Thursday, September 21, 2006

Section 215 notice served on former Sorrento hospital, Moseley

A section 215 notice has been served on the owner of the remaining parts of the old Sorrento hospital, Anderton Park road, Moseley. The owner now has 2 months to tidy up this eyesore property.

The notice has been served for 124 to 130 Anderton Park Road, Moseley. These are 4 huge Victorian buildings that have been empty since their closure as part of the Sorrento hospital complex in the early 1990’s. The buildings were bought and still owned by Mr Khalid Minhas, 132 Anderton Park Road, Moseley in 1999. Mr Minhas lives next door to the buildings.

The owner has allowed the buildings to crumple. At the moment there are large holes in the roof, windows smashed, graffiti covers the ground floor, large mature trees have collapsed in the front gardens and rubbish is regularly dumped in the front gardens.

The Council have tried to persuade the owner to sell the property to Registered Social Landlords, but he has refused.

The Section 215 notice forces the owner to tidy up the property, otherwise the Council will send contractors in and charge the owner.

The notice was served on the 14th September and the owner has 2 months to do the following:

Tidy up the roof, removing all loose debri and fill in the holes with either similar roof material or plywood painted black
Board up all windows and paint the boarding black
Remove all tree trunks, tree roots and debris in the front gardens
Remove all shrubs, roots, soil and other debris that obscure the front boundary wall and fence
Repair the existing stone boundary wall using similar materials
Replace the existing chain link fence with a new chain link fence
Prune all trees, bushes, shrubs and roots which are overhanging or encroaching onto Anderton Park Road – remove any debris from the site.

Councillor Mullaney has been campaigning for two years for the Council to start issuing Section 215 notices on eyesore properties in Birmingham. The Sorrento buildings are first in line of many eyesore properties in Moseley and Kings Heath that will be served with Section 215 notices in the coming year.

Friday, September 08, 2006

Forthcoming extension of the multi-material in Moseley

A map showing the extension of the doorstep multi-material collection (plastics, metals and glass) into Moseley in October 2006 can be seen at http://www.martinmullaney.co.uk/images-environment/map.pdf

The map shows that only a small chunk of Moseley will be included in this round - namely the section north of Wake Green Road and east of Alcester Road.

It is anticipated that the rest of Moseley will be covered in the next extension of the multi-material collection in April 2007. All households in the city will have the multi-material collection by April 2008.

I was hoping that all of Moseley would have been covered in the extension in October. However, this extension has been spread evenly between the Council's 4 main refuse depots and the areas covered have been dictated by their refuse rounds. Most of Moseley is covered by Lifford Lane depot.

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Highbury Park assistant ranger post in this weeks Forward newspaper

The post of Assistant Ranger for Highbury Park is being advertised in this weeks Forward newspaper.

The advert was delayed while potential candidates from the Council's re-deployment list were considered for the post.

This will be the first time Highbury Park has any form of Warden for over 20 years

Sunday, September 03, 2006

Councillor update on Planning Applications of importance in Moseley & Kings Heath Ward – Sunday 3rd September 2006

S/07195/05/FUL, 9 Boundary Drive, Moseley, Birmingham, B13 8NY - Retention of single storey side extension with alterations to roof - Awaiting Report

S/01945/06/ FUL, 141 Sandford Road, Moseley - Erection of single storey forward extension, front porch, construction of new bay and bow windows to front with canopy over.- Awaiting Report

S/01332/06/FUL, 7 Park Hill, Moseley, Birmingham, B13 8DU - Retention of boundary walls to front and side. - Awaiting Report

S/01333/06/FUL, 7a Park Hill, Moseley, Birmingham, B13 8DU - Retention of boundary walls to front and side - Awaiting Report

S/01697/06/FUL, St Mary's Row, Moseley Village Green, Moseley, Birmingham, B13 - Erection of Tolkien landmark sculpture to include 6.5m high metal "Ent" sculpture, life size statues of children, laying of resin bonded crushed glass tiles, removal of three trees and planting of four new trees - Awaiting PP/Cons Exp

S/01723/06/FUL, 18 Belle Walk, Moseley, Birmingham, B13 9DE - Erection of 1.8 metres high front boundary wall and 2 no. 2 metres high front gates - Report In Draft

S/02255/06/FUL - 582 Moseley Road, Moseley, Birmingham, B12 9AA - Use for assembly and leisure (D2) including skate boarding, BMX, climbing - internal alterations, external refurbishment, provision of parking spaces - Awaiting PP/Cons Exp

S/03058/06/FUL - 2 & 2a Addison Road, Kings Heath, B14 7EW - Demolition and proposed replacement of existing retail/warehouse premises - Approve – Conditions, Decision date - 24/08/2006

S/03870/06/FUL - 26 Goodby Road, Moseley, Birmingham, B13 8NJ - Installation of external access ramps for disabled access, dormer window to front and erection of car port - Council decision – Refuse, Decision date - 4/08/2006

S/04017/06/FUL - 123 Moor Green Lane, Pitmaston, Moseley, Birmingham, B13 8NG - Conversion of existing buildings and erection of new buildings to provide 64 one, two and three bedroom dwelling - Under consideration

S/04127/06/FUL - 121 School Road, Moseley, Birmingham, B13 9TX - Development of three one- bedroom flats. - Council decision – Refuse, Decision date - 14/08/2006

S/04169/06/CAC - 08-118 Church Road, Land rear of, Moseley, B13 9AA - Demolition of garages and erection of two 3 bedroom houses with off street parking - Under consideration

S/04236/06/LDE - 7A Park Hill, Moseley, Birmingham, B13 8DU - Certificate of lawfulness for a lorry repair workshop and park (to rear of site) and ancillary store to coach house - Under consideration

S/04507/06/FUL - 108-118 Church Road, Land rear of, Moseley, Birmingham, - Demolition of garages to form secure off street car parking - Under consideration

S/04780/06/FUL - 22 Goodby Road, Moseley, Birmingham, B13 8NJ - Erection of single storey rear extension - Under consideration

S/04933/06/FUL - 39 Forest Road, Moseley, Birmingham, B13 9DH - Demolition of existing workshop and erection of one 1-bedroom flat - Under consideration

Saturday, September 02, 2006

Moseley residents and councillor enter cannabis factory

A group of Moseley residents, with their local Councillor Martin Mullaney, this morning entered a cannabis factory - they had been complaining about the presense of this cannabis factory to the local police for the last five months.

Photographs of the interior of the house, at 53 Augusta Road, Moseley, can be seen at
http://www.martinmullaney.co.uk/cannabis.htm

The house was sold in February 2006 to Mr Mutloob Hussain of 166 Belchers Lane, Bordesley Green, Birmingham B9 5RY for £225,000.

In March, one of neighbours contacted the police saying that they thought a cannabis factory was being set-up in the house - the resident had seen other cannabis factories as part of their social services job.

In early August, Councillor Martin Mullaney was contacted by one of the residents who complained about the unkempt look of the house. Further investigation by Martin led to him contacting police on the 7th August to say that he thought a cannabis factory existed inside this property.

The following things aroused his suspicions:
The curtains were stapled shut to the window frame.
Flourescent light could be permanently seen switched on around the edges of the curtains.
The sky light was permantly left open.
The hum of an electric motor would occasionally be heard from the house.
Occasional smell of cannabis from the house
The house had Chinese-origin occupants who would only be seen leaving and entering the house at night. (Other cannabis factories have been known to be run by Chinese migrants).

Councillor Mullaney was subsequently contacted by the police who agreed that the house sounded like it was been used as a cannabis factory. However, they said they would need to do a surveillence operation first, before raiding it.

This morning, Martin was contacted by one of the neighbours who complained that there had been a fight inside the house during the night, a window smashed and the front door was left wide open. They informed Martin that they had rang the police.

An hour later, the same resident rang Martin to say a group of residents had gone inside the house and seen all the cannabis plants. The resident was upset that the police hadn't turned up.

Councillor Mullaney went straight round to the house and took the photographs shown on the website. He then phoned the police, who came round in 10 minutes.

Friday, September 01, 2006

Potential Transportation Capital Schemes for 07/08

Your local Councillors have been asked to suggest possible transportation capital scheme for consideration for the next financial year.

The list of schemes I am currently proposing are as following. Are there any other that we should look at?

- widen the railway bridge at the junction of Kings Heath High Street and Valentine Road. There is room on the southside of the bridge to do this. Widening it would remove a massive bottleneck along this High Street

- Reconstruct the pavement on Valentine Road, by raising it a few inches - the pavement is next to Kings Heath Primary School and a major pedestrian route. The pavement is less than an inch high in some places and makes pedestrians feel vulnerable.

- Reconstruct the pavement on Wake Green Road, between School Road and Lenches Close, southside only. This is a major pedestrian route, with cars travelling at high speed. The pavement is less than an inch high in some places and makes pedestrians feel vulnerable.

- Resurface Moor Green Lane, between Alcester Road and Queensbridge Road

- Finish off the paving of Moseley shopping centre - priority area should be Alcester Road between Salisbury Road and the Post Office (both sides of road). The frontages in front of the shops on the west side are dangerous in places - especially in front of 137 Alcester Road. The eastside is one large puddle when it rains.

- Pave the section of York Road in front of the shops - pave to Moseley shopping centre standards. The paving in front of the shops is a mess and this row of shops is becoming quite up-market. Opportunity to introduce trees and make this road feel more attractive.