Media Watch – October 16
Top Birmingham City Council stories
City has to use Cornish workers to roll out new wheelie bins (Birmingham Mail, p6 lead): Report about 30 workers being brought up from Cornwall to help with the delivery of new wheelie bins, as only a “very small number” of firms offer this service and no local companies bid for this contract. Cllr Peter Douglas Osborn quoted.
Crime Commissioner: Mayor should be in charge of police (Birmingham Mail, p28): David Jamieson has said the public would be safer if his job was abolished and his responsibilities should be passed to a West Midlands mayor instead, in papers submitted to a Commons Inquiry.
Girls would ask is this right? We are not allowed to say no to sex? (Birmingham Mail p8-9 lead): Further coverage of a National College for Teaching and Leadership tribunal on conduct by worker at Park View – an academy school linked to the Trojan Horse plot – who was described as a ‘general’ in a group of 20 Muslim male staff attempting to impose a conservative Muslim mindset at the school.
Call to ease traffic chaos before new M&S opens (Birmingham Mail, p38 lead): Report on calls for Birmingham transport chiefs to sort out the ‘mayhem’ at the busy road junction at Longbridge Lane and Longbridge High Street, before a flagship Marks & Spencer store opens in November. Cllr Andy Cartwright quoted.
Mum-to-be and child saved from huge fire (Birmingham Mail, p14 lead): Coverage of a fire at a block of council-owned flats in Brownfield Road, Shard End on Wednesday night.
Perry Beeches school plan blocked over rooftop playground safety fears (Birmingham Mail – web): Report that Planning Committee members rejected plans for a play area above a two-storey section of the proposed Perry Beeches Primary School in Bath Row, on the Attwood Green estate, over concerns of increased congestion and safety concerns. Cllrs Gareth Moore and Peter Douglas Osborn quoted.
Pressure grows for Birmingham grammar school expansion (Birmingham Mail web): Interview with headteacher at Bishop Vesey Grammar School about Kent County Council’s decision to approve plans for an annexe to The Weald of Kent school in Sevenoaks. States that Birmingham City Council would assess any calls for expansion on a case by case basis.
Council boss fed up of ‘being treated like child’ (Local Government Chronicle, p4 lead; The MJ, p5 lead): Coverage of comments made by the council’s chief executive, Mark Rogers, that he is ‘fed up with being treated like child’ by central Government bureaucrats, during his speech at the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives (SOLACE).
Regional headlines
Hospital trusts in Birmingham – Heart of England, University Hospitals and the Children’s Hospital - have recorded a total deficit of more than £24m between April and June this year.
Auction of Big Hoot owls raises more than £500,000 for new rare diseases unit at Birmingham Children’s Hospital last night.
National headlines
Families of Lockerbie victims welcome news the naming of two new suspects in relation to bombing of Pan Am flight 103 which left 270 dead in 1988. US and Scottish prosecutors have asked Libyan authorities for permission to interview the Libyan men.
According to a new study by researchers at Imperial College London and King’s College London, the activity of immune cells may provide a strong indicator of whether a person is at risk of developing schizophrenia.
