Another happy day for Harborne
Hmmm. Here’s a funny thing.
Birmingham social services bosses are consulting the people on the “rationalisation” of day centres for adults with learning disabilities.
Two centres were initially earmarked for possible closure – Collingwood in the south of the city and Hockley in the west.
But that wouldn’t have saved enough cash to eat into a projected £10 million deficit in the adults and communities budget.
So some poor sap was tasked with identifying another centre for the axe, based on a criteria which examines how many people use the building, the bill for future maintenance and staffing costs. The Aldridge Road centre in Oscott was duly identified for the chop.
But a simple glance at statistical tables provided for a cabinet meeting shows that a good case could have been made to shut the Harborne day centre.
Its occupancy rate is 63 per cent, the same as Aldridge Road, and better than Collingwood’s 53 per cent. Hockley, meanwhile, has an impressive 82 per cent of available places filled – but is still in line for closure.
As far as running costs are concerned, Harborne comes in at £14,400 per place, while Aldridge Road is by far the cheapest at £7,100.
Even basing the decision on refurbishment costs, there’s not much in it.
The bill for bringing Harborne up to scratch is £1.5 million, while Aldridge Road requires expenditure of £1.6 million. So why is Aldridge Road likely to be sacrificed, rather than Harborne?
This was a point raised by members of the adults and communities scrutiny committee. They didn’t get an answer.
Far be it from me to point out that council leader Mike Whitby is a Harborne councillor, and that his ward is doing rather well recently.
It has just been identified for a £12 million swimming pool refurbishment, and now is going to retain its day centre.
As Whitby told the cabinet after members had approved the day centre closure consultation process: “The process of democracy is still unravelling.”
The rictus smiles fixed to the faces of senior council officials and councillors said it all.
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Mike Whitby’s Chinese tea torture is fiendish in the extreme.
All visitors to the council leader’s office are “treated” to a thin brew of green leaf tea sent directly to Whitby by his friends in China.
The pale coloured liquid, which bears more than a passing resemblance to bat’s, cat’s or gnat’s, is certain to cure a variety of illnesses, allegedly.
Children’s services director Tony Howell, cabinet member Les Lawrence and adults services director Peter Hay were unimpressed and refused to partake of tea with the dear leader during a meeting this week.
A shocked Whitby: “They don’t like it.”
One thing is certain. They will never have curly hair when they grow up.
