Schools issues....

It's now nearly eighteen months since Hilary died and things are beginning to happen in my life, both socially and politically - I might say not before time.
Having been a governor at Coppice School since 2006 I remained on the governing body, more to give me an outside interest than anything else, so it was with some misgivings that I agreed to take the lead on the proposed Childrens Centre on the Coppice School site.
From the outset it became clear that it would be a controversial matter to build on the open grassed area at the side of the main school building, as there is very little spare room on the school site, and there was also the issue of the loss of several mature trees to consider.
However, by judicious positioning of the building, and altering its plan shape, the architect was able to 'fit in' the necessary parking bays and access arrangements with only two of the original five trees being affected.
To have moved it any further back into the site would have meant losing all of those, plus the amenity land-take for the project would have fallen foul of national guidelines and advice from Sport England.
Sadly, despite all the work that went into the project the Planning Subcommittee members refused permission because of its impact on the street scene, and its placement forward of the extant building line of the main school building.
I should perhaps mention the reason for the Governing Body's involvement in this, which will hopefully put things into a clearer perspective.
In November 2007 the DfES rolled out an initiative for all cluster school establishments, where at least one school in every cluster would have to provide what it called "Extended Services"; essentially, these services are already with us in terms of 'before and after-school activities', but additional facilities would be brought onstream as and when required.
This has to be in place and running by July of 2012, so with that in mind the Board discussed the matter in depth, to evaluate whether an extended services regime could be incorporated into the proposed Childrens' Centre.
The board agreed that it would save a lot of time, money and disruption to local folks if the two functions were installed into one building, so it was further agreed that Coppice School would 'invest' - i.e. contribute funding from devolved capital to add a dedicated extended services room to the original specifications of the building.
All that said, the Centre is not now going to be built, which leaves the Board with another conundrum, that of how and where do we put our "dedicated Extended Services" facility?
That will be a discussion for another day, but my feeling remains that because of misplaced and misinformed opposition to the Childrens' Centre we have lost a golden opportunity to fulfil the requirements of the Extended Services regime.

Finally, I'm sorry to say that Mr. Maxfield has stepped down from the Chairmanship of the Governing Body owing to increasing family commitments - I'm sure we all wish him well and thank him for the sterling work he has done on the school's behalf; however he will remain on the board as Vice-Chairman for the foreseeable future.
The vacant Chair is now being taken by none other than Yours Truly, and I will do my level best to continue the good works achieved by my predecessor.
JB.

Six months on....

After the past six months or so, we have all begun to settle back into something resembling normality; however I think it fair to say that we are all still very bitter at losing Hilary at such a young age, and at a time when she should by rights have been enjoying the fruits of her previous efforts and endeavours.

It is becoming easier, but the process of grieving is necessarily a slow one and something that has to be tackled on a daily basis - nobody can simply 'switch off' the sense of loss we feel after 30-odd years together, it simply isn't possible.

This Christmas has been a poignant one in many respects, being the first since her passing; typically of her, she had made several arrangements as regards presents for all the family, even though she knew full well that she wouldn't be around to see them opened - such was the selflessness of Hilary and the way she tried to look after everybody.

Politically I have taken the back-road of disappearing into the undergrowth, at least for the time being, as the fire that once kept me working day and night on behalf of local residents has been redirected against the NHS system that failed Hilary so badly when she needed it most.

I am currently "negotiating" with the complaints departments at both Heart of England and Coventry & Warwicks Healthcare Trusts, with th ultimate aim of finding out what went wrong, why it went wrong and how we can prevent that sort of thing happening again.

I have to say that so far, the answers that I've been given have been highly unsatisfactory to put it mildly, having evaded the basic issue of why she was discharged from hospital on five occasions with no definitive diagnosis, and why treatment for pancreatitis was continued despite her worsening condition.
We knew that her pancreas was inflamed, and furthermore we knew what was causing the inflammation - an alleged cyst - yet nothing was done about it until it was far too late and the tumour had spread to her liver.
I don't think it unreasonable to ask the question of 'why was nothing done?'

I live in hopes that I might get a coherent answer to that question; meanwhile I' like to wish all of you a very happy New Year, and now that I'm back in circulation as it were, I hope to see you at some point in the next month or so.

JB.

Six months on....

Written 24th June 2008.

It's now a matter of history that my dear wife Hilary passed on after a short, but unequal battle against pancreatic cancer on the 26th of May, 2008, at the Marie Curie Hospice in Solihull.

Her funeral service was arranged and ably conducted by Wm. Painter & Sons at Robin Hood on the 3rd of June, which was very appropriate as that would have been her 55th birthday.

The turnout at the service was staggering; the Mayor of Solihull, Cllr David Bell led the corporate list of mourners, accompanied by eight Councillors, the CEO of the Council Mark Rogers and several senior departmental directors - their support for us as a family was deeply appreciated.

Our thanks also go out to those many friends, neighbours and associates who turned out to pay their final respects to a very special lady whose life was cut short by several years by that deadly disease.

Let us now hope that she is finally at rest, and the family and I can move on with the remainder of our lives, always mindful of her memory and presence in our hearts.

JB.

The Final Irony.....

As I sit here with the first bulletin of the post-election period, I struggle to find the words to describe how I feel inwardly, without being either unkind or derogatory to others; however despite having fought an election campaign based on plain speaking, truthfulness and honesty, it seems that the forces of spin, deceit and economies with the truth have prevailed in this case, and you now have two Liberal Democrat Councillors in Elmdon.
I have nothing against either of these ladies; other than being LibDems they seem perfectly rational, normal human beings; I do however question some of the doorstep tactics used by their canvassing crews, which openly questioned my abilities as a local Councillor and inferred that I used my wife's illness as a ploy for sympathy.
"She's ill, not dying", and "I'm sure she's not that bad" were but two of the reported responses from residents that I know personally, both of which were statements made without any knowlege of the true position.
That position is a stark one; my wife is terminally ill with cancer, and has probably less than a month to live - just how "ill" or "bad" do you have to be to qualify for these people?
That position is also the sole reason why I was unable to get round the ward to canvass your support; daily fifty-mile round trips to Walsgrave Hospital in Coventry eat into free time voraciously, with a full-time job, Council commitments and other voluntary work that I do on a weekly basis taking up the remainder.
Another issue that contributed to the result, and one that is more concerning as time goes on, is the upsurge in support for the BNP; in Elmdon they polled 609 votes, most of which came from my core vote as a right-wing stalwart and thus undermined my ability to keep the lefty Liberals out of the seat.
If those of you who did vote BNP had done some basic arithmetic, you would have seen that by casting a protest vote for them you would be letting the leftwingers in by default, with precisely the opposite effect to the one you hoped for.
A similar thing happened in Lyndon ward, where Irene Chamberlain fought Greg Goldingay for the top honours; although Greg had improved the Tory vote last year, the introduction of the BNP into the mix saw both Tory and Liberal votes drop by fifty-odd for the Tories and over two hundred for the LibDems.
The BNP vote was just over 400, which is a worrying trend, considering their policies revolve around national issues and not local ones.
For those of you who follow the numbers game, after all the dust has settled the overall position is that the Liberals have lost one and gained one, Tories have lost one and gained three, and Labour have lost another two in the forms of Hugh Hendry in Smithswood and John Kimberley in Kingshurst & Fordbridge.
Alf Hill in Chelmsley came very close to losing this time with a tiny majority, and the Greens now have their first Councillor on the force in Smithswood in place of Hughie Hendry - the times they are a'changin'!
I will miss being part of the Council, and I'll also miss being involved in the daily round of looking after my residents and those other duties that come as part and parcel of the job; however it will give me the time to reorganise my life after my wife passes on.
My heartfelt thanks to all of you who did support me and sent messages of condolences, and I promise that at some time in the future, just like Arnie --- I'll be back!

Johnny Bramham.

A Sabbaitcal.

Owing to legislation and protocols surrounding election expenses, this site will be temporarliy suspended until May 2nd.
My apologies to all of you for this inconvenience.
JB.