TM Oct 15

Tyburn Mail October 2015

DELIVERED FREE MONTHLY TO ALL HOMES IN TYBURNupdated daily online at: tyburnmail.com Oc

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GATES WERE LEFT OPEN FOR OVER A YEAR

Fears for Pype Hayes Park security after travellers visit

Irish Travellers gained illegal access to Pype Hayes Park last month. They drove their vehicles through the security gates on Eachelhurst Road that had been left open by Council contracted workers for over a year.Over twenty accommodation vehi-cles, with additional cars and vans, moved onto the area adjacent to Eachelhurst Road.The gates and low fence had origi-nally been installed to prevent travel-lers from getting onto the park, fol-lowing a spate of problems several years ago. This time, the travellers stayed for just five days. A spokesperson for the group Friends of Pype Hayes Park told Tyburn Mail that the travellers left peacefully and with no problems.

But flower beds had to be cordoned off for hygienic reasons for a few days after their departure because the travellers had been using the area as a toilet.There are fears the travellers could return if the park is not made more secure.Police had issued a Section 61 evic-tion notice to the travellers to enforce their departure. This means that they face a fine of up to 2,500 if they re-turn to the site within three months.Police have been given powers to is-sue Section 61 notices, to speed up the process and avoid a lengthy and expensive court case . But it is not compulsory for police to do so. They are able to use their judgement, to decide whether the travellers or gyp-sies are a nuisance or a threat, or are preventing local people from using the facility. They are also able to is-sue the notice if there are more than

six vehicles.But locals cannot be guaranteed that the Section 61 notice will be applied by police in all cases.Travellers and gypsies are protected by anti-racism laws. Councils are required by law to provide sites for travelling communities.Birmingham Council already has four sites for travellers, and aims to estab-lish two more, in Aston and Hubert Street.

The City Council feels frustrated that one of their permanent travellers sites has been effectively taken from them by a family of travellers who have refused to budge for 20 years. The Tameside Drive site in Castle Vale has been the subject of a lengthy court case, and has reached the high-est court in the land. The travellers won the case, and say they have no intention of leaving.City Council officers last visited the

Tameside Drive site in March 2014 to try to negotiate a deal with the Do-herty family, but were denied access.Birmingham Council has concluded, with some frustration, that there is no prospect of their recovering that site for use by other travellers in the foreseeable future. They therefore have to find other sites, in a time when space for hous-ing is tight.

Wedding fashion with TaylorPAGE 6

The great fireworks let down Page 2

The team that keeps on winning Page 17

Music with Brookly: its Taylor Swift Page 8

Chivenor School has had its best ever SATs re-sults. This year, 67% of the Year 6 pupils reached Level 4 in writing, reading and maths combined. Thats a massive 31% higher than last year, and is likely to see Chivenor as one of Birminghams most im-proved schools when the full league tables are published in November. Headteacher Darren Mann says the success is down to the hard work of

the pupils, and the teaching skills of Mr ONeill and Mrs Marnell, the two Year 6 teachers.Pupils Phoebe McFarlane and Owen Grove have been highlighted for spe-cial praise. They both reached Level 6 in maths. Both youngsters have now moved on to Greenwood Academy.Chivenor now has 80% of its teach-ing rated as good or better, compared with just 20% two years ago. It also has specialist teachers in Art, PE and Music, and guarantees a curriculum promise of high standards to parents.

TEST YOUR PARTNERThe new SATs spelling test is getting even harder, says Chivenors Mr ONeill. Heres a sample of the words youngsters are ex-pected to know:

possession unavoidably

scent sleigh

ominousPlenty to live up to: This years Yr 6 pupils are ready for the challenge. Pictured are: Cameron Marshall (10), Caitlin Evans (10, Head Girl), Sabrina Heffernan (11), Paris Moroney (10), Owen Parker (10). On the back row are teachers Mr O Neill, Mrs Marnell and Headteacher Darren Mann

Chivenor moving upwards

Autumn beauty in Pype Hayes Park


Claire Cowlard, headteach-er of St Francis School in Bournville, is the temporary and part-time headteacher of St Barnabas School in Erdington.Mrs Cowlard will be filling in at St Barn-abas while the headteacher, Heather Powell is suspended, pending an inves-tigation into financial irregularities at the school.It is one of Erdingtons top performing primary schools. Out of Birminghams 275 primary schools, only one school in the district, St Peters and St Pauls, comes higher in the league tables than St Barnabas. But in rceent years, St Barnabas has been ignored by official inspectors. Since Ofsted last visited St Barnabas, Kingsbury School just down the road has received seven official visits from Ofsted inspectors.Governors at St Barnabas include Coun-cillor Robert Alden, the leader of Bir-mingham Conservatives. He, like the rest of the schools team of governors, is staying tight-lipped about the situation.Governors are referring all enquiries to the Church of England Diocese.The Education Authority who are con-ducting the enquiry are also giving nothing away.Parents and pupils have been given no indication as to how long the enquiry is expected to take.It will take as long as it takes, says the Diocese spokesperson.

School head suspended for financial probe

An Erdington creative writ-ing group is offering a 100 prize for a short story or poem.A separate competition for Under 15s has a 15 prize.The Pens of Erdington creative writing group are asking for short stories up to 1,500 words, or poems up to 42 lines for their competition.The deadline for entries is 5th Novem-ber. Winners will be judged by former Birmingham poet laureate Jan Watts and announced on 12th December.Entries should be posted to: 34 Wen-tworth Court, Kingsbury Road, Erding-ton B24 8QN.There is an entry fee of 5 for adults and 1 for Under 15s.

100 prize for story or poem

Camp Rock is the musi-cal production at Green-wood Academy this year. Trevor Evans and his team will be directing and producing the hit mu-sical which made a star of Demi Lovato, then aged 17 , and for US heart-throbs the Jonas Brothers when it was relased as a Disney Channel movie.Its about young hopeful singers who attend a school camp for tal-ented youngsters who are trying to get noticed to start their career.Hit songs from the show include: This is Me, Who Will I Be? We Rock, and Play My Music.

CAMP ROCK

Kingsbury School have come up with a mouth-watering reward for deserv-ing pupils. The Golden Table reward will see eight students se-lected to join the

headteacher Mark Rhatigan at a top Birmingham res-taurant.The lucky eight will be tak-en for a five-star feast to Gingers, owned by Michelin starred superchef Glynn Purnell, often known as The Yummie Brummie

The schools assistant head-teacher Mrs Cross said: At Kingsbury we believe hard work and dedication should be rewarded. We aim to show students that experiences like this are open to all and that hard work and dedication can get you anywhere.Gingers is an exclusive bis-

tro in Birminghams Newhall Street. An 8oz rump steak main course at the bistro costs just under 20, and a 10oz tail fillet of beef is just short of 26.

Food for thoughtKingsbury offers top meal for best

pupils as Golden Table reward

Glynn Purnell

Festivals that celebrate cultures are important for many reasons. They are fun, colourful, and rich social events. What a shame that an annual festival celebrating an important event in Englands his-tory should have been cancelled this year. The Pype Hayes Fireworks Night was ditched by Birmingham Coun-cils Events Committee last week.There has been a list of predict-able excuses. Car parking, road closures, policing.The sort of problems that organis-ers face for evey cultural festival that attracts thousands of people.The city council had feared that money would be a big problem, too. Budget cuts make it difficult to spend thousands of pounds on fire-works that last just a few minutes. But money was no problem, be-cause Wilsons Funfair had gener-ously offered to foot the bill. Bob Wilson and his team were pre-

pared to offer tens of thousands of pounds to sponsor the event.So why has the fireworks event been cancelled?Councillors were called to a meet-ing, and voiced concerns about parking and residents complaints. Wilsons wanted no road closures, and hoped to allow parking on the park to ease congestion. This raised more than a few eye-brows of concern.The following day, council officers and the Council Events Committe held a separate meeting behind closed doors and cancelled the Pype Hayes fireworks display for 2015.Wilsons say they are disappointed. So do councillors. The city council maintains that it is determined that the show will be a success in 2016.That is little consolation for the thousands of young chidlren and their parents who will be disap-pointed this year.One well-organised large scale fireworks event is safer than a few hundred small scale domestic fire-works events.

The great Fireworks let down

COMMENT

Eley, the makers of ammunition and firearms, are planning to build a 15-lane shooting gallery at a new site in Hansons Bridge Road.The facility will be for customers to try out ammunition. Eley already have a site in Tyburn, and now want to extend their business by building new shooting and office facilities on the site of Monks Windows. They have submitted plans to demolish the current building and con-struct their new site. The gallery would be available for athletes to seek advice on the best cartridge to improve the performance and accuracy of a particu-lar rifle. The shooting range would operate on an appointment basis. The expansion of the Eley factory would result in 25 more jobs.

Ammunition testing shooting gallery for Hansons Bridge Road


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LETTERS n comments

Dear Editor, I am a vegetarian and had been on the television show Come dine with me and came joint first. In fact the first vegetarian to achieve anywhere in the show.I live in Castle Vale, and I am known to be a vegetarian.I shop regularly at the local Sains-burys there, and they have a hot food counter where they cook Pizzas etc.Today after a hard day at work, I went there, and a girl served me, I order a bespoke vegetarian Pizza, and she advised me it would be 15 minutes.I came back after picking few items, to be given a raw Pizza, I say to the girl that it was meant to be cooked, - she replied back: I am sorry I have been up since 5 a.m and came straight to work from college. We shared small talk and laughs and also about vegetarian food, as she

places the Pizza in an oven.Some minutes later I returned and the pizza looked good, I got home and I put some pepper on the Pizza and I was eating in the dark with the televi-sion on, as I am eating away the pizza did not taste right, some thing in it - I thought at first it was because of chunky onions, I then realised when I prodded the Pizza that it was chicken. I HAVE NEVER EATEN MEAT IN MY LIFE.I was so upset, I vomited there and then, and in fact several times, I have a few health issues and have to make sure I eat, and well I could not eat as I am nauseous.

I phoned Sainsburys and at first they did not seem that bothered.I was that upset I had to take the pizza to the store and they saw that it was chicken and also that a label said

vegetarian. They kept the pizza and the label, - I was pushed a refund and a 10 voucher. which I did not want. This has upset me and I am so angry - this should not happen in the day and age. The girls was clearly tired, but as she was stupid to not check what she put on my food she should be stocking shelves not making food, Paz ThakrarCastle Vale

Chicken in a vegetarian pizza made me vomit

Dear EditorHello, Im David. I am 58 years old; Im disabled and have been for over ten years. That is, Ive been on the highest DLA with motability (car) for that amount of time. My car Ive had for five years. I paid 600 deposit for the three year lease and 212 a month from my benefits for the car. I worked all my life. I served in the army (N Ireland at 18) and also as a reservist with 23SAS regiment.Now the government decided to bring in new PIP system (personal inde-pendent payment), and decided to drop me down one to their standard rate, as opposed to the enhanced (one with the motability).So from 29th (September) half my benefits will be cut. And my car will be taken back!Let me tell you about me.I dont drink. I dont own a string vest and I dont lie on the couch all day watching television. I am married. I have a ten year-old son. Ive had spine surgery on my lower back which didnt work. I suffer daily severe back and leg (right) pains and cant walk. I have a wheelchair and stick, which is carried in the car, always.

I have chronic ribromyalgia, asthma, emphysema, heart disease, diverticu-litis and have suffered manic depres-sion from a young age.Just a few steps and my breathing is out of control. And the pain from my leg and spine is terrible.Without my car, Im going to be left housebound. I have haemachromato-sis and I have to give half a litre of blood every two weeks at the Shel-don Unit, Good Hope Hospital with Dr Lumley. But this will also stop. This could effectively kill me.Ive never been idle. I drove 40 tonne wagons until I couldnt get into my cab anymore with my spine problem. My doctor, Dr Zaman, was astounded that they have done this and I am devastated. My life is in pieces. When they take my car away I will be stuck at home. I have a stair lift, and bars to get in and out of my shower, and steps to get in.But they feel its ok for me to struggle in severe pain and give my wife 21 a week carers allowance!She speaks three languages fluently, has five university diplomas. But 62 a week was too much. Now its 21.They seem to be able to do as they please.If you want a story to tell, tell this one.

David JonesCastle Vale

My life is in pieces without motability car

Dear Editor Circuit Tyres Ltd whose premises are located on the OYO estate Castle Vale who run a 24/7 tyre service have kindly sponsored Castle Vale Town FC U15s boys team. CVTFC would like to thank Circuit Tyres Ltd Castle Vale for sponsoring the U15s Boys team, who were in ur-gent need of a new kit. Manager Mark Hopkin said the lads

will really appreciate it and the fact that they are one of the first to have the new style home kit, after having been without a home kit for the last 2-3 seasons. I too as chairman and on behalf of the parents would like to say a big thank you to Circuit Tyres Ltd. Duval PalgraveChairmanCastle Vale Town FC

Thanks to our kit sponsorsDear Editor,

When ordering the de-struction of those trees on Chester Road outside the Jaguar factory, their management overlooked a couple of points. Firstly, motorists shouldnt be look-ing at an advertising hoarding at that busy junction.Secondly, you cant see the sign at all from the offside of a bus travelling to-wards the city centre and Erdington.Thirdly, you cant see the sign from anywhere when the sun is out. It just looks like a blank screen with Braille round it. Oops!Pat AllenPype Hayes

Jaguars Chester Road video show. ooops!

Tyburn Mail ONLINE.

Have your say in the readers

comments sectiontyburnmail.com

Response from SainsburysA Sainsburys spokesperson said: Food safety and quality are extremely important to us and it is vital that we continue to meet the dietary require-ments of all our customers. We have sincerely apologised to Mr Thakrar and he remains a regular customer at our Castle Vale store.

Dear Editor,Like many others I was disappointed to hear news of the proposal that West Midlands Police will be moving out of 28 buildings, including the Po-lice Station on Castle Vale, as part of a savings plan to reduce the cost of the estates budget by 8.5 million.

While front line policing is not affected, this is part of a larger plan to reduce the overall budget by 130 million by 2020 to meet government savings targets; but like the Police Federation I believe it does take the Police fur-ther away from the communities they serve and threatens that vital link be-tween people and the Police.

Mick BrownCouncillor, Tyburn Ward

Station closure takes police from public


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So this weekend the Na-tional Wedding Show made its way to Birming-ham and I was lucky enough to receive tickets to attend. The event is everything you would expect from a wedding event: sophis-tication, elegance and lots of gems! Everything from the cakes, invita-tions, table decorations, photography and dresses were absolutely gor-geous and there were a lot of amaz-ing brands full of incredible ideas and phenomenal talent! But as well as your traditional wed-ding styles there were a lot of new, creative, unique ideas there. One of my favourite stands were called Marry-oke or something similar along those lines, who were a filming business who would attend

your wedding and go round filming guests dancing and singing to create a hilarious music video - which would definitely be a lot of fun to watch in future years!

Another unique idea were temporary tattoos for brides. During the catwalk, the models were styling the tattoos around their brace-lets, almost like an anklet, which

looked incredibly chic and modern. Other booths consisted of glamorous dresses, shabby chic table dcor, deli-cious three tier cakes, fancy makeup, the sparkliest tiaras you would have ever seen, dreamy veils, fun photo booths and so, so much more!

As for the catwalk, the dress designs were so stunning! There were all the styles you would expect, such as mermaid and puffy skirts, but there were a few twists. One dress was a knee-length, midi, white lace dress, but featured a puffy train attached on the back - from be-hind it looked stunning! One model also rocked a two piece wedding outfit which I adored the idea of: the top was cropped, with two shoulder strapped and embel-lished all over. The embellishments then matched the top of the long

skirt. It was very boho, yet sophisti-cated and elegant at the same time. As a whole, I loved the day, because although Im not getting married, I still really enjoyed seeing all of the brands introducing new and exciting ideas for how to modernize and make the most of your wedding day and seeing all of the gorgeous dresses

that designers worked incredibly hard on. If you are a bride-to-be, or even have an interest in wedding fashion, I would definitely recommend the Na-tional Wedding Show. Its annual and you can buy tickets for either London, Birmingham or Man-chester.

WEDDING ELEGANCE

Taylor SheldonTyburn Mails award winning

fashion journalist


October is Environment Month in Castle Vale Throughout October Castle Vale NPB will be working with local organisations and groups to raise awareness

of environmental issues, share useful information about environmental services and promote usage of the

many parks and open spaces we have on the estate. Take a look what we have planned..

Get active in your local park FREE Family fun sessions for all @ Centre Park EVERY SATURDAY 1pm - 3pm Bring the family along and play tennis, basket ball, soft

archery, football plus many more activities.

FREE 5k to 10k running club - meet at Farnborough Fields EVERY TUESDAY 5.30pm - 6.30pm Have you started jogging but want to take it to the next

level? Come along to the weekly running club

FREE Couch to 5k beginners running club - meet at Farnborough Fields EVERY THURSDAY 5.30pm6.30pm Have you always wanted to take up jogging but dont know

where to start? Come along and take part in the beginners running course.

Keep up to date on what is happening by visiting www.cvnpb.org.uk

Halloween Family Bike Ride/Walk

Friday 30th October 11am - 2pm

Meet at Castle Vale Allotments

Get dressed up in your favourite Halloween costumes and take a ride/walk around

Castle Vale with us!

*WIN A PRIZE FOR BEING THE BEST DRESSED*

Conservation Area and Farnborough Fields Clean up

Monday 26th October 11am - 2pm

Meet at Castle Vale Allotments Get involved and make a difference to YOUR

local green, open spaces

*FIND THE GOLDEN BOTTLE TO WIN A PRIZE*

www.facebook.com/cvnpb

@cvnpb Use the Hashtags

#LoveCastleVale #CVEM2015


So Taylor released her music video for Wildest Dreams off her 1989 al-bum on August 30th which blew all her fans away. We see a brown haired beauty rather than the beach blonde were used to in her 1940s themed music video, with her bright red lipstick wowing us all. Wildest Dreams is now at No. 12 in the ITunes Chart, and reaching over 17,000,000 views on YouTube.

Being a Taylor Swift fan for a couple of years, shes changed her tune so wonderfully. Shes given her audience her all by

showing how she has the musical gift of creating all kinds of genres. There was a time when Taylor was known just for her sad break up songs, and heart fluttering love songs. Now, shes doing pop/hip hop, love songs and still the odd sad love song now and then. She has developed so much from the likes of Tear drops on my guitar and Love Story to Bad Blood Shes shining more and more in the music industry, which is satisfying consid-ering she wasnt as popular before when I first discov-ered her. After fully paying attention to 1989 as an album, I re-ally do enjoy it. There isnt one song that makes me want to switch off! My hat goes

off to Taylor Swift for experimenting new sounds and putting that album out there. The music industry is judged the most, so good on you Taylor! If youre looking for something differ-ent to your usual sound, give 1989 a chance. You never know, you might become a swifty too! Thanks for Reading!

Taylors new look brings change of tuneFrom beach blonde to brown-haired beauty

and a much wider range of song stylesBrookly TaylorTyburn Mails music journalist

WHAT NEXT FOR SPITFIRE HOUSE? YOU DECIDE. Consultation on proposal for community use of Spitfire House We are looking for your ideas as to how we should best use the ground floor community space in Spitfire House. BMetC sold Spitfire House, or Castle Vale Community Campus as it is known to some, to East Birmingham Network Free School (EBN) in July 2015. Since then the Free School has opened, making use of the first and second floor in the building. The ground floor of the building is protected for community learning use and over the past few months community representatives have been meeting with the EBN to negotiate the use of this space. The TRA will have better office facilities with more private interview space. The library will continue in the same space with upgraded toilet facilities. The TRA will manage the community facilities which will include rooms for community hire and other community uses. Ideas put forward so far include a community cafe and fresh food co-operative or community shop. We are confident that we can make better use of the building for the community but we need to know what you want! Nothing is decided yet so come along and have a look at the new plans and share your thoughts about how the community can make better use of the building.

What Next, You Decide. Do you think that local people would be interested in a shop

which sells affordable, good quality fruit and vegetables as well as other basic household supplies?

What should the building be called? What sort of courses would you like to see put on there?

You can let us have your views in a number of ways...

Complete the What next for Spitfire House Survey available at local buildings or online at:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SHConsultation Visit the information display on the ground floor of the

Spitfire House

Come along to the drop in sessions at the library and have a chat with us on:

Monday 2nd November 4pm to 6pm Wednesday 4th November 10am to 1pm

Email your comments to: [email protected] Call us on 0121 748 8189


GOING, GOING..The name of Castle Vale seems

to be disappearing from titles

Castle Vale Community Campus.... now a free school. The building was originally planned as a college and library for Castle Vale. After a succession of college takeovers, the campus was relegated to the bottom of BMETs empire. It was sold last month, to EBN, with help from government funding, and is now a free school for disaffected teenagers from a wide area in north east Birmingham. Some of the building is reserved for the TRA and library.

Castle Vale Librarynow Tyburn Community Library: This photograph was taken at the official opening of the library in 2006 when it occupied the whole of the ground floor. It had separate rooms for the chidlrens sections, and had its own cafe. It was the least used of all of Birminghams libraries.

Castle Vale Police Station: now closed to public, soon to be closed completely... and probably sold. When it was open to the public, officers say that it was one of the most infrequently visited stations in Birmingham, and that duty-time on the front desk was boring

Vale Mail, Castle Vales own news-paper, now Tyburn Mail. The name change coincided with the wider distribution across the ward, in an effort to increase local budgets came under pressure.

Castle Vale School and Perform-ing Arts College, now Greenwood Academy: the name chnge helped to ditch the schools poor reputation, and heralded an era of optimism.

Castle Vale Community Housing Association feels it has better pros-pects with a change of name. It, too, has expanded its work beyond the Vale, and into Stockland Green.

Castle Vale Police Sta-tion will close within two years. West Midlands Police have said it is surplus to requirements, and they have a lot of cuts to make. Castle Vale residents might feel a bit cross about this. They paid the wages of one ex-tra police officer to work on the estate for several years, as a gesture of support. But the money ran out, and when police officer num-bers were cut, West Midlands Police closed the building to the public seven months ago. Now they are planning to close the

building altogether, and sell it off. Where did they get the building from in the first place? CVCHA gave it to them in 2005 when money was aplenty. The story has echoes of the Commu-nity Campus building, handed over to a local college for 1... and sold for 1.5 million nine years later. Castle Vale has not been promised any of that profit, and the police are not likely to give the Vale anything from the sale of their gift-wrapped building.Three major buildings in Castle Vale will be renamed from their original titles. CVCHA, the police station, the

college, and the library.Several other organisations have ditched the name of Castle Vale in hard times. This newspaper, for ex-ample. Once Vale Mail, it became Ty-burn Mail to attract more advertisers and funding, to survive the recession and dwindling funds.Castle Vale School changed its name to Greenwood Academy, to give it a fresh start as an academy, and to build a fresh reputation.Some are sticking with the Castle Vale name: Castle Vale TRA, Castle Vale Residents Club, Castle Vale Childrens Centre and Nursery, Castle Vale Retail Park and Vale Stadium, for example.

CVCRS now Compass Sup-port. The social services branch of the local hous-ing association has been doing work beyond Castle Vale for several years.

The Community Environment Trust used to be Castle Vale Communty Environmental Trust. The name change reflected the work done in a wider area, particularly in the forest schools project


Pack-horse bridge closed for weeksThe narrow bridge that links Water Orton with Castle Vale will be closed throughout October and for the first two weeks of November, according to engineers working at the site.The walls of the bridge have been damaged following a vehicle collision.

The pack horse bridge is listed as an ancient monu-ment, and dates back to the early 16th Century, al-legedly built under the instruction of Bishop Vesey.It links Minworth Road with Water Orton Road, and is wide enough for single vehicles.Motorists trying to travel between Water Orton and Castle Vale have already faced months of disruption to their route this year because of major engineering to the railway bridge at Water Orton Station.

The bridge walls were demolished by a car in the early hours of 27/28 September. Both sides of the bridge were badly damaged


NEWS and views fromCastle Vale Community Housing: 11 High Street, Castle Vale, B35 7PR 0121 748 8100 repairs 0121 748 8101 (24 hrs) [email protected]

THE CUTS ARECOMING

OUR SERVICESNEED

TO CHANGE


NEWS FROM CASTLE VALE COMMUNITY HOUSING

I would like to comment on the CVCHA and theway its not as good as the HAT that used to governour estate, services have gone down considerably.

What do we pay our rent for?

I'm sorry but if people get themselves in to debtthen it is up to them to get themselves out of it

Personally, I think 1% is nothing...it will only be afew pounds saving for me so I would rather pay a

higher rent and have access to all previousservices.

I'm sorry but I don't seem to be able to vote 1 toeach service! That would be my score.

I found this quite difficult to fill in. I feel the mostimportant things are that all homes are kept to agood standard, that the estate is kept clean and

tidy and that we participate in keeping our estatesafe and crime free. I also feel that we need to

invest in all our people of any age. I know that dueto cuts we can't have everything so have scored as

above."

"I would like to see CVCHA/Pioneer focus on themain task of housing & estate, that's what I am

paying for"

Why are cuts being made? Your Comments

CVCHA created the Pioneer Group as the world is changing and if we wanted to remain asan independent, community focussed organisation, staying the same was not an option.

We will be losing more and more homes under the expanded Right to Buy and anorganisation that is shrinking will end up closing. We did not realise just how severe theGovernment cuts would be so it is lucky that we have already created a new Group to bein a good position to change.

Castle Vale will always be at the heart of what we do. We will be providing homes in otherareas but we will get rents from these homes which will benefit everyone in the PioneerGroup, including Castle Vale.

In the Emergency Budget earlier thisyear, the Chancellor George Osborneannounced that Housing Associationswould have to reduce their rents by 1%every year for the four years up to2020. This is obviously good news forour customers and something we arekeen to share with you.

However, like all Housing Associations,our income is based on rents and thisreduction will mean cuts of around16% over the next 4 years, which willbe around 1.6 million a year by 2020.

We are now in the process of reviewingall our plans. We will keep to ourpromise of the Castle Vale LandlordOffer to our social housing tenants andour Castle Vale Pledge to the wholecommunity. The types of services willhave to change but this will be basedon what you have told us is importantto you.

What about The Pioneer Group?


NEWS FROM CASTLE VALE COMMUNITY HOUSING

I think this is not good news forthe staff and tenants because

some of the services you providefor the tenants will stop. This is

bad for everyone.

All are important but CVCHA is ahousing association and so

should focus primarily on housingservices. Keeping the vale cleanand tidy is very important as thepoor quality of the estate was asign it was going downhill in the

early 1980s.

Support for debt, getting intowork and vulnerable families is

already available via otherservices such as citizen advice,

job centres and charities sopeople should be signposted to

services already provided. CVCHA should invest in theirproperties and the local area.

Our main concern is that ifCVCHA are having to look at

services provided costs then whyare you looking at taking onhomes off Castle Vale, i.e.

Stockland Green - surely CastleVale should be priority not other

areas

I think its important to maintainthe look of Castle Vale and the

properties otherwise it will startto look run down.

"Since we moved in this area wefound everyone very helpful, our

house was lovely and clean. Iwould like someone to help

family's like us on low income tobe able to buy the house that we

live in."

Your Comments Your PrioritiesWith a short timescale to make decisions aboutchanges to services, we needed to get views from ourcustomers quickly. Between 18th September and 2ndOctober, we wrote to and emailed over 1200customers to ask for their views. We published detailsof the consultation in the Tyburn Mail in September,made survey forms available online and in our officesand held an open event on 30th September at TheSanctuary.

Over 200 residents responded, and we received over70 comments, suggestions and questions. A selectionof these are printed here.

The survey asked customers to say which services weremost important to them. The top five results were:

Investing in CVCHA Homes (e.g. kitchens,bathrooms and boilers)Providing a bulk refuse collection service to allCVCHA tenantsInvesting in keeping all of Castle Vale clean andtidyOffering a planned external paintingprogramme for CVCHA homesProviding cleaning/landscaping/caretaking incommunal blocks

What happens next?The Pioneer Group Strategic Board will meet on 29thOctober to consider a new structure and servicechanges. There will then be a period of consultationwith staff. We will publish more information in theNovember and December Tyburn Mail. You can alsofollow our Facebook and Twitter accounts for updates -search for Castle Vale Community Housing onFacebook and @CVCHousing on Twitter.


@ The Sanctuary 0121 748 8111 We are now part of the Birmingham Business Charter

for Social Responsibility

We have recently changed our name to Compass Support.Why the name change? We are still passionate about the residents of Castle Vale as we always have been, and we want to build upon this successful work by provid-ing more opportunities for more peo-ple within Birmingham. The service you receive will still be the high quality you expect from us. Did you know we offer Em-ployment support, Think Family services, Youth service including after school club and school holiday provision, Older Persons ser-vices, and a whole range of classes and activities, many of which take place at The Sanctuary.If you would like to find out more about our opportunities and how we can support you to achieve positive outcomes, please get in touch.Either pop into The Sanctuary, or call a member of the team on 0121 748 8111.

Every 1.00 invest-ed in our activities could save 9.62 of the public purse! This means that our so-cial value to society is 8,188,276! We found this out by completing an exer-cise called Social Return on Investment (SROI). This looks at how much money goes into our activi-ties and what difference this makes. We then look at other services to see how our work can make savings for the future. Heres a few examples:Our work to help people into employment opportu-nities could save the public purse nearly 1.5mour support for older peo-ple reduces accidents and hospital visits which could cost over 220,000our work with young peo-

ple and families to improve school attendance is the equivalent of over 1mThis shows that there are better ways of investing in services to achieve more for less. And theres more the

9.62 doesnt include eve-rything we do at Compass Support so we know our so-cial value is higher.We will be using this infor-mation to show there are better ways of providing ac-tivities and services.

Getting more for less


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Yenton School, situated on the Chester Road in Erdington, had a very busy summer. On top of the usual refurbishment programme across the school, the school in conjunction with the Local Authority had two brand new class-rooms built in order to return back to having three classes in Reception.The rooms offer the latest technology and the op-portunity to enable children to learn indoors and outdoors through outdoor play, Forest Schools and specially created rooms.The classrooms successfully received its new chil-

dren on the 9th September and Early Years Leader Mrs Hemming expressed her delight at how well the children had settled so quickly into their new

rooms: The children and families deserve a lot of recognition in how much they have worked with us to settle in it doesnt seem like they only started a few weeks ago!Head Teacher, Mr Cadwallader ex-pressed his gratitude to his staff and Local Authority for working together so effectively in order to finish everything on time and to a high standards: Our staff have been amazing and they have pre-pared the rooms to the highest of standards to ensure our children have the best quality education. Reception is the most important year in the school and we work very hard to ensure that all chil-dren enjoy , feel safe and then learn well, in order to prepare them for the rest of their time in school.

New classrooms boost for Yentonby David CadwalladerHeadteacher, Yenton School

Specialist photographers will be holding workshops in Castle Vale for photography enthusiasts.Agi Ch will be demonstrating pinhole photography from 2pm-4pm on 9th No-vember at the Sanctuary in Tangmere Drive.Andrew Jackson will be talking about his documentary and press photography from 5-7pm on 12th November at The Hub in Topcliffe House, Lower Ground Floor.

Photography workshops

A free baby massage class starts at Greenwood Academy in Castle Vale af-ter half term, on 6th November.It will run on Fridays from 9.30am until 10.30am, include massage instruction, re-laxation music, tea, coffee & biscuits.Organiser Andrea Izamis says: To attend Baby Massage, babies should be at least 6-8 weeks old, have had their 6-8 week check and have no medical conditions where it would be inadvisable to massage such as infection, high temperature or a recent fracture. Babies can attend Baby Massage classes up to 9 months old however it is advisable to do it before they get too wrig-gly at around 6 months.

If interested please call 0121 464 6101 or email [email protected]

Baby massage


Yenton Primary SchoolA good school with outstanding features OFSTED, November 2013With our onsite partners we offer wrap-around

care between 7:30am and 6pm.

Yenton offers: Free after school and lunchtime clubs (year 1 onwards) to involve children in the enjoyment of sport. Free music lessons for 12 months so every child has the opportunity to learn

an instrument. Subsequent lessons are substantially subsidised by the school and offered at a reduced cost. Classes with the highest attendance win Pizza every Monday and the highest attending individuals go on a free trip to

Conkers at the end of the school year Two new playgrounds with an outdoor gym, climbing walls and stage, plus much more. Trips in every year to enhance the cur-riculum.

Pupils behave well, work hard and feel safe. The school is calm and peaceful OFSTED, November 2013Yenton Primary School, Chester Road, Erdington, B24 0ED. 0121-464 6588

Open Sessions for Children who enter Reception in September 2016Tuesday 10th November at 9:15am

Wednesday 11th November at 1:45amThursday 12th November at 6:00pm

If your child is five between 1st September 2016 and 31st August 2017, please contact us on 0121464 6588 to attend our school open sessions and find out about Yenton Primary School.

Paget Primary School, A good school where the teach-ing is good. OFSTED, December 2012Is your child five between 1.9.16 and 31.8.17?Informal Visits for Children who enter Reception in September 2016

We run our own Breakfast Club on site from 8.00 a.m. each day and work with a local provider for after school pro-vision until 6.00 p.m. Pupils behaviour, both in and out of lessons, is good. Pupils are polite, friendly and know how to keep safe. OF-STED, December 2012 Paget Primary School, Paget Road , Erdington, B24 0JP 0121-464 3902 Email us at [email protected] Website: www.paget.bham.sch.uk

Paget Primary School

If you would like a tour of the school and the chance to find out more in-formation then we are holding in-formal visits at various points from 2/11/15 to 12/11/15.Please contact the school of-fice on 0121 464 3902 to book an appointment.

Paget Primary School offers the fol-lowing: A Values Based curriculum and ethos. . A Paget Curriculum Guarantee, set-ting out the experiences your child will receive as a minimum during their time at Paget .Free after school and lunchtime clubs to involve children in the enjoyment of

a range of activities. Free, whole class music lessons for Years Three and Four, giving every child the opportunity to learn a musi-cal instrument. Children who make good progress in the Early Years Foundation Stage as a result of good teaching and well-focused support.


Greenwood Academys per-forming arts team has won the Columba Trophy for dramatic productions the FOURTH successive year.Schools across Birmingham compete annually for the Columba Trophy. Greenwoods pupils and staff were presented with their award at Birmingham Council House for their production of Grease last November.

The team that just keeps on winning

Greenwood celebrate fourth successive Columba Trophy

Weve been in all of the winning productions

Pupils Amy Whitehouse (left) and Mia Shuttleworth have been in all four of the Columba-winning productions. So have the production team Trevor Evans (centre), Ash-ley Edwards (left), and Julie Edwards (right).

Which of the four produc-tions was the best to be involved in...?Mia and Amy both agree, It was Hairspray. Why?Because it was so full of energy, says Mia.

Greenwood (and Castle Vale Schools) winning run:

2014: Grease2013: Hairspray2012: High School Musical2011: Fame

Castle Vale-based Big Brum Theatre in Educa-tion Company are per-forming their latest play at the mac arts centre on Tuesday November 17th at 7.30pm, writes Matt Hines. The play, Barefaced has been tour-ing into schools since September, and the event at the mac is a rare opportunity to see this compelling new work in a public setting.Written by Chris Cooper, Barefaced tells the story of a bored and lonely teenager who is drawn into a web of criminality, high level corruption and sexual exploitation. The play has been written in the 25th anniversary of the United Nations adoption of the convention of the Rights of the Child, and reflects a number of re-cent and historic high-profile cases of powerful adults systematically

abusing children and young people. Big Brum have employed two new young actors to play the main roles of Lily and Shannon. They are Rose-anna Baggott and Gina George, who are both graduates of the Birming-ham School of Acting. They join regular Big Brum actors Richard Hol-mes and Danny OGrady. The play is directed by renowned Hungarian

Theatre director Adam Bethlanfalvy and has been funded by Arts Council England.Whilst the story involves the groom-ing and exploitation of young peo-ple by adults in powerful positons, at the centre of Barefaced are deep questions about how young people can own their own lives and take control in a society that can fail to protect the most vulnerable. In schools we perform the play and run workshops with young people that offers them a safe space to discuss and respond to the questions and dilemmas posed by the dramaTickets are 12 adult and 8 for concessions and for groups of 10 or more young people there are discounts available. Tickets can be booked via the mac Birmingham website:- http://macbirmingham.co.uk/event/barefaced/ or ring the Big Brum office on 0121 464 4604. The play is suitable for adults & chil-dren aged 12+. If you are interested in booking Barefaced for your school, please contact Matt at Big Brum on 0121 464 4604 or email: [email protected]

Barefaced, by Big Brum

Richard Holmes plays Stand-ing in Big Brums new play Barefaced

Gina George plays Lily in Big Brums new play Barefaced

The names of eleven former Castle Vale stalwarts were announced at last weeks Castle Vale Awards Cer-emony for the Last Leaf sculpture.The metal sculpture will be set up near the Housing

Association building in the High Street. It will be a memorial, shaped like a small tree, with each leaf engraved with the name of someone who made a significant contribution to the development of Castle Vale during their lifetime.

The eleven names so far are:George HadleyEarle LargieCarole RaffertyEric ShawBrenda BramwellJoan LawrieIvan LyndPaul BrockingtonBob ElliotStan AustinLord (Robin) Corbett

In memoriam: Castle Vales team of heroes


The new installation of a trapeze in the Early Years Foundation Stage at Gunt-er Primary school is prov-ing extremely popular with all the children, says head-teacher Lucy Riley.Not only does it develop childrens physical strength and flexibility (one of the Prime Areas of learning in the Cur-riculum), it also develops the muscles needed for writing. Movement plays a central role in learning to write. Until basic whole body movements have been mas-tered, the brain is unable to transfer these actions into the fine motor skills required for writing, according to ex-pert R. A. Oussoren, author of Write Dance.If you would like your child to come and join in the learning and fun at Gunter Nursery, we still have a few part and full time places available. Contact the school office on 464-2367, or email [email protected] for further details.

Model railway exhibitionBirmingham Model Railway Club are holding their annual exhibition on Saturday 31st October at Arden Hall in Water Orton. The club who are based on Castle Vale in Farnborough Rd have 16 guest lay-outs in gauges N OO and O plus trade stalls. The doors open at 10.0am and close at 4.30pm , entry is 4 adults, 2 children with a family ticket (2+2) at 10. Refreshments will be available all day. A Thomas layout will give children the chance to drive a train. There is a large free car park and buses 70, 71, 72, 94, 966 all pass nearby.

Trapezey does it

Grand boost for air-cadets from Jaguar

Jaguar workers have do-nated 1,000 to Castle Bromwich Air Cadets. The generous gesture was made after a series of meetings arranged by Pa-blo Mason, the squadrons former civilian Committee Chairman.Flight Lieutenant Simon Jen-nings, OC 165 Squadron, said: We have supported many events at the factory over the years, particularly In relation to anni-versary events. There are many pictures of the cadets along with Alex Henshaw, the former Chief Test Pilot in the Squadrons ar-chive. Pablos meetings went very well and on what turned out to be his last night as our Chairman, he brought a cheque for 1,000 to us. This had been do-

nated by the employees of JLR and comes from their employee charity fund. I would firstly like to thank Pablo for arranging the meetings with the JLR board and for all his hard work in de-veloping our relationship with JLR. The Squadron recognises its unique history and all our cadets are taught about the history of the factory, and the Spitfire, through our induction programme. I would also like to thank April Wick-ens, Community Relations Officer for JLR, for the hard work that she has done in helping us secure the dona-tion. We will spend the money wisely, I am particularly looking at enhancing the Squadrons presentation facilities and Im sure that this money will help us in that effort. Finally, I would like to thank the employees of JLR for this kind donation.

Air cadets with the cheque fro 1,000 from Jaguar

Over 100 new homes are to be built on the site of the former Cincinnati UK headquarters on Kings-bury Road, if planning per-mission goes ahead. Gallifords have submitted a planning application to the city council, proposing that existing buildings are demolished to make way for 101 new residential homes, with landscaping.A total of 52 homes would be for open market sale under the Linden Homes brand with the remaining 49 being af-fordable rented homes developed for Accord Housing Group.The factory buildings on the 6.26 acre site were finished in 1957 and used for the production of machine tools, but the factory closed down eight years ago, after which it was bought by property developers Urban Splash.According to the planning application, much of the site is in poor condition and has been heavily vandalized since it was vacated in 2007, meaning that

redevelopment is strongly supported by both policy and the local commu-nity.It is understood that public consulta-tion on the scheme did not reveal any strong attachment to the buildings in the local community, says the appli-cation.The planners claim that the new de-velopment will enhance the local ca-nal. The buildings contain some features of historical and artistic importance, including art deco and modernist styles, though the presence of asbes-tos has hampered the survey of the interior.The public consultation period for the planning application ends on 15th Oc-tober.The building of homes on derelict brownfield sites is welcomed by envi-ronmentalists as a better option than building on greenfield and green belt land. But not everyone is happy with the plans. Residents in nearby homes say that the new homes will create traffic problems around their roads. They hope to launch an objection at Novembers Council planning meeting.

101 homes for Cincinnati


Captain Henry Morgan (1635 1688) along with his privateers expanded Britains empire in the West Indies,.whilst terrorizing the Spanish.Morgan ( unlike other privateers) conducted his military operations primarily on land. Without detailed maps, Morgan marched his sea dogs long dis-tances through seemingly im-

penetrable jungles and swamps to avoid de-tection, and ambush Spanish settlements, for gold and riches, as the celebrated at-tacks on Puerto-de-Principe, and Pan-ama in 1668, and 1671, respectively.A prosperous man Morgan was knighted and became Governor of Jamaica. Due to excessive al-cohol consumption, Morgan died of cirrhosis of the liver with swollen limbs.

Ironically his portrait ap-pears on a well known rum

label.

Henry Morgans BuccaneersThe rum soldier who was knighted for thieving

KAYS HISTORYA monthly series of ancient facts by local history enthusiast Kay Hunter who lectures on his subject in Birmingham and West Bromwich. Kay also broadcasts on 107.5 Switch Radio

Hero, robber, murderer? Captain Morgan was knighted, died an alco-holic, and has a brand of rum named after him

Youngsters from Gunter School have been donat-ing food to the Erdington Elim Church food bank for distribution to local fami-lies in need. Headteacher Lucy Riley says: The pupils collected tinned and packet goods of all kinds, then the school council delivered the goodies to Re-vered Eddie Lawrence at the church. The items were very gratefully re-ceived, and Reverend Eddie said This is a perfect example of the brilliant partnership between Gunter Primary School and the church - thank you to all pupils and parents who donated. You can be sure the food is going to a

very worthwhile cause.Collections will be on going through-out the year at Elim Church, so all donations will be gracefully received.

Where My Heart Is will see Wings, La Rochette, Cen-tre Stage and other groups tell a rags to riches story in an ambitious hour long outdoor production tak-ing place in Centre Park on 23rd & 24th October. With a cast of over 100 residents, the show is using performance techniques usually seen in the big outdoor events held by the professional arts compa-nies who perform in the city centre.Its been an ambitious project as we wanted to make sure that all the ideas and people supported would last long-er than the funding weve secured this year. This has seen all our butterflies work with mentors to develop business and delivery skills. That way we hope that those supported will not only be able to continue to run the new groups for Castle Vale but will be able to earn a living as artists on and off the estate. Performances are taking place 6.30pm on Friday 23rd October and 1.30pm and 6.30pm on Saturday 24th Oc-tober. Entrance to the event is just 1 with proceeds going back into the groups.

2015 has been the year of The Butterfly Effect for Active Arts, made possible after people voted for the project in The Peoples Millions last November to help bring 50,000 to Castle Vale.Since the giant cheque was seen handed over on ITVs Central News, the project started to gather momen-tum, with much activity taking place over the last 5 months. The money was to help see new ac-tivity happening on the estate and to recruit new volunteers leading and participating.The Butterfly Effect has provided ad-vice and support to a number of peo-ple that has seen: the creation of a new intergenerational performing arts group Wings; a new social singing group Music Down Your Way for older residents; test workshops for a new auditioned choir starting November; support of La Rochette Academy of Dance; development of Centre Stage; establishing a combat drama group Hard Arts; professional photography advice for The Happy Snappers with a new Digital Arts project at the Digital Hub; and support of events on the es-tate including The Vale Challenge and the Castle Vale Community Awards with new Vale Maker volunteers in-volved.To celebrate these achievements and providing an opportunity for the public to see what has been going on behind the scenes, many of the groups have come together to stage a new play written especially for the project.

EXPECT THE SPECTACULAR Drama event set for Centre

Park 23rd/24th Octoberby Claire MarshallActive Arts

Its 9.30am on Monday morning. A UFO has crash-landed on the playground of Pegasus School in Castle Vale.The emergency fire alarm goes off Teachers hurry children along corri-dors and out of the fire exit doors. They huddle round a hole, a small crater in the tarmac. The children stare at the heap of burning metal. The scene has been hurriedly cordoned off with hazard tape.Is it real?The dramatic scene is the work of Year 4 teacher Katie Price. She and her colleagues have staged the su-pernatural event to stimulate an ex-citing project. Smokeless logs, old cooking pans, sil-ver and metal paint, and a few hours after school on the Friday before, have furnished the scene.For the next week, or more, children will talk, discuss, measure, analyse and research the topic.Its part of Pegasus Provocation Week - an imaginative and exciting tactic for stimulating childrens learning.The Pegasus teachers are full of en-thusiasm about the Provocation Pro-jects, and the learning opportunities they provide.The theory behind the projects has been carefully considered; the UFO event is a provocation - an event that will strike the imagination of the children, and get them thinking, asking questions, and looking for an-swers.Children might take part in a con-science alley ... a what? Its two lines of children, with a gap down the middle. One child has to make a decision about a topic. So, for example, if there is an alien on board the space craft, should he be allowed to go free? The child walks down the conscience

alley, and turns to each person in the line. Each one, in turn, gives him their opinion on the subject. By the time the child reaches the end of the line, he will have heard a range of opinions. Now its his turn to make up his mind.... There are plenty of other activities lined up, in maths, science, English, and other subjects, all based on the UFO provocation. Year 5 will study outer space - a big topic in their science curriculum. Younger pupils will write diary entries as part of their Pupil Voice and Emo-tional Literacy. Its a well crafted cur-riculum, and a fascinating prospect.

Later in the year, Katie and her team are planning a project around pirates. The provocation might be a message in a bottle. The tasks in each project help chil-dren to reach mastery... another new word. When a child understands a subject so well that he has mas-tered it. This is part of a creative curriculum designed by a teaching team that thinks outside the box. It is making Pegasus School into a very exciting place for children.

UFO crash lands into school playground

Gunter pupils collect for church foodbank

Kate Price (centre) with Pegasus colleagues Jessica Farrow and Jade Carter


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As green spaces shrink, its time for the Community En-vironment Trust to think big, says Sarah Oulaghan.

How could the Community En-vironmental Trust (CET) relay their protect, promote and enhance green open spaces message to the community of Castle Vale, which has and will be seeing these spaces dimin-ish think BIG! For the 2015-2016 academic year we are delivering our Forest School programme to eleven primary schools and a nursery school, which is a stag-gering 25 sessions per week; 11 of which are right here on Castle Vale. Forest School is an innovative and inspirational

experience, which uses the natural environment as a learn-

ing tool to develop childrens emotional, personal and social skills, as well as showing them how to access and appreciate it responsibly. By reaching out to the younger generation we are hopefully shaping our future selves to be more positive, suc-cessful and healthier, and that green open spaces will not be a thing of the past. CET are also supporting Castle Vales Environmental Month (October) Campaign alongside the Neighbourhood Partnership Board and other local organi-sations to create awareness and encourage community en-gagement to actively improve highlighted areas; we want residents to be proud of where they live, but this also involves them taking some of the onus onto themselves. Activities CET will be supporting are a tidy up of the Conservation

Area, tackling the dog fouling in and around the Conservation

Area and a bike ride around the wagtail route in Halloween fancy dress! With the Greenwood Academy new build just around the cor-ner its more important than ever to protect and embrace what will remain of our green open spaces; CET will be join-ing forces with the recently established Friends of Farn-borough Fields group (areas include Castle Vale Allotments, Conservation Area and Farn-borough playing fields) to apply procedures that restrict further development upon these sites. CET is and will be busy over the upcoming months but we wouldnt want it any other way, as summer finally relents to autumn and the leaves fall and slowly decompose into the ground, we on the other hand are continuing to grow.

Green space will go if we do not protect it

Youngsters at Topcliffe School enjoy the autumn leaves

Friday 25th September 2015 was National Macmillan Charity Coffee Morning and Castle Pool Partnership couldnt miss the opportunity to get its friends from WMFS along to collect their hard earned funds.They made sure their pockets were full of raffle tickets and bought lots of coffee, tea and cakes led by Peggy Reid, before heading back to their real jobs that of helping to save lives.Remember you can support your pool by swimming each Saturday between 1 and 3pm and Sundays be-tween 10am and 1pm. Why not come along and have a cup of coffee or simply a chat?

ANOTHER DAY IN THE LIFE OF A CASTLE POOL VOLUNTEER IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

WEST MIDLANDS FIRE SERVICE FUND RAISERS

Gary Taylor, Juliet Malone, Lynda Clinton, Steve Vincent and Arron Lennon

Castle Vale TRAANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Saturday 7th November11am-12 noon

Spifire HouseCastle Vale High Street

All local residents welcomeRefreshments provided


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Compass Support in partnership with Castle Vale Tenants and Residents Alliance A new and exciting opportunity We are seeking two coaches to be part of an exciting new partnership between Compass Support and Castle Vale Tenants and Residence Alliance. You will support the delivery of an innovative new programme to improve the overall health and wellbeing of people, enabling access to employment opportunities. Coach (Health related employability) x 2 posts part time, 20 hours 12 month Fixed term contract Salary Grade 4 20,953 - 23,543 pro- rata - per annum, As an experienced practitioner you will use coaching methods to motivate and support individuals to overcome personal barriers through exploration of needs, motivations and thought processes. This builds upon our core activities of health and well-being, employment and welfare advice to provide new solutions, working with a range of stakeholders to maximise outcomes for service users. The successful candidates will:

- Deliver a high quality coaching service, by providing coaching sessions to individuals within a community setting to address common themes.

- Experience of working with a wide range of people with differing needs and aspirations - Be experienced in developing personal competencies to improve resilience and

independence of service users - Have the ability to understand and react to the needs of service users with sensitivity - Have excellent planning and organisation skills - Be accredited with a coaching / mentoring qualification - Have experience of maintaining positive working relationships with a range of groups

including internal teams, statutory, voluntary sector organisations -

This role requires flexibility to work outside of normal office hours therefore a flexible approach to working hours is essential.

For an informal discussion please contact Lisa Martinali Community Regeneration Director On 0121 748 8111

Closing date for receipt of applications is Monday 26th October 2015 at 12noon.

Interviews will be on held on 11th & 12th November 2015.

Further information and application packs are available to download from our website at www.pioneergroup.org.uk, Alternatively contact Human Resources at The Pioneer

Group 11 High Street, Castle Vale, Birmingham B35 7PR

No CVs or agencies please

STYLERS HAIR SALON (ERDINGTON) Vacancies available for full time and part time positions. We are specialists in braiding, weaving, canerows and loads more.Hence we are looking for individuals who are experienced, quick, confident and bubbly to join our team.Pay rates are competitive and hours are flexible. Call Stylers Hair Salon0783 253 0789 or 0121 386 4385

GENERAL MANAGER CASTLE POOL LEISURE CENTRESalary up to 26,000If you:Have a proven record of management experience within a sporting and leisure related industryAre passionate about customer Service Have a history in driving sales and co-ordinating activityIdeally have experience as a general manager overseeing all business areas within a leisure facilityThen you may wish to know more about the role and benefits associated with the post. For more information please call or text 07727 923 071 no later than Friday 30th October 2015


LOCAL DEMOCRACY PAGEYour councillors, campaigners and candidates

In this fallen world, I suspect we will never achieve perfection. But that wont stop me trying. Michael Gove MP

If your child or grandchild is receiving a free, hot meal at school this lunch-time, beware - George Os-borne plans to steal it. The free meals scheme is reportedly under threat because of the Chancel-lors expenditure review under which government departments must cut spending by 40%. I am appalled by this and I hope you are too. I am calling on government to make clear that free school meals for infants will not be axed as part of further austerity measures. Free school meals for infants were introduced under the Coalition. The Liberal Democrats made sure that young schoolchildren got a nourishing lunch for a healthy start in life. That George Osborne is now behind cuts which could take away their meals is truly shocking. Margaret Thatcher got

the nickname milk snatcher when she removed free milk from school-children but axing free school lunches is much more shortsighted, as schools have spent money installing facilities to provide them.I believe all children should have a cooked meal at lunchtime. Many who benefit from the free meals scheme wouldnt otherwise get one and scrap-ping them could cost affected parents up to 400 a year. I urge everyone to support an online petition created to oppose these cuts at: https://www.change.org/p/government-keep-free-school-meals-in-infant-schools

As summer ends like many councillors I am waiting for the governments au-tumn spending review to see what lies ahead for councils, but I am already worried for the future of many local people. Cuts to welfare were expected but the government chose the wrong tar-get in families and the working poor.

No one believes that the benefit sys-tem should support a lifestyle but the changes to tax credits breaks the link between work that pays well and encouraging people to work.

The budget made it clear that things wont be getting easier for councils such as ours, and having lost nearly half the funding we had in 2009, I worry about how we can continue to fund vital services for young children and older people. But I also fear for the future of our young people. Brum has one of the largest percent-ages of people aged under 25 of all of the major cities, and the changes to tax credits and housing benefits and the fact that they are not eligible for the new living wage will all hit them hard.The test of a developed country is how it distributes its wealth, and Bir-minghams people and local govern-ment, need an alternative position on austerity and the future of vital local services.

Councillor Mick BrownTyburn Ward Labour

Recently West Midlands Police working with the Police and Crime Commissioner have an-nounced they will close Castle Vale Police Station.

The announcement comes at a time they are spending 33 million on re-furbishing Lloyd House in Birmingham and when their own accounts show a 7.1 million surplus last year. These proposals do not make sense, and I will be fighting them tooth and nail.

I have set up a petition which local people can sign online (http://www.erdingtonconservatives.org.uk/news/popular-local-campaigner-lead-fight-against-closure-plans), and paper versions will also be available.The announcement comes at a time that the usable reserves from the 2014-15 Police Annual accounts are 179,390,000 ie over 179 Mil-lion. Of those reserves 38,357,000 is the budget reserve and a further 25,492,000 is the Budget Resilience Reserve. West Midlands Police has also recently been criticised for pay-

ing over 5 times the amount as other forces on their equipment. Data pub-lished by the Government for the first time showed the West Midlands force paid 16.48 each for belts - while other forces bought them for as little as 3.30.Castle Vales police station is an im-portant local service which many peo-ple rely on. West Midlands Police need to spend their money more effectively to provide a proper neighbourhood policing service which people can rely and trust in.

Over the last month I have been working with local cam-paigner Clifton Welch on two key battles for residents of Pype Hayes. Firstly we worked with the local Coun-cil and Police to help evict travellers from Pype Hayes Park after they used the building compound for the road works to gain access to the park. Thankfully they were moved on quick-ly. We are now pushing for the mess left behind to be cleared up and the park restored asap.Secondly over the last six weeks we have been discussing the possible re-turn of the Fireworks event to Pype Hayes Park with the City Council, this time paid for by the funfair operator Wilsons. The Council was considering a request for it to go ahead without the parking restrictions that protect

residents across Pype Hayes, enabling them to still park near their homes. We had been holding meetings with the Council and made it quite clear that we were demanding the parking restrictions go ahead as normal. We have also collected a large petition demanding the Council keep the park-ing restrictions in place. In the end the Council and Wilsons have decided to not hold an event this year. They are continuing to discuss holding an event in 2016 and we will keep the pressure up for the parking restrictions and enforcement to remain in place if the event does go ahead in 2016.

As the newly elected chairman of the Sutton Coldfield, Erdington and Perry Barr Branch of UKIP, I want to tell you about our activities in your area.On Sunday 11th October we joined the protest against the proposed de-velopment of 6,500 new homes on Green Belt land in Walmley. This plan would place huge demands

on local services and we all know how congested our roads are, just imagine the daily journey along Tyburn Road, Chester Road, Kingsbury Road or the Fort Parkway with thousands of extra

commuters traveling in and out of the city at peak times. The development has no new school, shops or Health Centre; our existing facilities will be stretched to breaking point.UKIP supports the introduction of a Town Council for Sutton Coldfield, and we are gearing up for the local Council elections in May 2016; build-ing on the fantastic support you gave us earlier this year.Our EU referendum campaign, SAY NO to the EU, includes public de-bates, street canvassing, leafleting and monthly meetings at the Plough and Harrow in Sutton Coldfield. Everyone is welcome; come along and join the ONLY party that BELIEVES in BRITAIN. Full details are available on-line at www.scukip.org

NEWS FROM PYPE HAYESTravellers evicted from Pype Hayes Park and Fireworks night update

by Robert AldenConservative campaigner and

Erdington Councillor

Despite hard hitting Gov-ernment cuts, West Mid-lands Fire Service con-tinues to strive to make vulnerable people of all ages safer.From November 2015 the whole picture when entering someones home will have a greater empha-sis including isolation, mental health, smoking, slips, trips and falls together with heating and general wellbeing.

WMFS has been carrying out around 27,000 home safety checks a year and it is the experiences gained that has brought about this new venture.Where the Government considers sta-tistics about fires as being important, we on the Fire Authority think PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN CURE.During the home visits, it is no longer advised to use a tea towel to try and put out a chip pan fire. You are now advised to shut the door and get out. This change of view is based on injury figures.To fully utilise standard fire engines we now have Business Service Vehi-cles which help to combat bogus calls. There were 6,000 over the past three years which could have resulted in fa-talities due to wasting time. So please let your children know the serious consequences of making hoax calls.

Councillor Lynda ClintonTyburn Ward Labour

From home safety checks to safe and well visits: making every contact count

Autumn Spending Spree

Protect free school meals

Ann HoltomLib Dem Campaigner

Do not build homes on green belt

Andrew GarcarzChairman of UKIP Sutton Coldfield

& Erdington

Keep police station open

Clifton WelchConservative campaigner

Tyburn Mail online

Have your say in the readers

comments section

tyburnmail.com


Paralympian gold medallist Mickey Bushell shared his inspiring story with Greenwood Academy pupils this month. Mickey brought along the gold medal he won in Lon-don 2012 for the 100m T53 wheelchair event, says Greenwoods Garry Flatres. The opportunity to host Mickey came from Green-woods close partnership with the international law firm Pinsent Masons who are one of Mickeys spon-sors. Mickey told the youngsters how he had overcome the barriers from him being di-agnosed by the medics at birth as to being unlikely to have little, if any, mobility.He proved them wrong and achieved his dream of rep-resenting Team GB, winning the gold medal, and being honoured with an MBE for his Services to Sport.After a silver medal in Bei-jing in 2008, Mickey was

determined to go one better than that, and described that 4 further years of hard train-ing culminated in just 14

seconds ( the time he took to win the final in London 2012)

Gold medal Mickey is a real inspiration

Mickey displaying his Gold Medal in front of a selection of students and Miss Yates, PE teacher at Greenwood

CASTLE VALE AWARDSThe winners

So good they won twice: James O Hare and Amy Caddick,won one award for Young Enter-prise and another for Arts and Creativity. Their thriving performing arts organisation, Wings, was set up less than three months ago. It also includes Ben OHare.

The winners of the Castle Vale Community Awards 2015 organised by Active Arts were:Aaron Moroney: Young Person AwardWings James OHare, Amy Caddick, Ben OHare: Arts and Creativity AwardCastle Vale Pool User

Group: Volunteer of the Year AwardSheila Hyland: Valued Contribution AwardJames O Hare, Amy Cad-dick, Ben O Hare (Wings): Apprentice/Young Enterprise AwardKick Start Academy: Sports and Fitness Award

John Deeble: Unsung Hero Award

Additional awards were made to:John Mole (Councillors Award)Pat and Tony Romano: Long Standing Service Award


The back page

Next Issue of Tyburn Mail: 18th November 2015

Tyburn Mail is online and updated daily at: tyburnmail.com

The 2015/16 primary schools district football season couldnt have started any better for the pupils of Erdington and Salt-ley, says team manager Philip Hyland.The youngsters have won Birming-ham Primary Schools FA six- a-side Championship for the second time in three seasons.They beat Sutton Coldfield 3-0 in the final, having beaten teams from Aston

and East Birmingham in the earlier rounds.Over the August bank holiday week-

end Erdington and Saltley travelled to Bath to take part in the Bath Interna-tional Cup which was organised by the Premier League and consisted of pro-fessional clubs from around Europe. During day one the boys competed admirably against Everton and Chel-sea, as well as Rayo Vallecano from Spain and B93 from Denmark. However it was day two when the boys truly came alive when they beat teams from Sweden, Denmark, Esto-nia and Lithuania to lift the Bath In-ternational Cup. The winning goals in the final were scored by Rio and Samim who are both pupils at Birches Green Junior School.The boys now continue with their sea-son and competing against districts from around the country.

Success for Erdington

youngsters

Rio Grant, Birches Green Junior Medals for pole girls

Local girls Karen Gaunt and Laura Leather won runners-up medals at the UK Pole Doubles Championships held at the Crescent Theatre in Birming-

ham. Karen and her business partner Gail Robinson run the Danse Vivante Pole Dancing Studio on Castle Vale Enterprise Park.

Erdington Court Bowls Club con-tinued their 90th anniversary celebrations - hosting a match at their indoor arena against a War-wickshire mens team.Warwickshire won the closely fought match by only 7 shots - after 3 out of the four rinks were drawn. The result was 64:71 after a 21 end match last-ing nearly 3 hours.This ended a week during which 4 players from Erdington Court played for Warwickshire for the first time - against Reading. Despite losing by 125 to 114 they were far from down-hearted. Antony Gould who led the team said, It was a great honour for us to be representing Warwickshire and it is a sign of the resurgence at the Club, that we were able to field a brand new team.Antony was elected Secretary of the Warwickshire Indoor Bowls Associa-tion a few months ago - a further sign of the key role that Erdington Court is looking to play regionally and nation-ally.

Most bookmakers dropped their odds on Birmingham getting pro-motion from 10/1 down to 9/1 after the Blues terrific win over QPR last weekend.Blues are surely worth a bet.Manager Gary Rowett is doing a superb job at St Andrews, and if he can keep his squad together, even during the pressure period of the January transfer window, he will have a fighting chance of making the play-offs.Will Villa going down? The odds are 4/6, and Tim Sherwood is the favourite to be the next Premier League manager for the sack.Only Sunderland are more likely to get relegated, apparently. And now the Black Cats have a dogged new man-ager in Sam Allardyce, they may stand a chance of survival.Villa have been teetering on the brink of relegation doom for three seasons. Many national journalists who watch them home and away, week in, week out, think that this year, Villa will go down.For what its worth, I disagree. Villa have the talent to stay up. If the manager picks the right eleven starters, Villa should survive.

Narrow defeat for Erdington in bowls epic

Blues can join Villa in Prem

Newly promoted Castle Vale Concorde are having a tough time in the Pre-mier Division of the Festi-val League. Concorde play their home fixtures at Holly Lane Sports and Social Club.

They jumped up two divisions after last seasons brilliant table-topping performance. But life in the premier divsiion is not so easy. Concorde have lost three of their opening four league matches, and were thrashed 5-0 by league leaders

Harborne Harriers last weekend.Their sister club Concorde Utd play their home fixtures at Castle Vale Sta-dium.They have stayed put in the third tier, and are currently in second place. They beat Scott Arms Rangers 5-2 at the weekend, and have now won three of their opening four league fix-tures.That was Concordes second victory over Scott Arms in seven days. The previous weekend, they beat Scott Arms 6-3 in a cup fixture at Vale Sta-dium.Free-scoring Concordes biggest vic-tory of the season so far came at the end of September, with a 7-3 win over Athletico Villa.

SUNDAY LEAGUE FOOTBALLConcorde finding it tough at the top

ODells Community Pride Am-ateur Boxing Club is enjoying success with their local talent.

They took five of their club boxers from Bromford over to Ireland to face challenges

from a Dundalk Select Team. All five of the ODell team won their bouts.The club was set up two years ago by husband and wife team Tina and Craige ODell after support from the West Midlands Police Safe Haven Team. Tina says: Our boxers deserve some recognition for all the hard work they have put in.

Ireland success for ODells boxers

Chelmsley Town, the club where Watford Premier League striker Troy Deeney started his career, beat Pa-get Rangers 3-0 last week-end. It was Pagets second successive league defeat and they now lie just three places off the bottom of division two of the Midland League. But Paget have at least two games in hand on most other teams in the divi-sion.Paget have won just two of their seven league fixtures this season.They have a difficult away fixture at fourth placed Droitwich next weekend.

Paget defeats

MAGNIFICENT SEVENKelly Greenshields, Russell Andrews, Stacy Sheekey, Lee Crofts, Scott Welburn, Nicola Guest and Ryan Hinett all completed the Great Birmingham Half Marathon Run last weekend to raise money for John Taylor Hospice

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