Dear friends,

A couple of people have said - surely it's a no brainer joining with Birmingham and the Black Country? My view is - it's only a no brainer (a) if you don't have a brain or (b) if you're too lazy to think about the proposals.

So thank you for showing that you do have brains, for not being lazy, and for signing the petition "Let Coventry residents decide whether or not they should be part of Greater Birmingham" I'm sorry that this is quite a long email but there's lots to cover. If you are in a hurry, feel free to just read this email down to the dotted line. If you want to get more involved, please read the whole email.

IMPORTANT: ASK AS MANY PEOPLE AS YOU CAN TO SIGN THE PETITION BY 17 JUNE

Why 17 June?

When I went to the Coventry City Council Cabinet meeting on Thursday 28 May we had just over 3,300 signatures. I'm sure this persuaded the councillors to say that they would look at the feasibility of holding a referendum. The Cabinet meets again on 17 June and will probably decide that it's too costly and there isn't enough time to hold a referendum. In fact I would say that this is a racing certainty unless we have added a lot more signatures to the petition, as the Cabinet members will think we've gone off the boil. However, if everyone who has already signed the petition could get just one more person to sign, we would have over 7,000 signatures, and we would have a better chance of getting the Cabinet to commit to a referendum.

Read what the Cabinet is saying

After the Cabinet meeting last Thursday, Coventry City Council published Questions & Answers on the Combined Authority on their website (http://coventry.gov.uk/combinedauthority). My own view is that the document doesn't contain enough factual information, evidence, or mention of other options to even start the consultation process. But what do you think?

How can you help?

Talk to your family. Talk to your friends. Talk to your neighbours. Talk to your workmates.

Get them to sign the online petition at <a href="https://you.38degrees.org.uk/p/coventry" target="_blank" target="_new">https://you.38degrees.org.uk/p/coventry</a> if they have access to the Internet. If they haven't, then I'm asking for help with coordinating a paper based petition and will include information on this in the next update.

Whatever your own personal opinions on the Combined Authority proposals, it helps, when you're discussing the Campaign, to make it clear that

we are NOT for or against a Combined Authority
we are NOT for or against joining with Birmingham
we are NOT favouring any political party, but
we DO want information on the proposals and the opportunity to be part of the decision making process
If you are free, please come along to the Cabinet meeting at the Council House at 2:00 pm on Wednesday 17 June, or the full Council meeting at 2:00 pm on Tuesday 23 June. I'll post further information in a future update.

Write to your local councillors. You can find who they are and their contact details just by entering your postcode here <a href="http://www.coventry.gov.uk/councillors/search" target="_blank" target="_new">http://www.coventry.gov.uk/councillors/search</a>.

Finally, I have set up a Facebook page too at www.facebook.com/givecoventryavoice. Please post your comments on FB whether you are for or against the proposals.

2015-06-01 14:27:41, minicab napisał(a):
Podobno sa plany w dalszej fazie wlaczyc nawet przylegajace obszary Warwickshire do Greater Birmingham. Byla debata w bbc radio 1.

2015-06-01 14:49:17, minicab napisał(a):
Coventry juz raz po d**** dostalo jak byli w West midlands w cieniu Birmingham. Jak dojdzie do glosowania spoleczenstwa to pomysl nie przejdzie