Media Watch – September 24
Top Birmingham City Council stories
Feature on Hajj fraud (The One Show, BBC1): Coverage of inspections of travel agencies selling Hajj package tours in East London, as part of an ongoing investigation in Hajj fraud by Birmingham City Council and City of London Police.
CCTV will catch gardeners who illegally dump grass cuttings (Birmingham Mail): Report on the Sustainability Scrutiny Committee meeting, which included discussion on use of CCTV cameras on fly-tipping 'hot spots'. Cllr Lisa Trickett quoted.
ICC lockdown for Tory conference (Birmingham Mail): Short story on security around the Conservative party conference which begins at the ICC on Sunday.
City to shed 6,000 jobs (Halesowen Chronicle): Story on the Leader's announcement last week on the need to reduce the number of full-time posts from 13,000 to just 7,000 by 2018. Council Leader Sir Albert Bore quoted.
Nuisance tenant is evicted by council (Halesowen Chronicle): Report on the eviction of Ramone Das, from his home in Simmons Drive, Quinton, after he ignored warnings from the police and Birmingham City Council. Cllr James McKay quoted.
Birmingham wholesaler fined for selling non-halal meat to Muslims (The Muslim Weekly): Report on the successful prosecution of JKY Food Solutions who sold a box of non-halal chicken as halal to an officer. Cllr Barbara Dring quoted.
Hajj fraud investigators arrest two and seize £400k in East London (The Muslim Weekly): Coverage of two arrests made and the seizure of about £400,000 from travel agencies in East London, as part of an ongoing investigation in Hajj fraud by Birmingham City Council and City of London Police.
Broadband voucher scheme overhauled (BBC Online): Feature on the Government overhauling its plans for getting ultra-fast broadband to UK businesses, which follows BT and Virgin Media's challenge to Birmingham City Council’s plan to spend the money on a 100Mbps (megabits per second) network for the city.
Regional headlines
A prisoner is arrested for armed burglary committed after he escaped from his cell at HMP Hewell prison in June.
Marston's brewery announce plans to rebuild its headquarters in Chapel Ash, Wolverhampton, as part of a multi-million pound scheme.
National headlines
Ed Milliband admits he 'forgot’ to mention the deficit in his conference speech, delivered in Manchester yesterday.
Radical Muslim cleric Abu Qatada has been found not guilty of terrorism offences by a court in Jordan.
