Local Labour Council candidate Nick Stephens and prospective Parliamentary candidate Ed Williams have joined local campaigner Harold Harwood to campaign for a new pedestrian crossing in Chelmsley circle.

When the new road layout at Chelmsley Wood shopping centre was opened recently a footbridge was demolished but the Council did not replace it with a crossing to allow residents, many of them elderly from Woodbrook House (a warden controlled block of flats for senior citizens) and local bungalows, to reach the shopping centre in safety.

Local resident Harold Harwood has launched a petition and is backed by Nick Stephens and Ed Williams, who met him in the town centre to give their support this week.

Meriden’s Labour Prospective Parliamentary Candidate Ed Williams has recently returned from a 2 week trip to Rwanda with the UK based charity that he helped to found, ‘Cricket Without Boundaries’; www.cricketwithoutboundaries.com.

Ed, a qualified cricket coach, was part of a team of 13 volunteer cricket coaches who were training a new generation of Rwandan cricket coaches at the Kicukiro Oval in Kigali. This is the only cricket ground in the country, which shares its pitch with livestock, but it is also where 2800 Tutsi men, women and children were massacred in the genocide of 1994. The football posts still bear the bullet holes.

Ed and the Labour team were out in Knowle shopping centre on 4 December getting signatures of support for a global climate deal at the Copenhagan summit that is ambitious, effective and fair. Ed and the team managed to get around 50 signatures.

When I first started teaching in 1970 I was advised it was not a good idea to keep the whole class in detention for the misbehaviour of a few. The same is true of politicians today. We should be careful of dismissing all politicians for the indiscretions of a handful.

When I was first elected to Parliament in 1992, senior Labour members recalled the days when the only expenses they received was their travel to and from their constituency. There was no second home allowance so they boarded the night sleeper to their constituency and returned on the same train in the morning. Hardly an ideal way of arriving fresh in the Commons to represent your constituents’ interests.

On Friday 23rd Oct at the Arden Tennis Club, the MP for Cannock Chase, Dr Tony Wright, spoke to a well-attended Supper Club organised by Solihull/Meriden Labour Party.
Also speaking at the event were the Meriden and Solihull Prospective Parliamentary Candidates, Ed Williams and Sarah Merrill.

In a passionate speech to members Dr Wright said: “In 1997 the Health Service was on the verge of collapse with 18 month waiting lists for many operations. Now, under a Labour Government patients are being treated in 18 weeks.”

“A year ago the global financial system was in meltdown. Our Prime Minister Gordon Brown has had to make some of the most important decisions in modern times and has gained respect across the world for the way he responded to help us through the crisis”

Party conferences are usually a time for uniting and bringing people together. For David Cameron, the tory leader, his conference was spent keeping warring factions apart.

During the Euro Elections earlier this year, I largely agreed with many of the warm words from MEPs, including tories, about the benefits of the EU to Solihull and to the UK.

There is outrage over a letter sent by Meriden Tory MP Caroline Spelman to local Councils in which she effectively calls on Councils to halt house building until the Tories are in power.

Shadow Communities Secretary Caroline Spelman MP warned that they will change the planning laws and has warned developers that they could be out of pocket if their projects do not fit new regulations she says the Tories will introduce. She says: “We will not pay a penny of compensation to speculative developers as a consequence of the change in policy”.

Politicians are often implored to use ‘common sense’ in their decision making. As Roads Minister I was asked to defy what seemed to be everyday logic in relation to the M42, junctions 3a to 7, running through Solihull.

I was told that by slowing traffic down you made it go quicker and by running vehicles on the hard shoulder you could improve safety.
With my common sense set aside, I sanctioned the project. This part of the M42 now has variable speed limits, occasional use of the hard shoulder at busy times, Emergency Refuge areas and Variable Message Signs.

There is outrage over a letter sent by Meriden Tory MP Caroline Spelman to local Councils in which she effectively calls on Councils to halt house building until the Tories are in power.

Shadow Communities Secretary Caroline Spelman MP warned that they will change the planning laws and has warned developers that they could be out of pocket if their projects do not fit new regulations she says the Tories will introduce. She says: “We will not pay a penny of compensation to speculative developers as a consequence of the change in policy”.