In Touch

Across the constituency, In Touch leaflets from the Conservatives are going out, so watch out for one popping through your letter box. Pictured is the Harborne version which has stories about the Euro election result (when the Conservatives won the Edgbaston constituency), my successful campaign to save the No 10 bus, the new swimming pool plans, health news, news from Birmingham city Council's leader, and an update on the Harborne Walkway upgrade.

Today I have been delivering in both Harborne and Edgbaston wards - so it's a good thing the weather has been very nice!

Mixed News On Unemployment

This month's unemployment briefing note has come rather sooner than last month's (which I posted about on July 1st) and it contains mixed news. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in Birmingham remained at 12.2% in June. This compares to a rate of 8.4% a year ago.

Birmingham's unemployment rate remains significantly above the national average rate, and the average rate of the core cities. However Birmingham was one of four core cities to experience a fall in the unadjusted unemployment rate in June.

Within Birmingham 22 of the 40 wards experienced a fall in unemployment during June, which is good news. However within the constituency only Harborne (7.4%) and Quinton (9.8%) saw a fall in the number of claimants. In the Edgbaston Ward the claimant rate rose to 8.9% and in Bartley Green it rose to 11.2% So mixed news for our constituency on the unemployment front this month.

Water Aid Petition Goes To No 10

On June 5th (World Environment Day) I visited the Water Aid stand at the Water For Life Festival in Edgbaston (pictured). I filled in a postcard as part of a petition to Gordon Brown, calling on him to "talk taps and toilets" at the G8 summit in July, to ensure action from world leaders on this important topic.

Today I have received notification that the petition was handed in to No 10 just days ahead of the recent G8 summit which took place in Italy. Mine was one of 80,000 signatures calling on Gordon Brown to be a sanitation champion. Amongst the people who also signed the petition were thousands of revellers at this year's Glastonbury Festival. In all 10% of the people who attended Glastonbury, including a number of stars, signed up - which is great news.

This campaign has helped to spread the word about the global sanitation crisis and generated pressure on Gordon Brown. I am pleased to have been a very tiny part of it.

Climate Change News

If you've crossed Victoria Square this week, you've probably noticed this car which is "made" of flowers. At a Scrutiny meeting at Birmingham City Council today, we were told about a pilot scheme involving a different sort of cars - electric vehicles. The pilot will be taking place in the city in early 2010.

70 people will be driving electric cars - made by a number of manufacturers including Tata, Mitsubishi, Mercedez and Jaguar Land Rover. Whereas a car with a full tank of petrol will travel 300-400 miles, and there are plenty of garages where you can fill up along the way, an electric car will only travel 80-90 miles before it needs recharging.

There are also currently no recharging points available in the area. When the pilot starts there will be charging points in some public places such as on street and in public car parks.

The point of the pilot is to see what differences in driver behaviour having an electric car makes.

It sounds an interesting project and I look forward to seeing how it pans out. Also on the subject of transport and climate change, today's meeting was also told that a Portsmouth study into 20mph zones, found that while they did slow traffic a little, they also increased air pollutants in the atmosphere. Clearly, on this subject, the needs of road safety and acting on climate change will need to be carefully balanced.

Arts At The Varsity

On Monday evening I was invited along to a great Arts event at The Varsity in Harborne High Street.

A number of local artists were displaying their work around the bar area and the place was packed with people who had come to view the art and chat to the artists.

Amongst the people I met up with was local Harborne artist Sandra Ross who I also met at the Edgbaston Constituency Arts event at the Town Hall last February (pictured).

Government House Building Targets

Like many Harborne residents, I was very disappointed at last week's decision by the city's planning committee to approve applications to build new homes on pockets of land around the historic Moorpool estate (one of which is pictured). I had supported the residents throughout the whole long process and I attended the Planning Committee in support of them on each occasion. However I think it is important to remember why planners feel so pressurised to allow this kind of backland development.

The Labour Government has told Birmingham that it expects the city to provide 50,000 extra homes by 2026 and to provide them by "infill in the city". In the West Midlands as a whole, the Labour Government has told Councils to provide between 11,736 and 18,420 new homes per annum in order to achieve the 2026 targets.

All across the region, Councils are being ordered by the Government to build extra houses and flats yet there is limited space available in built up areas such as Birmingham. I believe this is one reason why developments such as those proposed for Moorpool end up getting planning permission - when previously they might not have.

Edgbaston's Labour MP has been quick to blame the "Tory Council" for allowing the Moorpool development to go ahead. But it is her Labour Government which has imposed such stringent targets for new homes upon our city.

Sad Day

This morning I was out delivering leaflets in the constituency, but my mind was on Wootton Bassett and the people who will be standing in that market town this afternoon to honour the fallen, whose bodies have been returned from Afghanistan today. Eight young men, killed in the prime of their life - including an eighteen year old rifleman from Birmingham.

Their families will be totally devastated but will hopefully feel very proud of their men.

I feel passionately that if we expect our young men to put their lives on the line, then they must have the equipment they need. The decision in 2004 to cut the future helicopter budget by £1.4 billion has had serious consequences for our troops in Afghanistan. The Americans have a far greater ratio of helicopters, especially Chinooks, to troops. Helicopters are not the only solution of course. But if we can only move our troops on land, and their commanders don't have the option of using air when they need to, then isn't our Government failing them?