Media Watch – Feb 19

Top Birmingham City Council stories

Photo archive ‘still at risk’ despite city U-turn on library (Birmingham Post): The Royal Photographic Society remains concerned for the future of its archives and four specialist staff based at the Library of Birmingham, despite the council’s leadership stating last week it had found an extra £200,000 - most of which would be used to scale back the threat to the archives and children’s library.

Popularity of libraries is no culture shock (Birmingham Post): A survey commissioned by 22 West Midlands’ arts organisations, shows that visiting a library is the most popular cultural activity in Birmingham.  It refers to council’s decision to cut the Library of Birmingham’s opening hours from 73 to 40 hours per week.

‘Aloof’ Bore bids to engage with colleagues (Birmingham Post): Report that Leader Sir Albert Bore has pledged to consult his Labour colleagues more widely, and will be holding a number of meetings to discuss a post-Kerslake improvement plan with them – following criticism that he’d become ‘aloof’.

Summit aims to push business to digital future (Birmingham Post): Report on the Digital Birmingham’s first Greater Birmingham Digital Summit at the ICC, where Cllr Lisa Trickett will launch the Digital Academy next week which will help businesses boost their digital profile, as part of the Smart City initiative. Cllr Trickett quoted.

Lord Mayor set for Great Brum run (Birmingham Mail): Lord Mayor of Birmingham Cllr Shafique Shah and the Lord Mayor elect, Cllr Ray Hassall, have both signed up to take part in the Morrison’s Great Birmingham 10k in May.

City poor at ensuring firms’ hygiene – study (Birmingham Mail): Report that Birmingham is one of the worst performing local authorities  for ensuring food businesses meet hygiene requirements, according to a new Which? report.

Regional headlines

A 25-year-old Birmingham woman travelling with her one-year-old son was arrested at Heathrow Airport on suspicion of terrorism offences last night.

£150m of new homes to be built on four sites in Birmingham city centre by property firm Seven Capital who are behind the plans to build 700 new apartments.

National headlines

The price the NHS in England agrees to pay for new medicines is too high, causing more harm than good overall, according to researchers at the University of York.

Michael Fallon, the UK defence secretary, has said there is a “real and present danger” of Russia trying to destabilise the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.

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