New push to persuade doubting communities to take up vaccine
Work begins on £165m Soho Wharf canalside homes project
THOUSANDS of people in a deprived area of Birmingham are to receive a letter from a Covid taskforce urging them to get the jab.
The Erdington Covid-19 Taskforce is trying to increase vaccination rates in some of the poorest areas and particularly among ethnic minorities and Eastern European communities.
Over 15,000 letters have now been sent out across the constituency.
While the vaccine roll-out continues apace with more than 90 per cent of those aged 65 and over receiving their first dose so far, there are pockets of lower take-up.
The latest Covid Vaccination Overview from Birmingham City Council said: “Uptake is lowest in more deprived communities and in some ethnic communities, particularly the African and Black Other ethnic communities followed by Pakistani, and Bangladeshi communities across most priority groups.”
In Erdington there is a marked difference between the take-up in Gravelly Hill and Stockland Green compared to other wards in the constituency.
In Stockland Green 82 per cent of people over 80 received their first dose by March 2, and in Gravelly Hill it was 83 per cent, while in Erdington ward, Pype Hayes and Castle Vale it was more than 90 per cent.
Gravelly Hill also had the highest Covid infection rate in the constituency at the time.
As well as links to poorer areas, the taskforce has also found lower rates of vaccine take-up among the Polish, South Asian and Afro-Caribbean communities.
Evidence suggested a reluctance amongst Erdington’s Polish community to get the vaccine. Magda Zielinska, community development officer for the Polish Expats Association/Centrala, said in a YouGov survey just 28 per cent of people in Poland said they would get the vaccine – the lowest of any country in the study. In contrast, in the UK the figure was 80 per cent, second only to Thailand’s 83 per cent.
Ms Zielinska told the Post: “Polish people are generally negative reacting to anything vaccine related. Even with those that want to get vaccinated there are doubts. Will migrants get treated, will we be included in the vaccination programme?
“A lot of Polish people don’t access medical services. Some think the NHS prescribe paracetamol for everything, whereas back home we are used to getting antibiotics. People are concerned whether the vaccination was developed properly. There’s a distrust of the NHS.
“We have been running this Covid campaign since last year to help different Eastern European communities access information and help. There are big Polish communities in Erdington, Acocks Green and Handsworth and we are looking to inform them, bust myths and help them get vaccinated.”
THEFTS of catalytic converters from vehicles are at an all-time high having soared amid lockdown.
More than 1,500 such thefts were reported to West Midlands Police in 2020.
That was three times the figure of 524 incidents in 2019, while there were just 120 thefts in 2018.
The most common cars targeted were the Toyota Prius, Toyota Auris and the Honda Jazz last year, according
to Freedom of Information data released by the police.
Thieves hunting scrap metal target hybrid models with catalytic converters – a part which cleans harmful gases before it exits the exhaust pipe – as it contains a larger concentration of precious metals.
A West Midlands Police spokesman said: “We appreciate catalytic converter thefts are a real pain for motorists. They cause lots of inconvenience
and are also expensive to replace. There has been a sharp rise nationally in thefts fuelled by the increase in value of their precious metals.
“We’re targeting groups who we suspect are behind a large number of these thefts and working with police forces across the UK as part of a national metal theft task force tackling these crimes.”
The thieves are twice as likely to
strike at car parks and on roads rather than driveways or outside homes in the West Midlands.
The modern-day crime is sweeping the UK with 13,000 reported cases in 2019, up by 2,000 from 2018 in England and Wales.
West Midlands Police added: “We’d advise motorists to speak to their vehicle manufacturer about the best way to try and prevent catalytic converter thefts.”
CONSTRUCTION work has started on a new £165 million canalside housing development in Birmingham.
Development team Galliard Homes and Apsley House Capital are leading the Soho Wharf scheme in Ladywood where they plan to build more than 750 new houses and apartments across a range of buildings reaching 14 storeys.
More than 100,000 sq ft of brick and corrugated iron industrial buildings and warehousing, which have been largely unoccupied and derelict for years, have already been removed from the brownfield site to make way for the new development. The finished scheme will have 102 townhouses with two or three bedrooms and 650 one- and two-bedroom apartments, 300 parking spaces and more than 10,000 sq ft of commercial space.
The Soho Wharf site covers 11.6 acres at the corner of Dudley Road and Heath Street South opposite City Hospital.
It will adjoin both the Old Line and Main Line canals, with investment taking place to surface the towpath and improve lighting and green space.
Access to the canal will be via a bridge from the public terraced area and there will be a play area and facilities for young children alongside new pedestrian, cycle and vehicle routes through the site.
The first phase of the development comprising 318 apartments will be available from the end of next year and the whole project is due for completion by 2024.
Galliard Homes and Apsley House Capital are also behind residential schemes The Timber Yard in Southside and St Paul’s Quarter in the Jewellery
Quarter. Galliard Homes’ chief executive Don O’Sullivan said: “Soho Wharf will transform a redundant brownfield site into a green and welcoming environment for families and wildlife.
“The design maximises the site’s two canal frontages and the addition of a new pedestrian bridge over the Old Main Line Canal will improve accessibility to the city centre, just a ten-minute walk away.
“The site is the largest in our Birmingham portfolio and provides Galliard Homes with the opportunity to do what we are best known for in London – regeneration and placemaking, on a grand scale.”