Bogus Bag Collectors – City Council advice

bogus leaflets ?

Bogus bag collectors are breaking the law if they falsely claim to be representing a charity, according to Birmingham City Council. ( see related article). If they are not making false claims, then the Licensing Team can take no legal action against them. The advice from the Council is: if you are suspicious, don’t donate. Call the Licensing Team on 0121 303 8222.

Vote of thanks to Ann Holtom….

Ann Holtom

“..A vote of thanks is also due to Ann Holtom of Lib Dems for organising the consultation and ballot……”

Click on this text to read the letter from Ken Plester on our Letters page.

Bogus door collectors – advice to residents from Clothes Aid charity

 

Following  Vale Mail’s article about complaints from residents who are angry at bogus leaflets asking for clothes, shoes, etc to be bagged for picking up to help people in Eastern European countries, a spokesperson from Clothes Aid has written to Vale Mail, offering his advice (below). (Michael L’s full comment is posted at the foot of the original article)

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Advice on door to door collectors  from www.clothesaid.co.ukIn brief, here are our top tips:

* Does the sack or leaflet say the collection is for a registered charity? If so, what’s the registered charity number
– call 0845 300 0218 or visit the online Register of Charities to check that it’s genuine.
* Do they only give a registered company number? This just means that the organisation is registered with Companies House.
* Is the charity actually named? Be wary of wording that just says ‘families in need’ or ‘sick kids at Christmas’ or ‘creates employment’ etc.
* Does the leaflet or bag give a phone number? The absence of a terrestrial telephone number may mean the collectors don’t want to answer questions. Regular charities and their agents will not give a mobile phone number only.

But most importantly, please remember to keep giving charity donations to legitimate charities and their partners. If we stop giving when we receive a charity bag through our door then these people will have not only stolen our donations but will have stolen our charitable spirit.

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National No Smoking Day Diary Prize

   

Smoke Free Birmingham is awarding a prize of an ‘I-pod shuffle’ to the person who composes the best diary in their attempt to give up smoking for seven days as part of the National No Smoking Day Challenge that runs from March 10-14.
This is the 25th year of National No Smoking Day, which this year falls on 12th March.

BBC man’s anger at police and local NHS armed assault denial

   BBC’s Michele Paduano

BBC Health Corrspondent Michele Paduano has this evening issued an angry statment to local news outlets, including Vale Mail, criticising the local health service and police for hiding the fact that a gun was used in an assault at a Shard End doctor’s surgery earlier today. This afternoon, the Birmingham East and North Primary Care Trust sent out a press release confirming that an incident had taken place at a GP practice in Shard End (The Harlequin), causing the surgery to be closed for a short while. The statement assured everyone that nobody was hurt, and that the incident had been dealt with. BBC reporter Michele Paduano’s subsequent angry statement slams the police and the Birmingham East and North Primary Care Trust for deliberately misleading the public and trying to ‘bury’ the details of the story. According to Mr Paduano, the police denied that a gun had been used. Mr Paduano says: ” I think it is symptomatic of how  the NHS media machine manipulates reality. ………as a representation and record of what actually happened, it is both useless and factually incorrect… this example is symptomatic of a disease that has infested our public bodies.”

Anger at ‘bogus’ door-to-door collectors

  click on leaflets to get an enlarged picture

A local resident who wishes to remain anonymous has complained to Vale Mail that bogus collectors are regularly posting leaflets through doors in Castle Vale asking residents to leave unwanted clothing , shoes, mobile phones and jewellery in bags outside their front door. The leaflets give no indication as to the identity of the collectors, and do not indicate which  organization they are collecting for. The leaflets claim that the items will go towards helping people in Eastern European countries.The City Council have advised that leaflets that do not give details of the collecting company are likely to be bogus, and that people should not leave items for collection in these cases. The Castle Vale complainant has told Vale Mail that she has been informed by a Council spokesperson that the items are being gathered in a house in Small Heath before being sent to the north of the country before being sold for a profit. The City Council has been unable to confirm this to Vale Mail.

One resident said: “I’m happy to leave stuff if I know it’s going to a good cause like ‘Help the Aged’ – but we’ve got no idea where these things are going to.”

Fixture backlog puts pressure on JKS

  A 2-1 midweek victory for Vale JKS at Greenhill puts the youngsters into 3rd spot in division two of the Midland Combination. Cup fixtures have diverted JKS’ attention away from the league at some points in the season. The local youngsters trail Worcester Academy by just nine points, but they have six games in hand of the leaders and are now poised for a promotion push. JKS’ problem is that, in the final quarter of the season, they have to play half of their total league fixtures.

House of Lords awaits Tyrone

Tyrone Fowles

The five successful candidates at the recent 2008 Birmingham UK Youth Parliament (UKYP) elections will be together this week, for the first time since becoming Members of the UK’s Youth Parliament. One of their first jobs will be to start writing speeches they will deliver in Westminster in May – in the historic House of Lords.

Tyrone Fowles, 15, from Castle Vale, Richyal Rana, 16, from Hodge Hill, Lois Smith, 15, from Ward End, Andy Marlow, 16, from Erdington, Bethan Dovey, 15, from Solihull and  are the city’s five Members of Youth Parliament (MYPs) for 2008.

 They will represent Birmingham at the once-in-a-lifetime debate to be held at the House of Lords. The teenagers, accompanied by other members of the UKYP from across the country, will take over the chamber for a debate to be chaired by House of Lords Speaker Baroness Hayman. The event takes place on 2nd May.

Tyrone Fowles, 15, a Year 11 pupil at Castle Vale School, who is looking for an eventual career in politics, said: “I am honoured to be part of the UKYP and very happy to be able to represent young people on major issues that should be scrutinised, from transport and homelessness to racism and education. Going to the House of Lords will be exciting, it will be a great experience for young people to speak there, and it will be good for the people at the House of Lords to meet young people as they will not normally come across us during a working week.”

Mosquito device at Sainsbury’s used ‘as last resort’

A mosquito device has been installed outside Sainsbury’s in Castle Vale – one of ten Sainsbury’s stores in the UK to have such a device – and is switched on to emit a high pitched noise that is designed to drive away anti-social youths from congregating outside the shop. A spokesperson for Sainsbury’s has told Vale Mail: ” The device is fitted as a last resort, and only after extensive consultation and review with the police, local councils, schools, neighbours and community groups, and after all other attempts to reduce anti social behaviour by large groups of young people have been exhausted. The device is activated for short periods of less than 10 minutes and is only used at the time of a specific issue or problem with anti social behaviour outside a store.”

See local journalist Scott Baldwin’s article about the Mosquito on our Writers page (click this text)

Vale Mail’s reporting ‘not of the standard we should accept and expect’ – letter

Vale Mail has received a letter from the editor of a local news website about our front page report of the ‘Friday night incidents’ in Castle Vale. Below is an extract from the letter. For the full text of the letter, go to our letters page, or click on this text.

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Hi Vale Mail

Your newspaper confirms my recent story about weekly weekend trouble re Castle Vale and Pype Hayes.

However your paper claims the trouble was being caused SOLELY by Erdington young people crossing onto Castle Vale to cause trouble!

IF your newspaper has misrepresented the facts as a feelgood Spin to Castle Vale residents (and I don’t know for sure except to say that my separate source WAS very credible and claiming it was kids from BOTH areas looking to cause trouble with each other and not just on the Castle Vale Estate either) then Vale Mail’s reporting is NOT of the standard we should accept and expect NOR is that type of innacurate reporting in the public interest.………….

Gary O Brien

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