Ladywood Independent Candidate Election and Statements – Local 2026 Election – Deborah Maragh and Gary Cressman
Response from Deborah Maragh
1. Community Power and Accountability
Ladywood Unite principle:
The power of the central Ladywood community is unlocked by championing citizen-led action and placing residents at the centre of shaping their own future. The council and developer are held fully accountable, with residents meaningfully involved at every stage, from planning to delivery.
My response:
As a Ladywood resident, I know this principle is not an aspiration but a necessity. I have lived what happens when decisions are made about residents rather than with them, and when accountability sits entirely within the council rather than with the community it serves. Many Ladywood residents share this experience: problems are identified, evidence is provided, yet action is delayed or deferred due to shifting priorities.
Independent reviews of Birmingham City Council have identified long-standing weaknesses in accountability, leadership, and resident engagement, reflecting what many Ladywood residents experience in practice.
That experience is why I strongly support community power being real, not symbolic. Residents must be involved from the very beginning of planning through to delivery, with clear and enforceable lines of accountability. If I am honoured to represent Ladywood as a councillor, I will work to ensure residents are not treated as consultees at the end of the process, but as partners whose voices shape outcomes and whose concerns carry real weight.
2. Respect, Inclusion, and Resident-Led Outcomes
Ladywood Unite principle:
Every resident, regardless of tenure, is treated with respect. Their voices are actively heard, and their input directly informs decisions, making residents central decision-makers and ensuring the project reflects the needs and priorities of those who call Ladywood home.
My response:
As a Ladywood resident, I understand respect and inclusion not as abstract ideas, but as everyday realities that determine whether people feel safe, valued, and supported. Many residents across Ladywood face challenges including unfit housing, rising living costs, poor services, discrimination, domestic abuse, and insecurity. I have lived through these pressures myself.
Our community is not made up of individual households alone. It is sustained by local businesses, places of faith, schools, and informal networks of care that residents rely on when formal systems fail. These are part of our extended families in Ladywood. Any regeneration that ignores them fails to understand how our community truly functions.
Respect means recognising this whole ecosystem and ensuring that residents, alongside the community institutions they depend on, are listened to and able to influence outcomes. If elected as a Ladywood councillor, I will work to ensure regeneration reflects residents’ lived priorities and protects the social, cultural, and economic networks that hold our community together. Because you and I are Ladywood, and our voices must shape our future.
3. Equitable Participation and Capacity Building
Ladywood Unite principle:
With the well-being of the Ladywood community as the highest priority, all residents, especially those seldom heard, are encouraged and supported to get involved. Opportunities will be provided to build the skills, knowledge, and confidence needed to take part in decision-making and shape outcomes.
My response:
Many Ladywood residents already expend significant time and energy simply trying to be heard. I have lived through how difficult it can be to navigate council systems, challenge decisions, and advocate for basic standards while managing family responsibilities, health concerns, and financial pressure. This experience is widely shared across our community.
Independent reviews have also noted that the scale and governance arrangements of Birmingham City Council make effective participation and representation difficult, particularly for residents without time, resources, or institutional support.
Meaningful participation requires support, transparency, and access to clear information. Engagement must not depend on a resident’s time, money, or resilience. As a councillor, I would support approaches that remove barriers to participation, provide genuine support, and recognise that residents should not have to fight simply to have their voices respected.
RED LINES
1. No One Left Worse Off
Ladywood Unite red line:
The council and developer must ensure that no resident affected by the project is placed at a financial disadvantage or left worse off in any way. This includes not forcing residents into shared ownership schemes in order to stay in the area, and supporting the expansion of secure social rent as part of the wider renewal of Ladywood. Residents who agree to demolition and wish to stay must be guaranteed a like-for-like replacement at no additional cost, with a single, seamless move.
My response:
I support this red line unequivocally. Many Ladywood residents, myself included, understand what it means to be left worse off when systems fail—financially, emotionally, and practically. Regeneration must not deepen existing inequalities by shifting risk and cost onto residents.
No one should be pressured into shared ownership, additional debt, or insecurity simply to remain in their community. Where residents agree to demolition or major change, they must be guaranteed a genuine like-for-like home, at no additional cost, with a single, dignified move. Anything less undermines trust and damages the fabric of Ladywood.
2. Protecting Homes, Community Assets, and Resident Rights
Ladywood Unite red line:
The developer and council are held to a firm and transparent commitment to retain the existing community, guarantee safe and decent homes for all, minimise the demolition and acquisition of homes and community buildings unless in extraordinarily exceptional circumstances, and ensure legally binding safeguards protecting residents’ rights, well-being, and connection to place.
My response:
Residents deserve honesty. Before any talk of demolition or compulsory purchase, the council must publish full maintenance records for every building it is responsible for and provide clear, evidence-based assessments for privately owned homes, carried out independently of the developer. People have a right to know whether a property is genuinely beyond repair or whether decline has been caused by years of under-investment in the surrounding area.
This transparency protects council tenants, leaseholders, and freeholders alike—especially those who have kept their homes in excellent condition. No family should be punished because the council failed to maintain its own buildings, and no well-kept home should be swept into a demolition zone simply because it sits inside a regeneration boundary. No resident should lose their home because statutory maintenance responsibilities were ignored or delayed.
A home is more than bricks. It is a family’s security, their history, and often their only inheritance. In Ladywood, many homes may look tired on the outside because the council controls the exterior, but inside they are cared for, loved, and lived in. Residents should not lose their homes, their equity, or their community because of decisions they did not make.
Any proposal involving demolition or compulsory purchase must be a genuine last resort, supported by transparent evidence, independent oversight, and the informed consent of affected residents. Accountability must come before displacement. Given the long-standing governance failures identified through independent review, reliance on trust alone is insufficient and safeguards for residents must be legally binding.
3. Community Facilities as a Core Commitment
Ladywood Unite red line:
High-quality, accessible, and genuinely affordable community facilities must be a central part of the project and not an afterthought, delivered in genuine partnership with residents and meeting the long-term needs of the original Ladywood community.
My response:
Community facilities are essential infrastructure, not optional extras. Ladywood residents already understand what happens when services are delayed, downgraded, or made conditional—the burden falls back on the community, and promises quietly fade.
I support this red line because facilities must be guaranteed from the outset, designed with residents, and protected long-term. If regeneration is to strengthen Ladywood rather than fragment it, community spaces must be secure, accessible, and genuinely affordable for the people who live here now and in the future.
Closing Statement
I am a Ladywood resident, and my lived experience has shaped my understanding of these principles and red lines. They reflect what many residents across Ladywood experience every day. If I am honoured to represent Ladywood as a councillor, I promise to work tirelessly to ensure residents’ voices are not only heard, but acted upon, and that regeneration is done with our community, not to it — because I am Ladywood.”
Footnote: Independent Review of Birmingham City Council, Sir Bob Kerslake, 2014.
Response from Gary Cressman
1. Community Power and Accountability
Ladywood Unite principle:
The power of the central Ladywood community is unlocked by championing citizen-led action and placing residents at the centre of shaping their own future. The council and developer are held fully accountable, with residents meaningfully involved at every stage, from planning to delivery.
My response:
The council are currently treating the residents as an annoyance. The current Ladywood councillors seem divorced from the process and so far the consultation seems to have resulted in meaningless conclusions that anybody could have forecast. If the council treated residents as ASSETS and not liabilities the chances of a successful redevelopment for everybody would improve dramatically. If elected I will aim to move the direction of travel towards this rather than the box ticking arrangements currently in place.
2. Respect, Inclusion, and Resident-Led Outcomes
Ladywood Unite principle:
Every resident, regardless of tenure, is treated with respect. Their voices are actively heard, and their input directly informs decisions, making residents central decision-makers and ensuring the project reflects the needs and priorities of those who call Ladywood home.
My response:
Clearly there is unhappiness with the steering commitee established for the regeneration problem. I also understand that people with disabilities have been wholly ignored so far. The powers that be need to understand that empowering the community is beneficial for everybody…existing residents, residents yet to come, the council and the developer. We simply cannot carry on with the current level of disenfranchisement and bullying tactics.
3. Equitable Participation and Capacity Building
Ladywood Unite principle:
With the well-being of the Ladywood community as the highest priority, all residents, especially those seldom heard, are encouraged and supported to get involved. Opportunities will be provided to build the skills, knowledge, and confidence needed to take part in decision-making and shape outcomes.
My response:
Birmingham City Council has driven itself into the position it is in due to totally unnecessary secrecy, blindness to the benefits of involving the community and a complete inability to serve the people that pay for it. The secrecy around the Regeneration Contract for Ladywood is a case in point. This first step in this is realising why you want to know what people think. I want to bring this to the council. Focusing on hearing and developing people in the regeneration area for the regeneration is the obvious thing to do.
RED LINES
1. No One Left Worse Off
Ladywood Unite red line:
The council and developer must ensure that no resident affected by the project is placed at a financial disadvantage or left worse off in any way. This includes not forcing residents into shared ownership schemes in order to stay in the area, and supporting the expansion of secure social rent as part of the wider renewal of Ladywood. Residents who agree to demolition and wish to stay must be guaranteed a like-for-like replacement at no additional cost, with a single, seamless move.
My response:
I agree with this. With proposals to increase the total number of residences to over 12000 there is no reason why this cant happen. There needs to be provision for existing council tenants together with security in leases without dramatic increases in costs. For private homeowners I want to see offers made that cannot be refused. Cumpulsory purchase I can understand if it is for an infrastructure project such as railway but simply to replace housing with housing it looks like a blunt instrument. The current “offer” of first dibbs on a house where yours used to be but the new one is double the price of what has been purchased off you in cumpulsory purchase is frankly derisory. It must be improved. To that end I also want to make sure that homeowners are provided with legal advice that can challenge the assumptions that appear to be in the contract ( human rights laws in cumpulsory purchase for example)
2. Protecting Homes, Community Assets, and Resident Rights
Ladywood Unite red line:
The developer and council are held to a firm and transparent commitment to retain the existing community, guarantee safe and decent homes for all, minimise the demolition and acquisition of homes and community buildings unless in extraordinarily exceptional circumstances, and ensure legally binding safeguards protecting residents’ rights, well-being, and connection to place.
My response:
Agreed with this and also needs to be part of the meantime offer. The contract is for a 20 year period and the benign neglect of the area needs to be reversed. I am in discussion with the Ladywood Involvement Board for possible legal remedies on poor buildings management. Other infrastructure and street scene maintenance is needed
The original council report on Ladywood characterised all housing in the area as poor quality. This is patent nonsense. Preservation as opposed to demolition should be the default setting.
3. Community Facilities as a Core Commitment
Ladywood Unite red line:
High-quality, accessible, and genuinely affordable community facilities must be a central part of the project and not an afterthought, delivered in genuine partnership with residents and meeting the long-term needs of the original Ladywood community.
My response:
Agreed with this. Also the meanwhile offer. The existing community hall was shut and at present the Botany Walk facility has been left to rot with various excuses. I note there is a Labour led petition to reopen Botany Walk which was closed by the Labour Council! The council has witheld details of the contract so it is hard to know what the contractual situation is with Botany Walk.
As stated previously you will get the requisite facilities for a successful regeneration if you treat the existing inhabitants as an asset.
Closing Statement
I am a Ladywood resident, and have been assisting in the formation of a neighbourhood forum with a view to a neighbourhood plan. This is an effort to give local people real legal powers rather than simply consultation that can then be ignored. My candidacy for the council is an extension of this driven also by exasperation! I am standing with Deboragh Maragh and believe we have complementary skills which can cover a lot of bases in this situation. The solution to many of the problems identified by Ladywood Unite are not rocket science. It just needs the will to do it.
Ladywood Unite 
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