With the local elections fast approaching, press officer Geoff Coleman is drawing up our online plans for the 2012 election count – and he’d like your input.

Here’s the plan as it stands at the moment – but I’m more than happy to incorporate any suggestions (if I can) that will improve the service.

As we did last year http://birminghamnewsroom.com/2011/05/birmingham-2011-local-elections-count/ we plan to carry the results on a live blog – using CoverItLive

We’ve spoken to the Elections Office about speeding up the process this year, so hopefully you’ll get the results in a more timely fashion.

The blog will also incorporate your Twitter commentary, using the hashtag #brumvotes12

We’ll make details of this available nearer the date, so you can embed the results etc on your own websites.

I’m planning to map the results on http://www.tripline.net/ (see map below) and will make the embed code for the map available on the night.

Time and resources permitting, I would also like to produce some graphics on the night – nothing too fancy just graphs and charts.

This is not something I’ve done before, so any assistance or advice would be greatly appreciated.

That’s about it at this stage, so if you have any thoughts on election night coverage, please let me know.

Either add a comment below or email your thoughts.

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Cllr Randal Brew

Cllr Randal Brew, Cabinet Member for Finance at Birmingham City Council, offers his thoughts on yesterday’s CP Bigwood auction, which saw council properties worth more than £1.5million go under the hammer…

Ensuring we get the best from our property portfolio has been one of my key aims since taking on the role of Cabinet Member for Finance in May 2010.

We have more than 4,000 property assets, not including our social housing stock, so it is absolutely crucial that we keep on top of issues as they arise – namely the need for maintenance, and if the buildings and facilities actually offer us value for money.

Given the challenging financial times we face, it is only right we do everything we can to protect the taxpayer’s interests.

It is this constant process of review that leads to us having properties in auction, as was the case this week.

We had a mixture of sites up for grabs. There were two houses that had been bought by the council’s empty property team, which scours the city to find privately-owned homes that have been abandoned or left unused – so they can be put to use by those in need of housing.

There were also two old, outdated, neighbourhood offices, now surplus to requirements thanks to the development of state-of-the-art Customer Service Centres and the increased availability of services via the council website.

We even had a disused toilet block on sale. It has been unused for several years and has many possible uses, subject to the correct planning permissions being obtained.

The auction, staged at Villa Park, was packed with people looking to pick up properties at the right price, and our suite of ten properties certainly generated a great deal of interest.

Based on guide price alone, we stood to make £1.325million. Once the hammer had fallen on the tenth and final lot, we had generated £1.541million from nine of the properties.

The star of the show was The Old Bank on Villa Road – bidding was fierce, going from a guide price of £150,000 to a final sale of £410,000.

Nails were also bitten by bidders going for the former neighbourhood office at Regent Park Road in Small Heath. Starting off slowly, the auctioneer struggled to keep up as the price shot up to an eventual sale at £351,000.

And what of the toilet in Hockley? More than a penny was spent – the block went for £50,000, hopefully leaving the winning bidder flushed with success!

Of the ten lots up for sale, the Sycamore Centre, most recently used as offices, was the one that failed to meet its reserve price.

As part of our responsible stewardship of the property portfolio, we will consider all options for this site, as we do when any of our lots fails to sell at auction.

But overall, I am particularly pleased nine buildings which the council no longer had any use for will now be actively operated for the benefit of citizens, businesses, visitors and other good causes.

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What’s the point of streaming council meetings on the internet? Who on earth will be interested? As press officer Geoff Coleman explains, you’d be surprised.

About an hour into yesterday’s City Council meeting I popped into the public gallery to see how many Birmingham residents had taken the opportunity to witness local democracy in action – it was after all a public meeting. I discovered four hardy souls experiencing the ‘live show’.

At the same time 19 people were watching proceedings online via www.birminghamnewsroom.com

Not a massive figure I’ll grant you, but this was in the middle of the afternoon when many people are still at work, and the online audience was still almost five times the number of people in the public gallery.

That live viewers figure fluctuated throughout the meeting but at no stage did it fall below the attendance figure for the public gallery.

And we don’t just broadcast footage in isolation; we provide links to agenda items and reports. We also encourage people to have their say through a live blog that pulls together comments and tweets to enhance the experience.

According to Tweetreach, a sample of 50 tweets midway through the meeting, using the #bcclive hashtag, reached 19,343 people.

So from four people in the public gallery and around 20 watching the live stream, we then managed to reach almost 20,000 people.

Now that’s definitely starting to look worthwhile.

We started streaming full council meetings last year and, after a bit of a false start as we wrestled with uncooperative technology and our own inexperience, we feel we’ve started to get it right.

We’re not exactly pioneers here. A number of local authorities have been streaming their meetings for some time now – Kirklees is one council I’ve admired from afar.

There are companies out there solely dedicated to web streaming and they offer comprehensive platforms for councils looking to open up democracy. For a variety of reasons we’re ploughing our own furrow at the moment and, while our solution is not necessarily as pretty as these bespoke systems, it works and as the figures above show there is an audience.

Footage from the first three Birmingham City Council meetings of 2012 has already been viewed over 4,100 times – and that’s with little or no publicity.

UPDATE – March 26: We’ve now had more than 10,000 views.

UPDATE May 19: We’ve now had almost 25,000 views

For me, the best part of streaming council meetings online is that, because we archive the footage online, the number of people viewing all or part of yesterday’s meeting will continue to grow.

We’ve started to build an archive of footage that can be edited down into bitesize chunks if people want to focus on a single speech or agenda item.

Highlight clips can then be embedded – not just on the council newsroom – but by mainstream media and hyperlocal sites alike. Councillors can use them on their own websites or link to them via Twitter and Facebook.

So this really does have the potential to open up democracy to a much wider audience and we don’t have to stop at full council meetings. Next Tuesday we’re streaming a Leisure, Sport and Culture overview and scrutiny meeting and we’ve also spoken about the potential for broadcasting planning meetings.

The public gallery may continue to be sparsely populated but that doesn’t mean the public aren’t attending our meetings. They’re just doing so from the comfort of their own homes and workplaces or even on their phones.

Now if that isn’t a step forward, I don’t know what is.

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Yesterday marked the close of an extensive three-month consultation on the council’s budget for 2012/13.

First of all, I would like to thank all of those who gave us their view by attending public forums, participating in my web-chats, and sending in views online, via post and by text. We’re now looking through the final few responses, and in my next post I’ll give some details about how many people responded and what they said.

Most recently, we held a public event for over 40 people with learning disabilities, where all of the information and presentation materials were translated into an easy read format. Staff from the council’s learning disability service turned comments into pictures, and I hope to post these on the website soon.

Throughout the whole process, all of your councillors have had the opportunity to see every comment made, and the cabinet members will be meeting shortly to discuss your views at length.

However, no decisions will be made until the full council meeting on 28th February, which is when the budget will be set for next year. This means councillors will be spending the next few weeks carefully considering a wide range of options and suggestions.

Thank you once again for sharing your views.

Stephen Hughes

Chief Executive, Birmingham City Council

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Since my previous post, we have held three further public meetings (November 9, 10 and 12 at Kings Heath Community Centre, The Council House, and Shard End Community Centre). I have hosted my second live web chat and we have also held focus group meetings with several schools and young people’s groups across the city.

Parents have talked to us about the importance of both Children’s Centres and respite care homes and expressed concern about changes to these vital services. They also reminded us of the need to fully understand the changes being made in areas not under our control (such as the NHS) and the extent to which this increases the need for our services. The fostering and adoption service was also discussed, with concerns being raised about the number and capacity of foster parents in the city.

A range of alternative suggestions was put forward at the public meetings to be considered by councillors, including: seeking further commercial sponsorship of events and shows; making it easier and more affordable for empty shops and houses to be re-occupied; and giving fines for parking on grass verges. There was also some opposition to the proposed increase in the Community Chest fund, which is available for local groups to bid for funds in each ward of the city.

At the meeting in Kings Heath a participant, who was under 18, told us that whilst young people will be affected by the decisions that are made, he felt that young people are often unable to have their say because they cannot vote. I think this is a very important point and that we have to make sure we hear from young people.

This is why we have held focus groups at schools and with young people’s groups over the past month. The key message coming from these meetings has been one of strong support for services that protect vulnerable people, in particular children’s homes. Through these meetings, each participant has submitted a letter which will be passed on to councillors along with all of the other comments that we have received.

In my web chat, I answered questions about subjects ranging from libraries and the arts, through community budgeting, to Service Birmingham, and even what might happen if Birmingham has an elected mayor. All of this and more can be seen by clicking here .

The consultation closes on January 8, so you still have time to have your say in any of these ways:

1. By email:
Simply email to: budget_views@birmingham.gov.uk

2. By text message:
Start a new message with the word ‘Budget’ followed by a space (if you miss this word your message will be lost), add your comment and then send to: 07786 200 403. Please note you will not get a receipt for this message. Messages sent via this service will cost your usual network rate per message and are anonymous unless you put your name in the message.

3. By post:
Budget Views, Room B119, Council House, Victoria Square, Birmingham, B1 1BB

Click here to take part in the online survey.

The consultation paper is available to download here.

You can also tweet us, using the hashtag #brumbudget12

Stephen Hughes

Chief Executive, Birmingham City Council

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However, before answering those questions, I hope you will allow me the opportunity to comment on the overall tone of Mr Dolan’s letter. It was quite clear from the letter that he believes Birmingham City Council is abandoning its library service. I would argue that the case is the complete opposite, which I will try to illustrate below.

Since 2004, the City Council’s present administration has invested £4.3million in improving the fabric of its community libraries. Many of our community libraries operate from within aging buildings that have been poorly maintained over the last 20 years. Since 2004, we have been correcting the impact of that poor maintenance.

In addition to this £4.3million, a further £1.1million is being invested in our libraries in this financial year. Kings Heath, Selly Oak and Hall Green Libraries will have new roofs by April 2012.

Further, we are investing £188.8m in a new Library of Birmingham, to replace the Central Library. This will be a world-class facility, with world-class resources and a re-energised vision for the library in the twenty-first century.

I hope your readers will accept that these are challenging times for our libraries: not only are libraries up and down the country having to absorb the impact of the national financial crisis, but technological advancements such as the internet are questioning the future role of the public library.

In Birmingham we recognise that there is still the need for community libraries in: up-skilling our citizens; improving literacy, especially in communities where English is the second language; and in reducing the digital divide.

It is for this reason that no community library in Birmingham will close under the present administration’s proposals. Subject to approval from the Constituency Committees, 16 out of our 39 community libraries will remain open five days a week, as now. The remaining 23 libraries will open four days a week, instead of the present five.

While other cities are closing down community libraries, I think what Birmingham is doing is highly commendable and deserves praise. New operating models will need to be considered, but these are tough times and we need to maximize every penny spent on our library service.

I think it would also be helpful if I outlined where the responsibilities lie with regard to Birmingham’s Library Service. As the Cabinet Member for Leisure, Sport and Culture I have the responsibility to set the strategic direction and policy for our libraries, I do not however have the responsibility for community library budgets or their management, this rests with the relevant Constituency Committee.

Having said that however I will seek to address the questions raised by Mr Dolan, I have included his original questions for ease of reference.

Answers to John Dolan’s open letter

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Since I wrote my last post, we have held meetings in Sutton Coldfield and Newtown, and we have also started to publish your comments online: http://birminghamnewsroom.com/2011/11/budget-views-feedback/.

On 2nd November we held our third public meeting at the United Reformed Church in Sutton Coldfield. Thirty one people, from eleven postcodes across the city, came to give us their views. The following day we were at Newtown Community Centre for another meeting, which was attended by twenty one people from ten different postcodes.

At both meetings, there were people who felt very strongly about the Supporting People programme, and there was concern that reductions in the funding of this preventative service would lead to a greater need for more intensive support in the future. There is a more in-depth consultation about the Supporting People programme going on at the moment- click here to find out more.

As with previous meetings, there was also a lot of concern about further reducing services for children and young people. Some people felt that changes to the Connexions service would lead to more youth unemployment, while others said that reducing other services for young people would cause more crime and antisocial behaviour. Some people also told us how important Early Years intervention is, and that there needed to be more nursery places available in Newtown.

The meeting in Newtown heard from several people who had struggled with the Individual Budgets process, couldn’t always buy the services that they wanted to, and didn’t think they were getting value for money from support providers. This meeting was chaired by Peter Hay, the Strategic Director for Adults and Communities, who will investigate this and look at ways of improving the service.

I was really pleased that some people said they wanted to get more involved in helping us to deliver services by volunteering. I think that we need to do more to make is possible for volunteers to work with the Council, and this is something we are addressing now in a review of our policy on volunteering.

At both of these meetings, there were people who wanted the Council to refuse to make any savings in its budget at all. Just to reiterate, as a statutory body, we are legally obliged to return a balanced budget at the end of the year. The way to change Government policy is through local Members of Parliament.

We received several comments about the meetings themselves (such as their location, and how they have been advertised). As a result of this we have created a feedback form to capture your thoughts, which will be available at the meetings. We will take these into account (where possible) in the rest of the meetings happening between now and January, and others in future. 

Don’t forget you can also have your say by:

Filling in an online survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/budget2012 or in any of these other ways:

Email to budget_views@birmingham.gov.uk

Text us by starting a new message with the word ‘Budget’ followed by a space (if you miss this word your message will be lost)
Add your comment
Send to: 07786 200 403
Please note you will not get a receipt for this message
Messages sent via this service will cost your usual network rate per message and are anonymous unless you put your name in the message.

Write to Budget Views, Room B119, Council House, Victoria Square, Birmingham, B1 1BB

Tweet us using the hashtag #Brumbudget12

I look forward to hearing and reading your views,

Stephen Hughes,

Chief Executive, Birmingham City Council

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On October 22, we held the first public meeting in the Council House, whilst both a demonstration against government cuts to disability benefits and services, and the ‘Occupy Birmingham’ camp, were outside in Victoria Square. It was a day for people to make their views known in all sorts of ways, and I’m glad that so many came to our meeting to do so.

The consultation exercise that we’re running at the moment is the largest we’ve ever done. We’re taking on board lots of feedback from the session about how to improve the meetings, and I thank you for your comments and advice – we’ll be putting this into practice for the rest of the meetings over the next few weeks.

On Thursday (October 27) we held a second meeting, at the Alexander Stadium in Perry Barr. There were fewer people there than on Saturday – perhaps due in part to the decidedly autumnal weather – but we nevertheless had just as lively and interesting a discussion.

I also took part in a live web chat on Thursday. It was the first time I’ve ever done this and I found it a really interesting and worthwhile experience, and one that I’m keen to repeat. You can see the full chat here: http://birminghamnewsroom.com/2011/10/budget-views-live-webchat.

Everything that was said at the meetings and in the web chat has been recorded – it’s all really important to us, and we will pass every comment on to the councillors to help them make their decisions. All of the comments received so far will be available to see on the city council website shortly.

So far, there have been a few hot topics that have generated the most comments. These are: the Supporting People programme (which supports vulnerable people to live independently); services such as respite care, for children with disabilities; and also the Connexions service. There have also been several questions about the extent to which we’ve made savings through redundancies at senior management level, and how much we spend on external consultants.

At both meetings, people have also expressed strong feelings about the broader economy, suggesting that we should not have to make any savings, or that we could default on repayment of our loans. I argued that the latter is not feasible because, as a statutory body, the council is obliged to obey the law, and this means re-paying money that we borrow, as well as ensuring that our expenditure doesn’t exceed our income.

Comments about the scale of the savings programme that councils have been asked to work to are something that should be addressed to central government.

A few people asked me during the web chat whether this is a true consultation that we’re carrying out, or whether decisions have in fact already been made. I just want to say again that we really are open to hearing any of your views about our proposals, and whether you have any other ideas at all about what the council should be doing in relation to its budget – whether they are about saving money or raising it in innovative ways.

The next public meeting is on Wednesday (November 2) in Sutton Coldfield. The full list of others can be found here: http://birminghamnewsroom.com/2011/10/timetable-for-community-forum-meetings

Don’t forget you can also have your say by:

Filling in an online survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/budget2012 or in any of these other ways:

Email to budget_views@birmingham.gov.uk

Text us by starting a new message with the word ‘Budget’ followed by a space (if you miss this word your message will be lost)
Add your comment
Send to: 07786 200 403
Please note you will not get a receipt for this message
Messages sent via this service will cost your usual network rate per message and are anonymous unless you put your name in the message.

Write to Budget Views, Room B119, Council House, Victoria Square, Birmingham, B1 1BB

Tweet us using the hashtag #Brumbudget12

I look forward to hearing and reading your views,

Stephen Hughes,

Chief Executive, Birmingham City Council

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Welcome to the first of a series of blogs about the Birmingham Budget 2012/13 consultation. Here I will tell you how you can have your say about how we tackle the financial challenge of planning our budget and services for next year, and keep you updated on what others are saying to us.

Today marks the launch of the Birmingham Budget 2012/13 consultation, which will run until 8th January 2012. We want to hear your views on a range of new proposals, so that the council’s cabinet members can make fair and balanced decisions when they plan next year’s budget.

As you will know, local councils have been doing their bit to help reduce the nation’s financial deficit, and here in Birmingham we have already put into action a plan which will save £300m over the next four years.

However some important things have happened in the meantime, most of all the legal judgement that prevented us changing the eligibility criteria for adult social care services without further consultation. The council’s Administration has thought very carefully about that judgement and is not proposing to reduce eligibility criteria for vulnerable adults as originally envisaged.
 
This means that we now need to make a further £65m of savings in the year 2012/13, on top of what we have already planned to save.

Our cabinet members have some very tough decisions to make about how to save this money. We have some proposals about how to do this, and we want to listen to your opinions about them, to make sure your voice is counted amongst the important factors that our councillors will take into account when they come to plan the budget.

If you would like to give us your views, you can:

• Email your comments on the proposals to budget_views@birmingham.gov.uk
• Text us by starting a new message with the word ‘Budget’ followed by a space (if you miss this word your message will be lost)
  Add your comment
  Send to: 07786 200 403
  Please note you will not get a receipt for this message
  Messages sent via this service will cost your usual network rate per message and are anonymous unless you put your name in the message.
• Write to Budget Views, Room B119, Council House, Victoria Square, Birmingham, B1 1BB
• Tweet us using the hashtag #Brumbudget12
• Come to one of the public meetings that we are holding in locations around the city over the next two months.

Look out for my next blog where I will post the details of these public meetings.

You are invited to participate in an online survey from Monday October 17.

Thank you for reading my blog- I look forward to hearing from you.

Stephen Hughes, Chief Executive Birmingham City Council.

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