Category: Questions for the council series
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Questions for the council: the community charter – some questions to ask
Here are some comments and suggested questions you can raise in the upcoming charter workshops. These comments and suggestions are ordered according to the structure of the charter itself. A summary of the list of questions can be found below for download 1. Welcome Sharing Power Powered by People is an official BCC policy. In…
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Questions for the council: when the future depends on the meaning of “viability”
Just over a year ago, Birmingham City Council (BCC) voted to award the regeneration of the Ladywood Estate to St Joseph, a subsidiary of the Berkeley group. For many residents, the news came as a shock. Since then, the future of the neighbourhood has remained uncertain, and the lives of residents precarious. What does the…
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Questions for the council – a matter of human rights
Further scrutiny and evaluation of the council’s human rights considerations is needed There is a substantial lack of clarity and explanation about why BCC “decided that, on balance, it is in the general public interest and of benefit to the community to make the CPO [compulsory purchase order] over and above the interest of the…
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Questions for the council: Not much about equality
We have serious concerns about the quality of the Equality Analysis in the 2023 Cabinet Report. The 2010 Equality Act, section 149, 1(b) states that: “1. A public authority must, in the exercise of its functions, have due regard to the need to: b) advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected…
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Questions for the council: what happened to democracy?
The regeneration has been consistently characterised by a democratic deficit since its very early stages in 2019 and 2020, when residents witnessed a general breakdown of democratic representation and BCC’s failure to fulfil its duty consult ahead of the bidding process In June 2019, Ladywood councillors issued a first leaflet pledging their commitment to help…
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Questions for the council: let us talk about the “community engagement”
In its recent responses to Ladywood Unite queries, BCC stated: “Within, the proposals St Joseph put forward, they committed to appoint a Community Engagement specialist and this is still a commitment that that St Joseph intend to honour” This is something that is reflected in what the 2023 Full Business Case (Appendix 2: B5) stated:…
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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…
