equipment and facilities to meet 21st century learning.
The ICT investment will mean that local children, from one of the top 1% deprivation index areas, will have access to some of the best ICT facilities in the country.
The school will be modernised to be fully DDA compatible allowing us to cater for pupils with disabilities for the first time.
4) Our vision is incorporated into the BSF Output specification , part of which follows:
We wish at Saltley School to be regarded as an exemplary centre of Excellence in Education, dedicated to nurturing a strong sense of purpose, ambition and confidence throughout the entire school community.
Pupils at Saltley will strive to achieve and exceed challenging academic, personal and social targets though a culture of enterprise, innovation and creativity.
Staff at Saltley will promote the highest standards of spiritual, moral and ethical development to enable our pupils to become Global Citizens.
We will develop and nurture high quality teaching and learning in an inspirational environment.
An improved lunchtime experience for all the school is a priority and a vibrant, airy, light dining area with appropriate spaces for queuing and serving will encourage pupils and staff to enjoy healthy meals in a safe and sociable environment.
Saltley’s specialism, science, will pervade all other curriculum areas and be possibly linked to ICT and Maths.
Curriculum areas, on a cluster basis, will be capable of delivering the curriculum, initially through traditionally based, departmental models, but will also be adaptable and flexible enough to respond to the inevitable changes in curriculum needs and the consequent changes in pedagogy these will bring.
A priority is the security of the site to ensure the health and safety of staff and pupils. This is of particular importance because of the extensive nature of the site.
The newly refurbished building will also enable expansion for post 16 provision and the architects are indicating the possible location on the site master plan.
The final building will inevitably be a compromise which is limited by:
a) The available funding
b) The outdated recommendations of BB98 (ironic for a 21st Century building!)
c) The constraints of refurbishing a 1928 building
However we are confident the many hours of detailed work we have put into the plans will produce a massively improved school which we eagerly anticipate.
We enclose a draft copy of the Planning Design Access Statement for your interest which we feel neatly summarises Saltley’s BSF project.
Yours sincerely
Anne Cole
Headteacher
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Some residents will have heard that we won some money from the last (Labour) government to pull together a plan designed to step up the way local residents influence the way services are delivered locally. For those interested in tracking progress, I’ve posted the action plan below
Together at Shard End
An action plan for community cohesion
May 2010
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Liam is the MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill, and Labour's Shadow Chief Secretary. 
