The Balsall Heathan - St. Paul's Community Trust

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Balsall Heath Forum Focus Two special ladies May Pearson of Brunswick Road gave very many years of devoted service to helping her friends and neighbours in the Seven Streets Residents area. Mary Beasley of George Street was associated with many local causes, not least the preservation of Moseley Road Baths where she regularly swam. A thousand Daffodils Did you enjoy the daffodils this spring? They adorned the Haden Way gateway to Balsall Heath, every park in the area and most of the neighbourhood’s wooden planters. It’s 10 years ago now that the Forum bought and planted 3 tons of the bulbs to cheer the area up. Balsall Heath is poorer for their passing. But, their many admirers have purchased a bench for each of them. These will soon adorn Pickwick Park where they will be available for passers by and for families to enjoy. They will be suitably inscribed with loving memory for two remarkable and very special ladies. Communal Celebration The latest in the series of Communal Meals and Celebrations was held at the Church Centre in early April. Some 300 people attended along with a special guest, the Editor of the Birmingham Mail, who gave out certificates of merit to exceptional volunteers. A group of youngsters from Benmore entertained everyone with song and dance. Abdullah Rehman, Ian Edwards and Peter Cole introduced a ‘before, during and after’ video of the transformation of the area. Romanian residents presented the Balsall Heath Forum with their flag. Tyga introduced themselves and new members to local residents unfamiliar wit their work. The importance of the census was explained by its representatives and Councillor Salma Yaqoob gave an inspiring talk about resident volunteers and the Forum. Finally, of course, everyone enjoyed a splendid Balti Buffet. Many people present asked: “When is the next meal and celebration?” The answer is probably “in June.” Watch this space. Ever year since then they have done just this. And, did you notice, not one of them was vandalised or disrespected. They command attention and respect. Long may they grow. What new flower should we purchase to add to the pleasure they bring? What a load of rubbish As letters to us and the Heathan have revealed, there is still an unacceptable load of rubbish on the streets and in the gardens of Balsall Heath. Many of the un-maintained gardens are Council Housing ones. The streets are, of course, the responsibility of the Council’s Environmental Services Department and the orphan or confused spaces in many roads are also invariably Council owned. So, if left to the Council, Balsall Heath would slowly sink under a load of rubbish. Yet, residents enter Balsall Heath in the Britain in Bloom competition every year. We help residents to tame untamed gardens, adopt the orphan spaces and clear the uncollected street rubbish. That is, the customer cares and provides themselves with a cleaning and greening service. But, the Council provision does little and makes the customer very dissatisfied. An increasing number of residents are saying: “Why do we pay taxes and rates when we get such a poor service? All we get is a load of rubbish.” It’s difficult to disagree.
Big Dave’s Buddies For the last ten years Dave Gauder known more commonly as Big Dave by school pupils throughout the country has been giving anti-bullying talks and passing on useful advice and guidance. Along with his talks and as part of his campaign Big Dave demonstrates how belief in your self can help individuals achieve their goals and his visits often involve him pulling a double decker bus. Now with over 1000 bus pulls under his belt Dave used a recent visit to Tindal School to launch his new initiative entitled ‘Big Dave’s Buddies’. When asked what he hoped to achieve through the new project Dave said, “It will break down so many barriers, postcodes, tagging, all of these silly things that are going on all over the country. It starts from silliness really; it’s like Chinese whispers. It’s been ten years that I have been involved in this work but we always wanted to take it to another level”. Based on the use of mentors through a buddy system the initiative aims to tackle some of the wider problems associated with bullying such as anti-social behaviour. Dave went on to say, “It was always Big Dave goes into a school and delivers the message and Big Dave is gone and that was it. But now we’ve got longevity and it’s working really well. It’s from primary school age right the way through to secondary. But the schools have really got to earn it”. When asked about the future for of the project Dave said, “Hopefully what we are trying to put in place is a GCSE under citizenship and maybe a Princess Diana award as well”. Doomsday Reloaded Do you remember a time when the BBC ran an initiative called the ‘Doomsday Project’ in 1986? The project aimed to archive a snap shot of the times and did this in Balsall Heath with the help of pupils from Heathmount and Moseley Schools. A national project, it catalogued images of the whole of the UK at the time and included three images of each area. Until recently the information that had been collected had been left on a dusty shelf on a state of the art laser disc. The project was then shelved and the technology to access the disc made redundant which left them unused and inaccessible. Now through the use of new technology the data has been accessed and a follow up project called ‘Doomsday Reloaded’ set up. The aim of this project is to revisit the 23,000 4x3km areas known as Doomsday Squares or ‘D-Blocks’. An equivalent number of photographs will be Bahhhriliant Day If you would like to find out more then visit www.bigdavesworld. co.uk. collected totalling 23,225. Similarly 147,819 pages of text relating to what it was like to live, work and play in the communities will be collected, recorded and published. If you would like to take part in the project then why not pop down and visit their touring Doomsday Reloaded Bus which will be paying a visit on May 6th to St. Paul’s Venture off Clifton Road between 11am and 3pm. Your input into this would be gratefully received by the BBC and while you are there maybe you would like to contribute to a Balsall Heath Local History Project. Known as ‘Our Community Our History’ the project aims to record the many memories individuals have of their favourite foods. So if you have a favourite recipe and a memory to go with it why not bring it along. The project is also looking to add more images and memories to the not inconsiderable stock already collected of the Balsall Heath Carnival. Maybe you would like to help identify some of them or bring along some of your own to add to the collection. Balsall Heath City Farm held a special celebration in March and invited the community to attend. Celebrating its 30th anniversary the farm along with the Federation of City Farms & Community Gardens which is similarly in its 30th year enjoyed a glorious sunny day. The farm helped by members of the Balsall Heath Local History Society who put together a special exhibition of photographs with the help of the Balsall Heathan provided lots of opportunities for visitors to reflect on their memories of the farm over the years. Younger visitors were treated to a chance to see a new addition at the farm in the shape of Valerie the lamb. As well as the wide variety of animals to see their were a range of creative activities, games, face painting and refreshments available for everybody to enjoy.
Page 1 and 2: The Balsall No. 302 April 2011 FREE
Page 3 and 4: Pat da Silva Many residents and sch
Page 5 and 6: A GOOD READ You’re a bad man, Mr
Page 7: The Safe Haven Team If you are aged
Page 11 and 12: Stand Up for Cyclists By John Newso

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