Media Watch - Feb 4

Top Birmingham City Council Stories

How Birmingham is trying to turn itself into the next Canary Wharf (Telegraph, BBC, Birmingham Post, The Business Desk) City council thinks plan to redevelop the area around Snow Hill station will create 10,000 jobs. Sir Albert Bore interviewed.

Appeal over plan for store in pub car park (Birmingham Mail) Furious Birmingham residents are fighting to stop a major supermarket chain (Sainsbury’s) from opening a store on the edge of a conservation area (Kings Norton Green).

Birmingham Central Library desks on eBay for £500 each (Birmingham Mail) Heritage fans lamenting the loss of Birmingham’s brutalist Central Library can pick up a slice of its history for £500 a go. Large oak desks used by generations of Brummie students and academics to pore over books and documents have popped up on auction site ebay after being cleared from the old library during 2014. A spokeswoman for the Library of Birmingham said that attempts were made to reuse furniture and fittings from the old library on other council buildings and libraries wherever possible, but the desks were too heavy for re-use.

Birmingham’s ‘love lock’ bridge… Still time to add yours before Valentine’s Day (Birmingham Mail) A Birmingham bridge is being targeted by besotted couples putting padlocks on the railings in the latest romantic craze to sweep the globe. Birmingham City Council said the love locks craze was “not something that had come to our attention” but would assess any locations where it was known to be happening, though bridges over canals would likely be the responsibility of the Canal & River Trust (formerly British Waterways).

Regional Headlines

Empty shops ‘show North-South divide’
Walsall and West Bromwich are among the English towns with the highest number of empty shops.

Festive park firm left with £585
A much-criticised festive park designed by Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen has just £585 to pay off its £875,000 debt, according to financial documents.

National Headlines

‘Half of UK people’ will get cancer
One in two people in the UK will probably develop cancer at some point, but lifestyle choices could still arrest the rise, experts say.

Death rate running third higher – ONS
The current death rate in England and Wales is running about one-third higher than is normal for this time of year, official statistics show.

Tags: , , , ,

Top