Our Full Council meeting on Tuesday (13 May) is a significant one. It marks the end of the Mayor’s term of office and the confirmation of Cabinet positions. Most years this follows local elections but as this year was a ‘fallow year’, none were held. I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank Councillor Shahin Ashraf MBE for her wonderful work as Mayor. She has represented Solihull with great dignity, energy and intelligence and I wish her well as she steps down.
We will be proposing that Deputy Mayor Cllr Annette Mackenzie succeeds to the role, and I have no doubt that she will be wonderful in fulfilling the duties of the office. She has been a ward councillor for over a decade and has a fantastic CV including time as a police officer, a childminder, a family support worker and spent time as a carer and as a school governor. Her commitment to public service is obvious from that list, and even clearer when you meet her and talk to her as many of our residents will have the pleasure of doing once she is confirmed as the next Mayor.
Another change is afoot in our senior leadership, as the incomparable Beate Wagner OBE will be retiring from her role as Director of Children’s Services (DCS). It is difficult to overstate the impact she has had since taking on this role around a year and a half ago. She has brought her considerable experience and knowledge to bear and steered us through a challenging time, implementing our ambitious improvement programme and overseeing much of the Ofsted monitoring process, the sixth and final monitoring inspection took place last week and the feedback, as I said in my previous message, was very positive. I and, I am confident in saying, the whole of Solihull Council would like to thank Beate for her excellent work.
Fortunately, we were able to find a great candidate to be our new DCS. Following a competitive recruitment process and an appearance before a cross-party panel of councillors, we have appointed Rasheed Pendry to take on the role. Rasheed is currently Deputy Director of Children’s Services at Wandsworth Council, where he has been since February 2021. Prior to this he was Director of Early Help and Social Care at the London Borough of Croydon. Rasheed has a great track record of developing services in the authorities he has worked for and will be key in taking us to the next level in our development. Formal approval will be requested at Full Council in July, and we are aiming for Rasheed to officially take up the post in mid-August.
There will be an important decision taking place at WMCA today, as we vote on bus franchising for the West Midlands. By the time you read this, it may already have taken place, but I want to highlight the amendment I proposed which calls for greater scrutiny, more focus on route-based commissioning (allowing us to specify which routes need to be served by providers to meet the needs of our residents and improve competition). One concern I have is that the proposal for lotting of contracts is based on zones which lie either side of the A45. We need much better cross-Solihull transport connection and a transport system based around resident’s needs. There is unity around the idea that we need to improve the system so we have flourishing bus services with more people using them. These proposals are good but can only bring the best results if delivered in the right way. Inevitably there are considerable risks, both operational and financial, involved in the implementation of such a major project, so we need to ensure it is properly assessed and scrutinised.
Next week is Mental Health Awareness Week. In one of her last official duties in the role, the Mayor of Solihull joined Solihull Men’s Walking and Talking Group in Brueton Park on Tuesday. The group does great work, providing a support network for men who might otherwise be isolated or struggling alone with their mental health. It’s a commendable initiative and I was impressed to read about the speed at which the group has grown.
We have a couple of consultations running at the moment, firstly on our Council Plan. It sets out our vision for Solihull, the direction that we want to go in as a Council, how we aim to get there what we want to achieve. We are developing a new plan to cover the years 2025-30. We want to ensure the new plan reflects the ambitions, challenges and opportunities faced by the Council, residents, businesses, and other stakeholders over the coming years.
Tell us if you think our new plan focuses on the right things. Please take part in our short survey before Sunday 15 June. Paper copies of the survey are also available in Solihull Council House reception, The Core Library and Shirley Library and will be available in Chelmsley Wood Library from Monday 12 May.
There is also just time to participate in the consultation on our polling district and place review – which deals with the arrangements for voting in elections, before it closes on May 13.
Finally, I talked at length about VE day last week, but will not let it pass without mention this week either. What a truly moving and poignant event it has been, I can only imagine the experiences and suffering that so many endured. Truly humbling. I would like to draw your attention, in case you missed this story, to the renaming of an access route to Hillfield Park to Albert Price Way. Albert took part in the Normandy landings in 1944, a true local hero, it is only right that we honour him in this way. Please do take a look at the link and find out more.
Thanks for reading.
Councillor Ian Courts, Leader of Solihull Council