Part of Birmingham

I can only express my continued belief that the whole of this local government reorganisation (all regions not just Birmingham) is at the diktat of the EU. The purpose appears to me to they will apparently hand control over to local unelected committees, with the illusion of controlling their own budgets, but in practice keeping central input and control in effect direct control from Brussels, certainly the ordinary electors will not have the ability to remove the unelected local juntas (cabinets). Don`t look to the British parliament for succour - they just act as cyphers for their EU masters. Only hope is a NO vote and Brexit - then we might be able to reverse the inevitable mess.

Roger Turner I read a comment saying more or less the same, bring several combined authorities together, so Brussels can argue and control I think it's 9 divided council authorities in the UK instead of many council authorities.

They'll be upset when we vote to leave in the referendum then.

Another political point, seeing as the report on Heathrow third runway comes out today. Why not shift the whole hub to the "new" Birmingham (Greater Elmdon) and why stop there shift the new "English" parliament to there, so London will lose its "exclusivity" and Coventry would gain from being part of the new "central" Capital of the UK - cannot see why Manchester (out on a West Coast limb) is getting preference.

A question about integrating Coventry with Birmingham. If we do integrate, will the charges cease for taking photographs of documents in the Heritage/History Centre? In Birmingham library there are no charges for taking photos of the City Directories, I have taken quite a few and the staff know this but do not impose any restrictions or charges. In Coventry Heritage Centre I think the charge is £5 for 4 photo's, although I stand to be corrected, the shock damaged my memory when I was informed ?

I don't live in Birmingham. I have never lived in Birmingham. I have no plans to live in Birmingham. Yesterday I received a letter from Birmingham City Council's Director of Planning and Regeneration inviting me to comment on 'Birmingham Development Plan 2031 - Proposed Main Modifications and Sustainability Appraisal'. Should I be worried? Is Birmingham City Council about to build thousands of new houses in Bedworth where I live? Perhaps they are going to build a new stadium for Birmingham City Football Club in the Miners Welfare Park? The letter arrived in an envelope telling me that it was important and that if I could not read the contents I should get someone else to read them for me (this instruction was repeated in half a dozen other languages as well). I have asked Birmingham Council why they have written to someone in Bedworth and await their response. If Bedworth becomes part of Birmingham I will change my name to 'Even More Not Local'.

Birmingham is desperate to take over the surrounding towns and has had ambitions to do so for years.

Today the ruling Labour group voted unanimously that they will pursue plans to enter into a combined authority with Birmingham. This despite strong opposition from local groups. This also means they will be agreeing to an elected mayor despite both Coventry and Birmingham voting against it. Prime candidates for the mayoral post are Councillor Bore, Labour leader in Birmingham, and Lord Digby Jones of Birmingham. Undeterred by the possibility of Birmingham City council being taken into special measures by the government because of their failings in many areas. I urge you all to remember this betrayal of the people of Coventry and their ancestors by this council and to vote accordingly in the next local elections.

Birmingham City Council must be laughing all the way to the "Out of Special Measures" rubber stamp!!

It is a betrayal isn't it? They will rue the day they crossed the people of Coventry.

I still believe that many people are getting into a panic over this issue for no reason other than an anti-Birmingham agenda. The truth is that Birmingham will not be taking over Coventry or anywhere else. It is a co-operation on some functions that are best dealt with on a larger scale, something that happened pre-1986 before the WMCC was abolished on a political whim. Birmingham, if anything, wants to devolve some of what it has to smaller authorities for local issues. For example, Sutton Coldfield has voted to have its own council next year for such matters. So, to sum up, there will be no takeover, nobody has been betrayed, and nobody has crossed anyone. It is simply a case of 'needs must' as this government is starving individual councils of the money to carry out essential functions. As I have said before, some are better done on a joint basis, and indeed some already are. Coventry will not become part of Birmingham.

But many issues, including stuff like transport infrastructure budgets, will be being controlled centrally (ie in a Birmingham office). Money that WOULD have gone directly to Coventry to decide on how to spend on infrastructure will now go to the WMCA, which Coventry will have 1/8 of the vote on. Look at Greater Manchester - all of their transport infrastructure goes into or through Manchester itself - the smaller towns don't get direct connections. It is run for the benefit of Manchester. Given Coventry is separated from Birmingham by the Meriden Gap all the bean counters will point to the investment being given to Birmingham and it's urban conurbation (ie the Black Country) unless Coventry and Solihull are willing to allow that gap to be filled into a continuous conurbation - a scheme heavily hinted to with regards to a new town around the HS2 interchange. Also given that Birmingham were opposed to Coventry being linked directly to HS2 and for its airport expansion and that the Birmingham Council and their local papers refer to the WMCA as 'Greater Birmingham' as often as is feasibly possible and now much of 'Greater London' and 'Greater Manchester' are lazily referred to as 'London' and 'Manchester' and that this entire idea is, and always has been, pushed by Birmingham more than anyone in the region and they are performing to a lesser degree than many of the other constituents overall. Just who is benefitting from this arrangement? Why would this be more beneficial to us than a CA with Warwickshire, whom we share a great deal more local services, jobs and links with? The only thing really missing are some decent transport links, which is one of the things a C&WCA would have given.

Hub and spokes. Coventry reduced to a spoke around a hub that will soak up all the money and keep all the services and cream of the jobs. That means no Coventry transport infrastructure improvement unless it's based around Birmingham.

Surely Coventry has had no control over its transport infrastructure for more than 40 years. The problems arose afterwards due to privatisation of public transport which has certainly not been of benefit to the users. Any initiative to improve matters would be welcome. The government is only interested in investing in its vanity project, HS2, when all that money could be spent in a much more beneficial way. Most transport services operate on a hub system. Coventry bus routes were exactly that and there would be no reason to run them otherwise. I have to say that Birmingham and the rest of the West Midlands desperately need something like the system used in Manchester, their tram system is excellent and still expanding. In truth, Coventry would benefit from its own modern tram system. I have visited cities in Europe of similar size that have excellent ones. The problem is that in this country there is no will to improve public transport, or more precisely no will to spend any money on it. Perhaps a co-ordinated approach from various cities will get some investment. I'm sure that Coventry standing alone will get nothing.

It's more than just transport, it's more about business links. Birmingham will have all the business links and Coventry will be in its 'shadow', rendering it difficult to regenerate as it lacks the business links that bring prosperity and jobs. Coventry's transport needs are not the same as the Birmingham conurbation - we're not even attached to it, and the number of commuters is fairly small to Birmingham (The same number comes the other way!) and absolutely non existent with the rest of the West Midlands.