late news - Police and Crime Briefing

Police and Crime Commissioner Election	Don't forget that the PCC election takes place on 15th November.
	This is our opportunity to have a say in some aspects of West Midlands policing. .
LOCAL MEETING	There is to be a public meeting on Monday 29th October 2012 8:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. St Germain's Church Hall This will be an opportunity in the NWENF area to hear more about the issues involved. Come and learn why this election is important. NOTE - This is not a NWENF event. This is a public information notice advertising the event for your benefit.

Newsletter

NEWSLETTER	The latest NWENF Newsletter published October 2012 is now available from the following links..
LINKS	See the Newsletter here.
Copyright	Please note that the information contained in the Newsletter is mainly public information etc., and thus the information content is placed in the public domain. However all photographs, images, logos, and the artwork of this newsletter should be assumed to be copyright, and should not be copied without permission.  Permitted use is for private reading (including one printed copy) or with video projector or equivalent to a group.  Under no circumstances should any part of this newsletter be distributed for sale whether or not this distribution makes a profit or loss.

U3A meeting

LOCAL BRANCH PROPOSED
LAUNCH MEETING	Come and get involved to help set up a new branch of the U3A.
DATE and TIME	Thursday 22nd November 2012 2 p.m..
VENUE	Portland Pavilion Portland Road,  B17 8LS
NOTE	The U3A is independent of the NWENF. NWENF is helping publicise this launch meeting, to help local residents.

Public Meeting 3rd November

PUBLIC MEETING	The next Public Meeting will be at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday 3rd November 2012.
VENUE	St Germain's Church Hall City Road.
TOPICS	Street Associations We have some street associations in our area, and we hope the Wadhurst Road association will be able to tell us about their experience.  Martin Graham from U-Turn UK will also be with us to answer your questions. Green Deal In association with Groundwork West Midlands, the Council is looking for homes to have an energy audit. George Dixon Schools We expect to have Mr. Zaman from the George Dixon Academy to bring us an update on the building programme. Consultation There will be a summary of the results from the Survey.

Consulation closed

SURVEY CLOSED	The Community Consultation  closed at the end of September.
REPORT	The report is now being written, and will be published as soon as possible.
THANK YOU	Thank you to all who took part.  The response rate, as a perventage of households in our area, has been good for this type of consultation.
THANK  YOU IF YOU HAVE VOLUNTEERED TO HELP NWENF	During the survey, a number of people offered to help NWENF with the various tasks involved in supporting you. For example, some have offered to help with distributing the Newsletter.  This is very welcome, as it gets the newsletter out more efficiently.  Thank you.

Consultation now available

SURVEY CLOSED	The Community Consultation  closed at the end of September. The report is now being written, and will be published as soon as possible.
LAUNCH NEWS	The Community Consultation  is now available from 15 May 2012.
LINK	Click here to take the survey (Simple click to go to the survey in this tab, or CTRL-click to open new tab in Firefox.)
TIME	This will be available for only 2 months to allow time to present a report in the autumn.
GENERAL	The survey has a number of sections.   These are spread over 14 pages with a mix of very fast tick-box options and space for you to write as much or as little as you want to.   The survey finishes with some "personal profile" questions - this information is confidential and anonymous - just to make sure that the mix of people taking part represents the mix of people who live in our area.  This is important since we want the Council to take note of what you have to say.

NWENF Community Consultation

LAUNCH NEWS	The Community Consultation is about to "go live". We are producing the final version of the questionnaire, which has been reviewed by various people to make sure that the final wording is as good as possible.
TAKING PART	Remember that there are several ways to respond. *  You can e-mail nwenfcommittee@gmail.com and request to be notified when the on-line version is available. *  You can visit this blog site in a week or two and look for the link to be posted. *  You can e-mail a request for someone to visit and guide you through the questionnaire on your own computer. *  You can request a paper copy of the questionnaire and the option of someone to help fill this in.
THE CONSULTATION	*  Remember that the consultation is confidential, and your replies will not be linked to you. *  The questionnaire does include a personal profile section, but the only purpose of this is to make sure that the survey truly represents the whole neighbourhood. *  This survey is important.   It is your chance to comment on the future of our neighbourhood.  It will enable the Neighbourhood Forum to represent the residents when responding to any plans affecting our area, including issues like the sale of the Portland Centre site..

Public Meeting 28th April

PUBLIC MEETING	Saturday 28th April 2012 10:30  to approx. 12:00
VENUE	Portland Pavilion 241 Portland Road
PROGRAMME	The programme will include a presentation by Lynda Scott who works for the Birmingham and Solihul NHS Cluster.  She has spoken at the Soho Ward Committee on developments in local health service provision.  She will present information on our local area, including a Power-Point presentation which was given out in printed form at a Soho Ward Committee. The rest of our time will be open to discussion of local issues. This includes an update on the pollution of the Shireland Brook, and what the "Yellow Fish" warning signs mean.

The Survey is Coming

SURVEY	The Local Assets Survey will shortly be launched, and the on-line option will be linked from this Blogspot site.
TIMETABLE	UPDATE - due to the need for further liason with local groups, the expected launch date for the survey is now to be mid-May. The Survey is expected to be available from Mid-April 2012. The Survey will then be available for about 2 months, concluding in Mid-June. The results from the various formats of the Survey will need to be brought together, and the final report will be written. It is expected that the Report will be published in October.
WHY YOU SHOULD TAKE PART	This Survey is one of our options, as local people working together, to build the case for preserving some of the local assets we still have left. Any survey is no more effective than the number of people taking part. If too few people respond, the results do not carry much authority, and it is a waste of time. We need a lot of people to respond, so that the results are well founded and will have to be taken note of.
WHO CAN TAKE PART?	Anyone who reads this blog may access the Survey on-line. However, the results are most valid if those who take part - 1. live in the area covered by NWENF; or 2. live close by in the surrounding streets; or 3. work here; or 4. have some other connection with this area. "Some other connection" may include using (or wanting to use) the sports facilities at Portland Pavilion; or Friends of Deer's Leap Wood. Our target response is our Neighbourhood Forum area, but we hope that those living south of the Dudley Road will also take part.

Introducing the NWENF blog site

INTRODUCTION	This web site has been set up using the Blogspot service so that the North West Edgbaston Neighbourhood Forum can communicate via the internet with our residents.
SURVEY	During 2012, we shall be conducting a survey of residents in West Birmingham and neighbouring areas about the open spaces in our area. When this has been prepared, we shall post a link from this blog to the on-line survey form.
GENERAL	This page functions as a "holding page" awaiting a more complete introduction.  The NWENF Committee are all volunteers, who have other jobs to do, and serve the Neighbourhood Forum in their spare time.
	If you would like to get involved, please e-mail the NWENF Committee on NWENFcommittee@gmail.com
	RJH 08 March 2012