Is Birmingham's green belt doomed?

It is obvious that there should be a forum and a blog on the BigCityPlan website and some means to communicate about the 2026 Vision..

Also here is what I sent in relation to the 2026 Vision project which somehow relates to the BigCityPlan.

I am writing to communicate my concerns that the core strategies that make up the Birmingham 2026 Our Vision for the Future strategy do not make allowances for the white paper ‘Communities in Control’ (2008) and The Sustainable Communities Act (2007). Consequently I feel that the Vision is both unrepresentative of the diverse needs of Birmingham as a whole and also fails to take into account that Birmingham is a network of communities more than it is a single centralized community. Therefore, I feel that the Vision, rather than creating “A global city with a local heart” will instead create “A global city without a local heart”.

The Vision has to be flexible and inclusive enough to ‘be’ and ‘become’ a Vision that meets the diverse and changing needs of the city, otherwise it is just another vision that is imposed from above with little participation from the many communities that are Birmingham. Unfortunately, the past has shown that a vision of a centralized community tends to exclude those who either do not wish to participate in the hierarchical model that a centralized model usually implies or wish to focus on the politics of their own constituency community. Often, the vision shared by those at constituency level is very much different to the vision shared by those high up the hierarchy at the centre. Therefore, what I am arguing is that the concept of community that is shared at the centre is usually very different to the concept of community held by those within the periphery.

These different perspectives highlight the importance of both the white paper ‘Communities in Control’ and the Sustainable Communities Act. As you know, these different pieces of legislation aim to empower communities to take control of their own lives. They imply that the wisdom needed to sustain the integrity of communities both socially and ecologically is already present within the communities themselves but fails to become utilized because of the reasons above (and possibly more). Therefore, it is very important that the Vision is not one which aims to act on behalf of the different communities of Birmingham but acts to facilitate voluntary co-operation and mutual aid networks so as to foster a network of thriving and hospitable communities which regard well-being as paramount. This means that ‘Communities in Control’ and ‘The Sustainable Communities Act’ need to be incorporated into what will ‘be’ and ‘become’ Our Vision for the Future: The Sustainable Communities Strategy in Birmingham.

It is obviously not too late to reconsider and transform the core strategies from those that support the concept of a centralized Sustainable Community to core strategies that support the concept of decentralized Sustainable Communities. This will obviously require that the current Vision is re-negotiated with another round of consultation so that the citizens of Birmingham can consult ‘Communities in Control’ and ‘The Sustainable Communities Act’ in order to envisage how the Vision can best support the development of their individual communities and develop affinity-links so as to enable co-operation with other communities. Birmingham City Council would obviously have a very important part to play in this exciting and progressive process which not only takes into consideration the well-being of all Birmingham citizens but allows them to participate more fully in their own development both socially and ecologically. In fact, it cannot be stressed enough how the people of Birmingham need support in this process of transition and given the opportunity to create lives which are aligned to the needs of the communities themselves.

Unfortunately, in the previous round of consultation which only captured the imagination of around 2000 people, a centralized Birmingham with a focus on capitalism was envisaged as the means to increase the prosperity of Birmingham and make it into a globally recognized city based on wealth production. However, the social imagination of Birmingham has now changed in light of the white paper and the Act and people now want to see a decentralized Birmingham that can sustain itself both socially and ecologically. For example, across Birmingham there are many community groups that would benefit greatly in a decentralized Birmingham and in turn these benefits would be passed onto the different communities of Birmingham. In particular I am referring to groups that have a vision of ecologism at the heart of their lives and so would rather see a post-development model applied within the Vision which would give land back to Nature and enable people to cultivate small scale market gardens and so produce and sell food locally. This type of vision must also have an opportunity to be represented in the Vision of Birmingham overall especially in relation to the efforts to reduce the carbon footprint of the city.

Similarly, it is also vital that the political imagination of Birmingham is able to express itself in its constituent parts. This is a particular aim of both ‘Communities in Control’ and the Sustainable Communities Act by effectively giving local people the resource base from which to create local services for local people as well as giving the people political legitimacy to form their own style of community. This provides another reason why the different and diverse communities of Birmingham need to be able to reconsider the Vision of Birmingham. The resources that are planned to be used to redevelop Birmingham as a corporate city-hub can instead be used to re-generate and re-vitalize our communities from decline as a result of years of neglect and favouritism towards the gentrification of the city. To not allow all people of Birmingham to reconsider the options in light of the potential that can be un-leased by both the ‘Communities in Control’ white paper and the Sustainable Communities Act will be a travesty for future generations, especially in light of the opportunity to invest in a socially and ecologically sustainable future that seeks to halt the social and cultural impoverishment that comes when development is geared towards wealth generation alone.

I know for a fact that every constituency in Birmingham does not want Capitalism (wealth generation) and Conservatism (centralized hierarchies) to be the sole and guiding ideologies that shapes the core strategies of the Vision. To a greater degree Ecologism, Socialism, Anarchism, Islamism and Liberalism need to be represented in the core strategies. Incorporating more these other ideologies will enable the Vision to be more sustainable and enduring. For example, a much greater appreciation of the way we use resources now will have a direct and positive effect on our future. In fact, it is now globally acknowledged that the excesses of capitalism and conservatism alone have created a potentially devastating future both socially and ecologically . This means that a second round of consultation is vital to not only enable these other ideologies expression in Our Vision but also to see whether we really can live by our most committed and deepest values, that being liberty, justice and community.

It is the values of liberty, justice and community respectively that need to determine the shape and scope of the three core strategies. Following this each core strategy can then be broken down as follows:-

Birmingham 2026: Our Vision for the Future
The Sustainable Communities Strategy
“A Global City with a Local Heart”

The Core Strategies
-Liberty Justice Community

- The Social Imagination of Birmingham
- The Political Imagination of Birmingham
- The Economic Imagination of Birmingham
- The Cultural Imagination of Birmingham

Personally I too want Birmingham to be a globally recognized city of importance but not for its ability to destroy our ecological and natural environment but for its ability to demonstrate to the world that we can co-operate and share global resources (that is, life-forms) to sustain positive and life-affirming socio-ecological relations and roles with other life-forms and their communities.

Of course capitalism has a limited place in our economic imagination within each of the core strategies but so does the ideologies of Ecologism, Socialism, and Islamism. Similarly, Liberalism, Anarchism, Islamism and Conservatism have a place in the political imagination of each of the core strategies. As does Socialism, Islamism and Liberalism in the social imagination of each of the core strategies. Finally all the ideologies have a place in the cultural imagination of each of the core strategies.

Anyway, I hope we have the opportunity to discuss further how we can help to shape and facilitate the necessary social, political, economic and cultural debates to decide upon a holy different set of core strategies and consequently create a much more socio-ecologically sustainable future for us all within the individual communities of Birmingham.