The Community Conference hosted and organised by popular local Councillors Robert Alden, Bob Beauchamp and Gareth Moore (all Erdington, Conservative) gave residents a chance to talk about a range of things including:-
The future of the High Street
How to use Neighbourhood planning to fight unwanted developments
Crime and anti-social behaviour
Devolution of power to local areas
Local street and environmental issues
Cllr Robert Alden (Erdington, Conservative) said "over the last seven years we have made every effort possible to ensure that local residents are consulted on and have a bigger say in the future of our local area as possible. Therefore setting up and running a community conference was the next logical step forward. Inviting residents from across Erdington to come and talk to us is right, not only for local residents but also for doing our jobs as local Councillors"
Cllr Gareth Moore (Erdington, Conservative) added "Residents have a right to see thearea run how they want. Councillors have an obligation to make it as easy as possible for residents to do this and to listen to what residents want to happen in our local area. Sadly not all politicians view consulting with residents the same, however to us residents always come first. That is why we keep them regularly updated, why we regularly ask for residents views, we were elected to put Erdington first and that is what we always try to do".
Cllr Bob Beauchamp (Erdington, Conservative) commented "we will be taking what residents said and feeding it into the process of creating a ward action plan so that we can show the Council that this is what residents want and they should support it".