Author: marcodinu
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Questions for the council: Sole bidding. Isn’t Ladywood entitled to best practices?
Sole bidding is not best practice The bidding process as it is described in the 2023 Cabinet Report largely reflects articles 40.1 and 40.2 of the 2015 Public Contracts Regulations. Article 40.1 enables contracting authorities to “conduct market consultations with a view to preparing the procurement and informing economic operators of their procurement plans and…
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Questions for the council: Placation or Partnership?
In an article published in 1969 titled “The Ladder of Participation,” Sherry Arnstein made distinctions between the different ways citizens are involved in decision-making and policies. At the bottom, there was manipulation and therapy, mostly consisting of placing people on “rubber stamp advisory committees” that give the illusion of participation. Then, there are informing and…
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Questions for the council: consultation promises
BCC failed to involve residents in the phases prior to the bidding process. Specifically, early breakdown of democratic representation as early as February 2019, resulted in councillors failing to advise residents about the opportunities that establishing a Neighbourhood Forum and designing a Neighbourhood Plan would have brought to the area and the community. Also the…
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Questions for the council: whose Community charter?
BCC carried out a series of 12 engagement workshops in October and November 2023. However, the participation was capped at only 20 participants for each workshop, which limited opportunities for meaningful and inclusive engagement. At the workshops, residents were told that one of the outputs of these sessions would be the production of a Community…
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Questions for the council: affordable housing isn’t social housing
We are concerned about what will happen to council’s tenants as well as leaseholders living on council-own land and buildings. If they wish to return to a regenerated Ladywood, will they be able to do so and without incurring additional costs? As of the 2021 Census, Ladywood Regeneration Project Area, or rather, the red line,…
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Questions for the council: did you say masterplan?
Participants at the engagement workshops carried out in October and November 2023 were told that while “the red line”, or rather the Ladywood Regeneration Project Area (2023. Ladywood Maximum extent of land to be assembled. Appendix 3) will remain the same, whatever happens within the “red line” is up for negotiation and consultation. Yet, the…
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Questions for the council: “new homes” but for whom?
The Birmingham City Council sees the regeneration of Ladywood Estate as fulfilling its obligations to deliver 51,000 new homes by 2031. Unfortunately, in the 2021 “Our Future City Plan”, the term “new homes” is often linked to envisioning dispossession and large-scale evictions under the banner of “regeneration” and “replacement”. Talking of gentrification and dispossession has…
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Questions for the council: What happened to the “eight principles”?
The 2019 City Plan Ladywood Report (Appendix 3 of the 2019 February BCC Report to Cabinet: pp 4 – 5) and councillors’ communications in October and December 2019 stated the eight agreed principles the Council had issued and within which development partners had work. These principles were: We note that only three of these principles…
Ladywood Unite 