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Iron Angle: Wilkes regains his thunder

Another productive week for Hall Green Liberal Democrat councillor Mick Wilkes, who is fast becoming unofficial leader of the opposition on Birmingham City Council.
In fact, the Revenge of Coun Wilkes is a major topic of conversation in the corridors of power.

He was humiliated two years ago when his scrutiny report exposing the shortcomings of the ludicrous split site library plan was rubbished and then ignored by the cabinet. Wilkes retired to the backbenches where it was generally assumed he would never be heard from again.
But the man who once was the youngest professor at Birmingham University, whose stellar intelligence and forensic ability to pick holes in what passes for policy documents, has reinvented himself as a member of the audit committee.
After dismissing the business case for the latest library scheme as a "poor piece of work", Wilkes turned his attention to the cabinet's flagship business transformation scheme, which aims to save £1 billion through adopting more efficient ways of working.
Council officers who failed to turn up to answer questions, reports that mysteriously went missing, it was all an affront to democracy, thundered Wilkes.
Attempts by the council leadership to smear Wilkes are already under way, with the word being put out that he is an embittered old man with nothing better to do.
But Tory council leader Mike Whitby and his pals should not forget that Wilkes came within a whisker of being deputy council leader in May 2005, when he was beaten by 14 votes to 13 by Paul Tilsley in the race to be Liberal Democrat group leader.
There are rumblings of discontent in the Lib Dem group at what is seen as the Tory domination of council policy-making. Do not write off the career of Michael Wilkes just yet.
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The business case for the £193 million Birmingham library optimistically pencils in £10 million from Advantage West Midlands.
Why, you might ask, should a regional development agency help pay for a library?
It would be difficult to show that the project is connected with economic regeneration or job creation, which covers AWM's main funding criteria.
An ingenious proposal is being worked up by council policy wonks.
It goes something like this: the new library in Centenary Square will trigger demolition of the Central Library in Paradise Forum, which will in turn allow the regeneration of Paradise Circus to take place. So, if AWM could see its way to bung £10 million toward the cost of building a new library, the money would really be part of a chain of events leading to the transformation of a major city centre site. And that, folks, is what we call economic regeneration.
An AWM spokesman declined to comment, other than to confirm that an application for funding is yet to be received from the council.
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Buck-passing of epic proportions followed the unfortunate publication on the Government Office of the West Midlands website of confidential plans by Birmingham City Council to open a British School of acting at Eastside.
The article is said to have been based on a briefing note written by West Midlands Minister Liam Byrne.
So how did Byrne's jottings end up all over the internet, spoiling a Big Announcement planned by Tory council leader Mike Whitby and Schools Minister Lord Adonis?
Attempts to discover who placed the article on the website have not been successful.
Nothing to do with us, said GOWM, you'll have to speak to the Home Office. Nothing to do with us, said the Home Office, you'll have to speak to GOWM.
The Government News Network, previously known by the Orwellian title Central Office of Information, pulled a typical Whitehall trick by providing an answer – but not to the question asked. We couldn't possibly comment, a well spoken young woman trilled, because the project is still in the development stage.
Let's hope the editor of the GOWM website, if indeed there is such a person, never has to stand up in court to defend a libel claim. He would probably give evidence from behind a curtain.

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