The next police meeting with residents  will be held on Monday 28th May at 6:30pm at The Westerings Common Room, Grosvenor Road @ Westminster Road.

Refreshments will be served from 6pm, so please come along to meet other residents, find out what’s happening in your area and be part of making positive changes in the Birchfield neighbourhood.

We will be electing the management committee and adopting the forum constitution and boundary.

Other agencies such as West Midlands Police, Midland Heart Housing Association and The Big Lottery will be in attendance.

Birchfield is to receive £1 million from the Lottery Big Local Fund to be spent on residents priorities.

Tell us what are the priorities for Birchfield and come along to find out more.

This is a grant programme funded through a donation by Apollo Group to Midland Heart and is being overseen by the Lozells and East Handsworth Environment and Housing Forum.

Click below to download the full guidance and application form:

LEHEHF Small Grants Guidance and Application form FINAL

 A total of 14 grants will be awarded of:

 Gold            1 x £1500 award

Silver           3 x £500 awards

Bronze        10 x £200 awards

 Closing date is Wednesday 23^rd May at 6pm

 Please feel free to circulate this to your contacts in the area. For further information please contact me on the contact details in the guidance notes or leave a comment below.

Come along to discuss and take action on local issues affecting local residents and meet other residents who want to make your area a better play to live, play and work.

More information about the last meeting that took place is in this blog post

For more information about the Birchfield Neighbourhood Forum, contact Raj Rattu on 0121 448 8187 or rajinder (at) neighbourhoodconsultancy.co.uk

http://www.flickr.com/photos/westmidlandspolice/page2/

Our local police have again made the news following a huge drug and cash haul following a raid in Lozells!

These are due to tip-offs and information from local people who do not want our beautiful area associated with drugs and the crime and anti-social behaviour that accompanies it.

Anyone with information on those responsible for drug crime in their neighbourhood should call police on 101.  Alternatively, people who do not want to speak with police officers directly can call the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

A further benefit of this successful raid is that the proceeds of crime will eventually be coming back into our communities in the form of Proceeds of Crime Act funding available to communities, as reported here

Read the full story below…

On Thursday 15th March arrested a man and seized thousands of pounds (£231,000) worth of cash and drugs in a dawn raid

POLICE in Lozells have Officers, acting on tip-offs from the public, entered the house on Frances Road, shortly before 5.30am.

A 24-year-old man who was at the address at the time was arrested on suspicion of possession with the intent to supply class A drugs.  He remains in police custody.

Following a search of the property, officers recovered approximately 1.5kg of suspected heroin and crack cocaine worth approximately £31,000.

Approximately £200,000 of cash was also seized.

News of the success comes during a local blitz on drug dealers.

On Wednesday 14 March, the same officers raided a house on Church Street, Lozells, and recovered a large amount of herbal cannabis, an extendable baton and £1,000 of cash. A 33-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon and possession with the intent to supply class B drugs. He was later released on police bail pending further inquires.

On Tuesday 13 March, officers from the Lozells and East Handsworth neighbourhood policing team executed simultaneous dawn raids at Arden Grove and Leonard Road, Lozells.

At the first address, officers forced entry and seized a quantity of herbal cannabis and cannabis resin along with £4,000 in cash.  A 39-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of possession with the intent to supply class B drugs and later charged with this offence.

At the Leonard Road property, the team recovered a quantity of herbal cannabis and heroin.  A 25-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of possession with the intent to supply class B drugs. He was later charged with this offence.

Sergeant Lucy Bird led the drugs bust and is delighted with the results. She said: “The seizures secured this week are a great result for local people who have had enough of drug dealers operating on their streets and bringing shame on the law abiding majority and criminality to the area.

“Local people who recognise the harm such offences are having on their neighbourhood and have been incredibly supportive.

“Having seen our tough stance, they are coming forward to offer additional information which has led to today’s operation.

“I would like to thank all of those people who have taken the time to contact us and share what information they have.

“We believe the domino effect we’re seeing on drug dealers in the area will continue and I would urge anyone with information which may help us rid Lozells of these people to come forward and speak to us.”

Anyone with information on those responsible for drug crime in their neighbourhood should call police on 101.  Alternatively, people who do not want to speak with police officers directly can call the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

For advice on support services available to drug users and their families in Birmingham, call the Birmingham Drug and Alcohol Action Team on 0800 073 0817.

Photos show the drugs and just some of the cash seized.

A 40 year-old man was arrested on suspicion of possession of controlled drugs with intent to supply and firearms offense.

A day earlier officers from the Lozells and East Handsworth policing team raided properties in Robert Road and Westminster Road.  They recovered cash, drugs and associated paraphenalia.  Two men were arrested at the scene and were later released on Police Bail pending further enquiries.

Birchfield is one of seven communities to be included in the new Big Lottery Fund ‘Big Local’ adminstered by the Community Development Foundation. 

According to Big Lottery Fund’s press release   -

“The community of Birchfield will get to decide how to spend £1m Lottery funding to improve their local area over the next ten years. This could include anything from creating new community facilities to starting up training and employment schemes, tackling anti-social behaviour, or providing more activities for young people.

Residents in these areas will also benefit from a range of support, training and networking opportunities to enable them to make best use of their funding. The money comes from a £200m Big Lottery Fund scheme called Big Local, which aims to give communities a leading role in making decisions about how to improve their area and tackle local problems.

The Lottery Scheme is being managed by the Local Trust , a recently established independent organisation set up by the Community Development Foundation and its consortium partners to run Big Local. They will work in close consultation with residents in the area to support them and offer guidance on their plans.”

Big Local representatives will bring residents and community organisations in each of the funded areas together to learn about Big Local, create strategies to get peope involved and then begin the process of deciding what priorities local people have for the money and setting up local partnerships. They will they work with the areas to help them develop a plan to spend the £1m over the next 10 years”

Hey, Big Local representatives, have a look at these – the new Birchfield Forum , Birchfield Residents Action Group and the people developing a Community Trust for the wider area would love to talk to you!

The event was attended by around 20 local residents, some new to the area, some who have been living in Birchfield for many years. I sat next to Rose, a woman in her eighties, who loves the area for the social life – she has made many friends  through the range of churches she visits throughout the week.

Common themes that the forum members wish to tackle were the environment and litter; crime; activities for young people and educational and employment opportunities for adults in the area. There was also discussion about the future developments on the former Tweed, Calder and Birchfield Tower blocks site. The tower blocks and nearby maisonettes were demolished in 2010 to make way for new family housing. Unfortunately, with the ending of Urban Living and the economic downturn, development on this site has been delayed.

Residents also raised concerns about the recent changes to the collection days and the Council’s communication about this, as well as the increase in burglaries in the area and the need for Neighbourhood Watch schemes.

Some at the meeting expressed hopes that the forum can act to campaign; to run activities and to respond also to the powers for local neighbourhood forums afforded by the Localism Bill.

The next meeting will take place in around 4- 6 weeks time – for further information contact Rajinder Rattu on 0121 448 8187 or rajinderr (at) neighbourhoodconsultancy.co.uk

An invitation extended to all residents, businesses and friends of the Lozells, Birchfield and East Handsworth neighbourhoods to attend the second annual People’s Conference.

The Conference will be held at 10.00 – 1.00 pm on Saturday March 3 2012 at City College Birmingham (Soho Road Handsworth Campus B21 9DP).

The Conference continues the theme ‘communities coming together’ - how, with fewer resources, residents, third sector and public sector organisations can work together to make Lozells, Handsworth and Birchfield better places in which to live and work.

People’s Conference 2011 succeeded in raising key themes and putting forward recommendations for addressing them.  We have been acting on those recommendations and are organising this Conference as a way of sharing with you what we have been doing as well as illustrating some of the exciting initiatives occurring across the ward.

Conference Agenda and Registration Details

I hope you will also be able to pass this information to family, friends and colleagues who might not have been included in the mail-shot.

It would be helpful for catering purposes if you could indicate the likelihood of your attendance.

For any further information, please do not hesitate to contact me or Michael Brown of the North West Birmingham Development Agency on 0844 870 7982 or by email Michael Brown michael.brown@nwbda.org.uk

Lozells all days  <- click on this map to see new ward based collections in the Lozells and East Handsworth ward with the different days of collections show in different colour.

In Birchfield area it looks like most collections will be on a THURSDAY, apart from three areas which will be on a WEDNESDAY. Can anyone advise from the map, which three areas these are?

Some further information from the local councillor:”

“Following the pilot of ward-based refuse collections in the South East of the City, Birmingham City Council have decided to introduce this form of refuse collection across a number of wards across the city including our ward, Lozells & East Handsworth, with an introduction date of Monday, 6th February 2012.

Thanks to our friends at www.lozells.info- this article is linked from their website, where they have commented on the response to these changes as reported at their most recent Neighbourhood Forum meeting

http://lozells.info/2012/02/your-weekly-rubbish-collection-day-may-change-from-monday-6th-feb/