http://www.westmidlandsno.org.uk Home of the West Midlands NO! Campaign Wed, 23 Jul 2008 21:57:35 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The Commons Transport Committee has criticised the AWM-sponsored redevelopment of Birmingham New Street station saying that it is not convinced that the redeveloped station will be adequate for expected future use. No matter how much money is spent on New Street Station, there is no realistic way of expanding the station ... http://www.westmidlandsno.org.uk/2008/07/23/41/ Harriet Harman, the Minister for Communities and Local Government, has hinted at forcing city regions to hold referenda on having a directly elected city regional mayor. This is nothing more than a sticking plaster designed to deflect attention from the fact that city regions are wasteful, undemocratic quangos that the electorate ... http://www.westmidlandsno.org.uk/2008/07/16/its-not-dead-its-just-stunned/ West Midlands NO! is pleased to announce its latest supporter: Dr Bob Spink MP (UKIP: Castle Point). Dr Spink joins Daniel Kawczynski MP (Conservative, Shrewsbury & Atcham), Mike Natrass MEP (UKIP, West Midlands), Councillor Denis Allen (Conservative, Telford & Wrekin & Mayor of Wellington, Shropshire), Councillor George Ashcroft (Conservative, Telford & ... http://www.westmidlandsno.org.uk/2008/06/26/announcement-new-supporter/ The Chairmen of 6 regional assemblies - including the West Midlands Regional Assembly - have written a letter to the Times calling for them to be allowed to make regional policy even though their quango is being abolished. Nothing wrong with suggesting that of course, but it is the dishonesty that ... http://www.westmidlandsno.org.uk/2008/06/26/dishonest-quangocrats-desperate-for-power/ BBC's Midlands Today programme have given Advantage West Midlands a well-deserved slating today over its £6m new offices for West Midlands Business Link. Local businesses are struggling with the credit crunch, the onset of a global recession and the continual decline of the manufacturing industry upon which the economy of the ... http://www.westmidlandsno.org.uk/2008/06/23/awm-criticised-over-6m-offices/ John Edwards, the former unelected Chief Executive of the unelected Regional Development Agency, Advantage West Midlands, is being given a CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours for services to the rural economy. Edwards presided over Birmingham-centric AWM for many years and as anyone who lives outside of "Greater Birmingham" will know, ... http://www.westmidlandsno.org.uk/2008/06/14/awm-boss-to-get-cbe/ Advantage West Midlands, the unelected regional development agency, has been leasing the site of the former BBC Pebble Mill studios in Edgbaston since the BBC moved out in 2004. The studios have been demolished and the site is nothing more than a patch of bare earth.  AWM wants to turn the ... http://www.westmidlandsno.org.uk/2008/06/07/four-years-on-and-nothing-to-show-for-it/ Discarding RDAs will benefit local people Dear Sir, David Bailey criticises Tory proposals to strip Regional Development Agencies of their powers - claiming that this won't help the West Midlands economy and will inevitably lead to a recentralisation of policy-making and delivery in London. This couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, ... http://www.westmidlandsno.org.uk/2008/05/26/discarding-rdas-will-benefit-local-people/ The Birmingham Post is claiming that a Tory plan to strip Regional Development Agencies of some of their powers will damage the economy of the West Midlands and centralise decision making. This is absolute nonsense. Removing the regional quangocracy will empower local communities, increase democratic accountability in the decision-making ... http://www.westmidlandsno.org.uk/2008/05/17/eurofederalist-regionalist-professor-defends-awm/ The press have spent the last couple of days carrying stories about the trans-national regions again, horrified that Federal Europe has lumped London and the South East in with France. This story seems to make it into the news roughly every 6 months with the same newspapers expressing the same horrified ... http://www.westmidlandsno.org.uk/2008/04/25/trans-national-regions-rear-their-head-again/