http://www.flickr.com/photos/birminghamnewsroom/4268712426/

Councillor Mike Whitby is the elected representative for Harborne Ward, Leader of Birmingham City Council, Leader of the Conservative Group and Chairman of the Birmingham City Council Business Management Committee.

I have been in email contact with Cllr Whitby’s office since May 21st 2010.

Back then, I requested a short 30-minute appointment with Cllr Whitby, to conduct the interview with him, in exactly the same format as those on this page. Negotiations, explanations, questions, date adjustments and diary juggling have been continuing since then to accommodate Cllr Whitby’s diary.

On August 5th, I received email communication from Cllr Whitby’s office (with a restriction statement of confidentiality and legal statement attached), not only cancelling our appointment next week (planned for Monday 9th August), but also completely cancelling for the future.

Upon reflection, I will avoid the temptation to include my personal thoughts here, instead allowing the above factual report to accurately inform readers/ viewers of the situation surrounding this particular interview.

The above image was created by Birmingham News Room, and is used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic licence. The original image can be viewed here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/birminghamnewsroom/4268712426/