Since 1994, a group of Balsall Heath residents have successfully battled drugs, prostitution and unemployment destroying the heart of their community. How? By picketing, rallying and setting up a progressive local forum

At first glance, Balsall Heath does not look like the kind of place that would be feted by politicians. Twenty years ago, it was notorious for crime and prostitution, and today it is still within the 20% most deprived areas in the UK. It lies close to the “Balti triangle” in Birmingham, a city whose reputation has taken a battering in recent years, thanks to the so-called Trojan Horse scandal (which saw allegations that some Birmingham state schools were being taken over by hardline Muslims who were undermining headteachers), and the outlandish claim on Fox News that it was a no-go area for non-Muslims.

But something in the densely packed rows of terrace houses, shopping streets of fast-food outlets and sequin-strewn Asian fashion shops has attracted everyone from David Cameron to David Blunkett, from Jack Straw to Iain Duncan Smith.

The answer lies in a little wooden building on St Paul’s Road. Surrounded by a green oasis of flower beds, vegetable patches and greenhouses is the Balsall Heath forum, the heart of a community with ambitious plans. Inside the cabin, which looks like a cross between an Alpine chalet and a garden shed, is a collection of local people, from teenagers to pensioners, whose community spirit is said to be the inspiration of Cameron’s ill-fated Big Society.

But while the government may have quietly dropped their buzzword, in this corner of Birmingham, it has stepped up a gear. Alongside the litter picks, youth awards, interfaith celebrations and food banks that are the forum’s day-to-day work, they are fighting to ensure the needs of people living in the deprived streets are met with tailor-made services. The latest skirmish in this battle is a referendum of the 15,000 residents to push through a neighbourhood development plan.

When I said I was from Balsall Heath, everyone shrank back as though I had a disease Raja Amin

Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘A green oasis of flower beds, vegetable patches and greenhouses’ … Balsall Heath forum. Photograph: David Sillitoe/The Guardian

Brought in under the 2011 Localism Act, the plan will set the development agenda for the 2km sq area for the next 20 years, allowing people who live there to decide how the land around them is used. While other similar schemes have been voted in across the country, Balsall Heath is said to be the first in an urban area to go to a referendum – a testament to the kind of collective activism more often associated with villages.



Over a cup of tea, Raja Amin, one of the forum’s original founders, explains how it was not always like this. In the late 80s, high unemployment, gangs and a spiralling crime rate made living in Balsall Heath frightening, he tells me. The area was known as “Little Amsterdam” because of its reputation as a red-light district, with almost 500 women working in a four mile radius – many in “window displays”.

“Gangs were saying they ran the street,” says Amin. “Drug dealers were sitting around on corners from 10am to 4am … No one wanted to admit to being from Balsall Heath. I remember being on a plane and I sat down between a man from Alum Rock and one from Handsworth,” he says. “We got chatting and were laughing at the fact we were all from Birmingham, but I kid you not, when I said I was from Balsall Heath, they all shrank back as though I had a disease.”

The police seemed incapable of making a dent in the neighborhood’s problems, and the families living there grew increasingly scared and frustrated. Abdullah Rehman, the chief executive of the forum, who grew up in Balsall Heath where his dad ran a local supermarket, says things went from bad to worse when crack cocaine swept through the area. “My customers got more vicious,” he says. “One of the [working] girls, Samo Paull, was murdered.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Make Life Worth Living: Nick Hedges’ photographs for Shelter in 1969-72. This Balsall Heath family lived with no bathroom, no heating, no hot water and extensive damp. Photograph: Nick Hedges/National Media Museum, Bradford

“This was the place to come – for drugs, guns or women. One thing I can never get out of my mind is seeing a pregnant woman being hit on the street because she hadn’t earned enough for her pimp. It became fight or flight. We were getting nowhere with the police: they said they were spending £350,000 a year on the vice squad and what more could they do? The council said, ‘If you don’t like it, leave’, but of course we couldn’t because our houses were worthless.”

Finally, Raja Amin had enough. A British Rail union representative, he, along with five or six other local men, started standing outside their homes with placards demanding change. They noted down the number plates of the kerb crawlers and held posters reading, “Your wife will find out”, hoping to shame them out of the area. The word spread and soon whole streets were turning out to help, he says.

“We called it the Balsall Heath pickets: from the union, we knew about strikes, but really it was a street watch.” Support from the local churches, mosques, synagogues and gurdwaras soon followed and, Rehman says, within six months, the crime rate had dropped.

But it was what happened next that really changed things, says Rehman. To capitalise on the new-found community cohesion, the forum was set up in 1994 by sociologist Dick Atkinson. Now with six paid employees as well as more than 500 volunteers, it runs micro residents group, all attended by local police and council officers. “People want to contribute more when they are included and treated as part of the solution not the problem,” says Rehman.

The picketers, meanwhile, have been transformed into street wardens, who work to improve the local environment, and there are partnerships with more than 50 local groups, with initiatives covering everything from social welfare projects visiting elderly residents to training and employment. By 2008, a survey showed 70% of those in Balsall Heath felt they could influence what happened in their area, and 86% of Balsall Heath’s ethnically mixed population (said to be 57% Asian, 24% white and 10% black) said they felt people with different backgrounds got on well together. A huge 89% felt satisfied with their local area. Local people speak with pride about the fact that more people are moving into the area than are moving out, and with evident astonishment that it is now seen as a “desirable” area.

We called it the Balsall Heath pickets​, but really it was a street watch. Within six months, the crime rate had dropped Abdullah Rehman

Facebook Twitter Pinterest David Blunkett talks with neighbourhood warden Adbul Hamid during a visit to Balsall Heath. Photograph: David Jones

The turnaround has brought politicians to Balsall Heath, keen to learn the lessons of their community cohesion – or at least bask in its reflected glory. In 2001, Blunkett arrived, while David Cameron has been a repeat visitor, staying in Rehman’s house and mentioning him in his speeches.



But the development plan, say the forum members, will improve the area even further. Architect Joe Holyoak, who has spent three years putting it together, says: “Under the old system, when planning officers make plans, they consulted local people,” he says. “But the planners and local politicians had the ultimate responsibility. Now that is entirely with the community.

“For instance, one of things that came up again and again were the parks. There are seven and they are very well used, because this is an intensively residential area with a high proportion of children. But they have been under invested in.” But there are also more ambitious items: a railway station for Balsall Heath, a transformation of the the local river – currently blocked off by concrete walls and fences – and a new town square.

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For Luke Holland, it is the plan’s youth hub that is the most exciting prospect. The 18-year-old, who this April stood in the local elections in a bid to become the country’s youngest councillor, tells me there are few places for young people to socialise in the area. He was hoping the local council would pass a motion to allow 16-year-olds to vote in the referendum on the development plan. But while the motion was passed, it was too late to implement it for the referendum, and instead, Holland will be arranging a shadow referendum for those under 18 on 8 September, ahead of the main referendum on 8 October.

“Birmingham is the UK’s youngest city,” he tells me seriously. “About 42% of our inhabitants are aged between 16 and 26, but young people’s voices are neglected.Having this mock vote would indicate to the city – and the country – that young people care about where they live.”

Anywhere else, it may seem strange to hear a teenager speak so passionately about planning law, but after a morning spent in the forum, I am no longer surprised. “This is my city and it rips me apart when I hear it maligned,” says Holland. “When people think of Birmingham, they think of things such as the Trojan Horse scandal, but the Forum shows the best of the city and the best of its diversity. All ages, all faiths and all backgrounds.”

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