Birmingham Friends of the Earth letter to Birmingham City Council on use of public funds
YouTube called “What Planet Are We on?” using that famous quote from Paul Kehoe
from a debate on the radio with Joe Peacock (FoE Birmingham) earlier this year
– when he said “I just don’t know which planet Friends of the Earth are on”.
more to help with road alterations to enable the airport to lengthen its runway,
Birmingham Friends of the Earth have written an open letter to councillors at
Birmingham City Council questioning their use of public funds to pay for the runway
extension. This is copied below.
Monday, 15 November 2010
their jobs, we understand that Birmingham City Council is proposing to inject
a large sum of money (between £10 and £30 million, although nobody will confirm
this) into a scheme to divert the A45 away from the airport, thus allowing the
runway to be extended.
have refused to disclose this information when we lodged a Freedom of Information
request on this issue.
this contains very little specific information about the proposals and gives no
details of costs and how it is to be paid for. The report refers a number of times
to another confidential report – which presumably contains the full details and
costings and the public is unable to view this.
it surely cannot be right that this is happening in secrecy and outside of any
public scrutiny. We find it unacceptable that this is happening at a time at a
time when the council has issued statement after statement about the need to reduce
it’s costs and greatly reduce it’s own staff.
budget. The road project they are paying for is outside the boundary of Birmingham,
which further begs the question why our tax payers should pay for it.
teachers from Canada and Australia, are reluctant to pay the full costs of the
runway extension and that this was discussed at a recent board meeting. Shares
in the company are also held by 7 local authorities the BIA board meetings are
held in secrecy, so this does not speak well for their accountability to the interests
of taxpayers in those areas.
to directly subsidise the airport through this road-building scheme. The question
should be raised of why public money is required to fund the realignment of the
A45 to enable the runway extension to be built.
their dividend payments from BIA Ltd?
of Governance (especially see items 1, 4 and 6) – see
in the SOLACE / CIPFA Good Governance Framework (2007) of:-
and creating and implementing a vision for the local area;
– Promoting values for the authority and demonstrating the values of good governance
through upholding high standards of conduct and behaviour;
– Taking informed and transparent decisions which are subject to effective scrutiny
and managing risks;
– Developing the capacity and capability of members and officers to be effective;
and
– Engaging with local people and other stakeholders to ensure robust public accountability.
are citizens of Birmingham and council tax payers.
see also
extension
major road to allow Birmingham Airport’s runway to be extended. The long-awaited
project can only go ahead once the A45 Coventry Road has been diverted at a cost
of £32 million. Regional transport body Centro’s CEO, Geoff Inskip, said Birmingham
City Council would be asked to decide next month whether to contribute £10 million
towards the scheme. (Birmingham Post)