OVER a month after it took place the minutes of the first District meeting for Selly Oak have now been published. The meeting discussed the new District’s financial shortfall as well as reduced opening hours for Stirchley library and the progress on refurbishment of Stirchley baths.

District meetings replaced constituency meetings and the meeting on 5th July was the first to take place. The District covers the Council Wards of Bournville, Brandwood, Billesley and Selly Oak.

Deficit
The minutes reveal that a deficit of £0.876m from the previous constituency would have to be met by reducing funds available for ‘Community Chest’: “an agreed sum [will] be deducted from each of the Wards 2012/13 Community Chest fund allocation and 2013/14 in the case of Brandwood Ward.”

Community Chest funding has been used in our area to fund events such as CoCoMad and Bournville Village Festival.

Stirchley Baths
In response to a report (PDF) about the redevelopment of Stirchley Baths on Bournville Lane the committee made the following comments:

• Potential revenue costs and further financial information was requested
• The general consensus was that a full business case was not required
• Replacement community buildings – need plans to show location of redevelopment

Stirchley Library
In reaction to a proposal to reduce Stirchley Library opening hours to just four days a week, the following concerns were raised:

• Need to look at how far employees will travel to their place of work when staggering working days.
• Need to ensure that manning levels in libraries were safe. Will sickness enforce closure?
• Need to assess usage and ensure that library opening times do not exclude children.

District Convention
Plans were also discussed for a ‘District Convention’ to be held in a large venue in October. It will be: “interactive and will involve as many interested parties as possible [and] need to involve young people and establish a dialogue with them.”

The minutes were only published after a direct request to the council by bournvillevillage.com with the council claiming “there had been an error with publishing online”. The next meeting will be held on 20 September 2012 at 11am in the Council House in Birmingham City Centre.

Local campaigning group ‘Communities Against the Cuts‘ had criticised the timing of the meeting and described them as an inadequate replacement for constituency meetings.

Link to meeting minutes (PDF).