This week I’ve got news of developments from our town centre energy network and £400k of funding available for community groups, but first – dodgy convenience stores.
I welcome the news that the owner of Boss Mart in Shirley has been fined nearly £7000. I’m happier that the shop has now shut down after being given notice that the Council would be applying for a closure order. Shops like this blight our high streets, not just with their appearance but with the illegal and often dangerous products they peddle and their tendency to attract antisocial behaviour. We have a great regulatory services team in Solihull. They work hard and use all the tools available to them to make sure that businesses which flout the law are forced to face the consequences. The problem we have is the way these businesses operate. I’m not suggesting that this particular shop uses the same tactics as the businesses in this BBC article, but it is common to see these shops pop back up under different names and repeat the same problems we saw from the previous iteration.
I’d like to see the government take a serious look at what can be done to help councils manage this issue. Should the sale of tobacco and nicotine products be licensed in the same way alcohol is? Maybe we could be given greater powers to apply conditions to planning applications to restrict opening hours or better stipulate the kind of businesses allowed to operate from certain premises. I don’t know what the answer is, I just know that I share the frustration so many of our residents feel at seeing places like this popping up in their neighbourhoods. Ultimately, we enforce the regulations as far as we can, but we need more effective powers to restrict businesses that operate like this from opening in the first place.
Solihull’s flagship low‑carbon energy network is getting closer to being up and running, with construction and fit‑out of the new Energy Centre at Tudor Grange Park now nearly finished. All pipework for the first phase of the scheme has now been successfully installed, creating the spine of the new town centre energy network. The next phase of works includes final connections to customer buildings. Once complete, the network will begin supplying low carbon heat and hot water to its first customers as early as this summer. Given the events dominating the news, this independence from the whims of global energy markets will be really welcome and we’re already looking at how the network can be expanded in future phases.
Groups in Solihull can now bid for a share of nearly £400k to improve their local neighbourhoods. This funding comes from the Community Infrastructure Levy -CIL- which this year is available for community groups in five wards – Elmdon, Knowle, Shirley East, Shirley South and St Alphege. I’ve pushed for this money to be made available as soon as possible, it’s a lot of cash that can do a lot of good in our communities, supporting projects in areas where development has taken place.
On the subject of community, Love Solihull are looking for volunteers to help transform some newly installed planters and works in the Garden of Tranquillity at Robin Hood Cemetery on 23 March from 10am – 12pm. If you can help, please get in touch with lovesolihull@solihull.gov.uk
And finally, Next Wednesday will be No Smoking Day, where smokers around the country are invited to kick the habit and go smokefree. Our Smokefree Solihull team will be holding a drop-in session at Chelmsley Wood Library on no smoking day between 11am and 12:30 pm, where people can support smokers in their stop smoking journey. The team can also be contacted by phone on 0121 740 1212, or on the smokefree Solihull website.