The Birmingham Jewellery Quarter has become the latest district to call for its own city council ward.
Proposals have been released to merge Birmingham’s gem and Winson Green districts into one city council ward, however, another plan is in the mix for the Quarter to have its own city council ward.
The Jewellery Quarter Neighbourhood Forum is reaching out to grasp its own council ward and councillor under the proposed shake-up of political boundaries in the city.
Plans were in place for a Jewellery Quarter and St Marks council ward and were to be submitted to the Local Government Boundary Commission and it is calling on fellow residents to support it.
However, it has become the latest area to challenge the commission, which suggested the opening of a ward in Winson Green with two councillors including the Quarter, over the draft – following Acocks Green, Erdington, Hall Green, Longbridge and Moseley. The residents countered the two areas have definitive identities and interests that could be easily parted.
“The JQ is a city-centre community, inextricably linked with the city core, and it is likely we will be poorly served by a two-member ward that covers ana rea with such diverse needs,” the forum said.
“We have to ensure our representation on the council can give sufficient focus to the specific needs of the quarter, especially given the growth expected in the area in the near future.
“The residential population could reach 10,000 in the next five years or so.”
The aim for the forum is to get the residents of the Quarter and businesses to write to the commission in support of the proposal. It also states the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter name should be used in the title for the new ward.
Resident Brian Simpson had this to say on the proposals: “There are 7,000 residents in the Jewellery Quarter, with many new residential developments planned in the next few years.
“I believe that these numbers justify the Jewellery Quarter belonging to a single member ward.”
If you’d like your say, comments on the boundary commission’s proposals are being taken until 8th February 2016.