Words byErdington Ward Cllr Robert Alden – Leader of Birmingham Conservatives
L-R Cllr Moore, Cllr Alden – Erdington Ward, Conservatives / Pic by Ed King
Cllr Gareth Moore and myself have been working with residents to try and improve road safety in a number of areas across Erdington Ward over the last year.
As part of that work, we raised at the last Council meeting the need for a number of improvements to take place including average Speed Cameras on the Chester Road to tackle speeding drivers.
Over the last year we have had yellow lines installed at a number of locations around the ward to tackle dangerous parking at junctions to try and make them safer, including on Gravelly Lane (at the junction of Oliver and Somerset Roads) Fosseway Drive and Hayes Grove.
Following a number of serious incidents at the junction of Kingsbury Road and Spring Lane, we have had plans drawn up to make changes to the layout to try and slow the speed cars take the corner so to make it safer for residents.
These have been consulted on locally with nearby residents and earlier this year Gareth and I secured funding for them so they will be installed in the coming months.
In previous years the Council has given each ward a pot of funding for minor works road safety improvements locally to be made where residents want them.
Sadly, now the Council has axed funding from those wards which used it, while keeping it for wards that haven’t spent last year’s funding yet (mostly Labour Councillor wards). This will make it harder to keep local roads safe.
Black History Month Expo at Erdington Academy / Gary Phelps Communications
On 3 October, students, staff, and hundreds of members of the local community packed into Erdington Academy to enjoy an ambitious Expo event celebrating Black History Month – with music, food, art, and poetry.
More than 300 people flooded into the Kingsbury Road academy for an evening of cultural celebration, performances, events, and to enjoy fresh cuisine spanning a diverse range of African and Caribbean cultures.
The special Expo event created so much enthusiasm from parents, carers, and locals, staff at Erdington Academy, which is part of the Fairfax Multi Academy Trust, had to turn away dozens of people as they had already reached capacity.
Black History Month is a global programme of events and activities to celebrate the African Diaspora and Black culture, as well as to educate and inform people about Black history. It runs throughout October every year and is observed in many countries across the world, from Brazil to Britain.
Black History Month Expo at Erdington Academy / Gary Phelps Communications
Teacher of Food at Erdington Academy, Kerrian Folkes, who helped organise the school’s Black History Month Expo, supported by a committee of staff members, said: “We had a huge turnout – it was amazing to see how enthusiastic people were.
“The community wanted to see what we were doing, and it was great showing them how we embrace culture and foster a sense of belonging here at Erdington Academy.”
Staff on the academy’s Black History Month Event Committee spent September arranging the night of festivities, alongside activities which involved every faculty in the school.
Among the events were poetry writing in the English department, art inspired by Black culture in the Design and Performance faculty, cultural modelling led by Modern Foreign Languages staff, themed productions in Drama, maths competitions, and cultural food preparation in the Food faculty.
Black History Month Expo at Erdington Academy / Gary Phelps Communications
The students then displayed many of their creations and skills learned during lessons and extracurricular activities on the night of the Expo.
Stellar musical performances were delivered by the Year 7 choir, the Erdington Guitar Ensemble, the Year 8 R&B band, and Patrick Ugochukwa and Isabel Cooper – whose piano pieces moved the audience.
Students recited poetry they had written, including Isabella Budiana; and KS3 and KS4 drama students hit the stage with thought-provoking acting performances.
Then, during the interval, attendees were treated to delicious African and Caribbean foods prepared by the students themselves. The mouth-watering menu included jerk chicken, curry goat, vegetable curry, salt fish fritters, jollof rice, and dumplings.
Black History Month Expo at Erdington Academy / Gary Phelps Communications
Ms Folkes added: “Every single member of staff was involved in some way, from the Head to the support staff, hence the success we had.”
The celebration ended with brilliant final appearances by bands from across the West Midlands, which had staff, parents, and students on their feet.
Kioko took to the stage first, followed by fellow reggae band Big Ship Alliance. B’Spoke played many familiar soul and R&B classics, and Soul Town finished the night by playing until every last attendee had left.
Ms Folkes said: “The bands were brilliant. Everyone was out of their seat rocking to African, St Lucian and Jamaican music – the atmosphere was incredible.”
Black History Month Expo at Erdington Academy / Gary Phelps Communications
The Expo and the wider calendar of activities were aligned with the nationwide theme for Black History Month 2024: Black inventors.
Ms Folkes explained that showcasing potential and encouraging ambition was central to the team’s vision.
She said: “Because we’re such a multicultural school, we wanted to show all the things our students could have aspiration towards. Sometimes you would hear students doubt what they could accomplish because of their background – we wanted to show them they could achieve anything.
“The students were surprised to hear that so many everyday things we take for granted were invented by Black people – traffic lights, electric doors, dryers and electric rollercoasters seemed to particularly shock them!”
Black History Month Expo at Erdington Academy / Gary Phelps Communications
The Event Committee, consisting of staff members Ms Folkes, Gabbi Benain, Alan Daniel, Emma Deeney, Amy Love, Ian Haughton, Marcua Wheatley, Mat Broughton, Danny Francis, Natalie Charley, Carissa Bulman and Kymeish Dixon-Bookal, were thrilled with the success of the Expo.
Ms Folkes said: “As a diverse school, we wanted to show the importance of appreciating other cultures, so we made the Expo a celebratory event.
“Sometimes Black History Month can focus on the negative a little too much, teaching about slavery and racism for example. While those aspects of Black history are obviously important to remember, we didn’t want them to be our sole focus. We wanted to engage with the community and embrace our beautiful range of cultures.
“The calibre of talent on display from our staff and students really reflect our academy’s pride.”
Principal Simon Mallett added: “A huge amount of work went into our Black History [Month] Expo, which really paid off on a memorable night when we welcomed the community into the school to share the richness of our diversity.
“I would like to thank everyone who work so hard to put it together and the wider school community for embracing an event which I think inspired our students.”
PICTURE GALLERY: Black History Month Expo at Erdington Academy / Pics by Gary Phelps Communications
Questions and confusion swept across Erdington yesterday as the body of ‘a man’ was pulled from the Fazeley canal near Butlers Bridge on the Kingsbury Road, Tyburn.
As of yet unnamed, the man was pronounced dead at the scene after emergency services responded to a call at around 11am.
A spokesperson for West Midlands Ambulance Service said: “We were called at 11.08am to reports of a patient in the water on Birmingham and Fazeley Canal.
“We sent two ambulances and two paramedic officers to the scene and on arrival they found one patient, a man, it immediately became apparent that nothing could be done to save him and he was pronounced deceased at the scene.”
Local residents were alarmed as sirens and uniforms flooded the area, with police officers searching CCTV footage until the evening.
Reports came from people living in Burcote Road as emergency services descended on quiet off-shoot of the Tyburn Road, which has allows access to the Fazeley canal through a small iron gate.
Further up the canal, towards Egerton Road, residents also saw police officers searching for clues – but with no information on the man’s identity concerns grew that it could be a friend or neighbour.
A local resident who has lived on Gunter Rd since the new houses were built nearly 20 years ago, told Erdington Local:
“A friend of mine who lives on Burcote Road said they (emergency services) were outside her house at around 11am – but my son saw the police here (Egerton Road) not so long ago.
“I thought I’d come down and have a look, I might see something; I thought the family might have put some flowers down which might have a name on the card.
“I’m just wondering if it’s somebody local, from round here… we don’t even know how long he was in the canal for.
“Apparently, somebody walking their dog found him and called the ambulance and police, but we don’t know.
“We usually fish here, with the kids; we’re only on Gunter Road. Quite a few people have drowned in here… It makes you wonder if it’s anyone you know, being so close.”
Staff at the nearby KFC restaurant on Kingsbury Road also confirmed to Erdington Local: “They (the police) were looking for CCTV cameras to see if they (the deceased) crossed the car park to get to the canal.”
Birmingham’s canals have been marred with mystery before, such as when the body of an unknown middle aged man was found by factory workers near the Tyburn Road in November 2010.
Seven years after the grim discovery West Midlands Police launched an appeal for information as the man was still unidentified nearly a decade later.
Earlier today, West Midlands Police made the following statement about the body pulled from the canal by Butlers Bridge:
“Yesterday (14 July), we received a 999 call reporting a body in the canal at Kingsbury Road, Erdington. A man was recovered from the canal, and sadly pronounced dead at the scene.
We are in the process of formally identifying the man, who we think is in his 30s. At this stage his death is being treated as unexplained.”
You can contact West Midlands Police via live chat at www.west-midlands.police.uk if you have information that could help – quoting reference number 1047-140721.
If you’ve been affected by this event, the charity Samaritans is there 24/7 to listen.
Hundreds of motorists were stopped from returning home on Friday after scores of bikers blocked up Kingsbury Road, near Tyburn House Island.
At around 6:30pm, a large gathering of motorbikes and quad bikes swarmed across the two lanes of traffic and onto the central reservation – many trying to buy petrol from the Shell garage.
As the gang of bikers grew in number, some began driving up and down the dual carriage way and grass embankment – performing ‘wheelies’ and ‘donuts’, leaving deep tyre marks across the central reservation. One daredevil was seen ‘careering’ into the early evening traffic with one wheel off the ground and both hands in the air.
With around 50 bikers blocking the throughfare, tired motorists could do nothing but sit it out and wait for the chaos to subside.
Jules Cox, 43, told Erdington Local: “I was sitting in the Burger King car park – I had just finished work in Erdington and was on my way to Castle Vale, pulling in to get a drive through and make a phone call.
“Suddenly I heard what sounded like cars on a racetrack, then about 10-15 motorbikes – high cc expensive looking ones – came careering down the Kingsbury Road and pulled up onto the central reservation.
“Within about five minutes there were maybe 40-50 motorbikes and quad bikes, but some were in the Shell garage next door and I couldn’t see the exact number.
“Pretty quickly they had blocked that whole side of the Kingsbury Road and traffic started to back up. The bikers were riding up and down both the road itself and the grass in the middle, doing wheelies and donuts.
“It was more annoying than threatening, but I wouldn’t have suggested challenging them. With that many people being reckless on high performance bikes, with the kind of adrenalin that brings, you never know what will kick off.”
A deliver driver collecting orders from Burger King, who didn’t want to be named, added: “I think they had come from town; there had been a lot of bikes in the city centre earlier waving flags and making noise.
“They didn’t bother me making my deliveries, but it is dangerous. Although I used to live in Italy and you would get hundreds of bikers together there, this is nothing compared to that.”
The Shell garage quickly put a ‘Closed’ sign in the window and waited for the bikers to move on.
Staff from the garage told Erdington Local gangs of bikers come to the garage about once a month, but never in such large numbers – they were worried about people driving off without paying.
Motorbikes are responsible for around 19% of all road traffic fatalities, according to a report by the Department of Transport. Over extended driving, calculating deaths per billion passenger miles, motorcyclists are over 100 times more likely to die in an accident than those in a car.
West Midlands Police had to be extra vigilant during lockdown, with dangerous drivers taking advantage of the empty roads and using them as their own personal racetrack.
Following an arrest earlier this year, where the offender was jailed for 14 months, Traffic Sergeant Mitch Darby, said:
“Anti-social off-road biking is a real concern for our communities. We’ve responded by running operations to catch offenders and they will continue throughout the summer.
“Anyone who rides dangerously – or rides an off-road bike illegally on public roads or in parks – runs the risk of being arrested and having their bike seized and crushed.”
Biker gang ride off from Kingsbury road – finally allowing rush hour traffic to move
Erdington Academy has been given the go-ahead to increase the number of its pupils from 900 to 1,200 after Birmingham City Council agreed to inject nearly £6.8 million into the school.
The Kingsbury Road secondary school will be refurbished and a brand new two story teaching block will be built on site – with work beginning next month and completed by Christmas 2021.
The new teaching block will include science labs and prep rooms, a drama teaching space, staff work rooms, office space and new staff and pupil toilets.
Birmingham City Council’s cabinet approved the £6,825,463 capital investment after a report from Dr Tim O’Neill, Director for Education and Skills, which said the authority had “a statutory duty to ensure that there are sufficient pupil places.”
The near £7m bill will be paid for from the Department for Education (DfE) Basic Need Grant and School Condition Grant.
However, consequential revenue costs arising from additional places including additional staffing, utility costs and any on-going day to day repair and maintenance will be the responsibility of Erdington Academy.
Balfour Beatty has been chosen as the construction partner for the scheme and ground is set to be broken at the school on November 23.
Councillor Jayne Francis, cabinet member for education, skills and culture, backed the new investment into Erdington Academy.
She said: “We have a duty to ensure that sufficient school places are available in our city.
“Erdington Academy currently has 900 pupils, and the proposal is to expand two forms of entry to 1,200 places for pupils aged 11 to 16 years old.
“There’s been a slight delay with planning, so it will be heard toward the end of September and once secured we will be able to carry on with completion of the work.”
“Apparently, somebody walking their dog found him and called the ambulance and police, but we don’t know.
The Kingsbury Road secondary school will be refurbished and a brand new two story teaching block will be built on site – with work beginning next month and completed by Christmas 2021.
