Dear Editor, I totally echo the thoughts of Paul Dale (Iron Angle, August 12) concerning the ridiculous notion of Black Country council leaders refusing to join Birmingham (and possibly Solihull) in a collective Local Enterprise Partnership.
I voice my disdain at the plethora of small town thinkers who reside inside our urban metropolis assuming they are not actually part of a city region. This conurbation is connected by citizens from Wolverhampton to Solihull and from Rubery to Sutton Coldfield totalling 2.3 million people but apart from the one million who live in Birmingham, the others see it as a fragmented area of separate townships, sensing huge gaps in our culture and heritage.
This is a damaging and completely negative viewpoint that is doing down the Greater Birmingham LEP bid which is there for all of us and not just those within one segment of the metropolis.
The former LEP arrangement that funded schemes went through Advantage West Midlands, which had to focus on an area ranging from Gloucester to Rugby to Stoke-On-Trent.
We are now looking at a much more concentrated area of primarily urban subjects – something which is simpler to define. I hope the Black Country bigwigs think about how the rest of the country and how indeed, the world sees us.
While we, in this great sprawling metropolis mess, bicker over stupid and meaningless boundaries of authority, certain conurbations up North get on with their collective spirit of thinking and put aside immature differences.
Ian Wood
Small Heath
