Birmingham City Council

Strike three

Being as the incompetent IT system behind the Birmingham Bulletin has sent me this information three times in the past hour I guess that it may be worth re-printing it here: “For an up-to-date list of which services are likely to be affected by the strike please visit www.birmingham.gov.uk/strike“ For balance, the UNISON site too.

The Stirrer (amongst others) has been talking about the possibility that the Jewellery Quarter may become a World Heritage Site, meaning that, erm, er, not very much. World Heritage Site status is a wide ranging beast, from The Great Barrier Reef to Liverpool’s docks and many non-wet places in between. According to the quotes on The Stirrer the council and Jewellery Quarter association see it as a boost to tourism: “The resulting profile and recognition on the international stage would provide…a huge boost to tourism..” (Birmingham’s Cabinet Member for Regeneration Neville Sumerfield) “Although the Quarter has two museums – one of the jewellery, the other celebrating the history of the pen, I’m not sure we’ve got enough to keep the tourists here. We need more help from Advantage West Midlands.” (Marie Haddleton of the Jewellery Quarter Association) Not sure how being on a list that few people are aware of will boost tourism at all (did you know there were 851 World Heritage Sites to visit before you die?) – but it may be a boost to conservation in the area, which can only be a good thing. Photo By Lee Jordan, used under CC licence.

Birmingham 2026

It’s not a distopian sci-fi flick, it’s a “long-term community strategy shaping Birmingham’s future“. The consultation process was started in December and lasts until the 1st of March this year, and they want your views. The quickest way to have your say is an online survey on the confusingly named Be Birmingham* website. The idea (stop me if I’m wrong please) being to pick which if the statements Birmingham should strive to become “one of the best big cities for”. That bit I get, the bit about picking what your family and friends think I kind of get – picking what Birmingham thinks Birmingham should strive for frankly throws me. Anyhoo, go, give of your views. *Be Birmingham, it turns out, is the new name for what was the Birmingham Strategic Partnership – which is a group of organisations – from the private, public, community, voluntary and faith sectors – who try to work together to improve Brum.

Pool your thoughts

While the Council stall and on their reasons for wanting to close Moseley Road baths, locals – in the form of the Friends of Moseley Road Baths – have released their own proposals (PDF). According to The Stirrer, the Council cost saving two pools on the site at £20M – a lot, but only £6M more that the building of a replacement baths (the replacement baths at the Tudor Grange site cost £14M according to FoMRB). The Council’s plans won’t be officially released “until next year” – and in the meantime the baths will continue to deteriorate. They’ve stuck a banner celebrating ’100 years’ of service outside, but I don’t have any great confidence in them wanting to make it 101.

Sponsor the Sandvik lights

Fairly odd way to make money for the Lord Mayors Charities (via): For a minimum donation of £5, … people can dedicate a white light on the 50ft (15m) pine tree… to commemorate loved one’s who’ve died. Lord Mayor Randal Brew XI said: “We hope this will be a positive way of giving comfort to the bereaved while helping to generate funds for the Lord Mayor’s Charity Appeal.” Something just doesn’t sit right – you can’t have a remembrance tree, and have it surrounded by large adverts, can you?

Visitors to the council website at the moment (at least those on Internet Explorer who don’t have a pop-up blocker, sheesh, click here to take the survey if you don’t use the buggy piece of arseware) are being asked to fill in a survey about their web-use and how they’d improve the site. If you manage to get in you’ll be told that the survey is anonymous, then asked for your postcode(!), which would narrow you down to about 50 people. It’s a good idea to do a survey about what people want from the Council website (it’d be an even better idea if all web users could fill it in) – although I was under the impression that the redesign was some way along the process, so let’s hope there’s time for the results to filter in. It’s an odd survey, it seems obsessed with the idea of video, personalised homepages and audi0 (and for some reason scrobbling*) – and doesn’t really ask what you want straight-out. It asks if you go on insurance sites more than once a week – who the hell does that? Stop me if I’m wrong. but what we want from a council...

Tanks for all the fish

Charlotte Carey posted on her blog that it was cheaper (with a Railcard, admittedly) to go to the science museum in London than to Brum’s Thinktank and how it was, as someone has even bothered to write on Wikipedia, quite upsetting seeing as the old science museum was free. That’s certainly something I’ve heard before, and actually said without thinking myself, but what’s the reasoning behind it? My limited understanding was that museums owned by the local government were legislated to be free entry, but there was something about Thinktank that made it not a museum. And if, as is easily surmised, it was the extra “interactive” stuff was that worth the £8.50? This isn’t quite the case, Thinktank isn’t owned by the city council but by “Thinktank Trust” which means that it isn’t legislated to be free to the public – it does however receive an annual grant of £2 million from Birmingham City Council to cover a portion of its day to day costs. Some of the exhibits are on loan from the BM&AG collection – semi-permanent loan it would seem as there’s no Science Museum to give them back to. Apart from the council grant the...

Joined up thinking

It’s all part of the masterplan apparently, the council have appointed a company called Urban Initiatives to make sure that all of the proposed redevelopment in the city centre are “joined up”. Which at its best could be a very good thing, at its worst could be some awful logos. Let’s wait and see – here’s a nice quote tho’: Kelvin Campbell head of Urban Initiatives, which has been handed a £750,000 contract to oversee delivery of the £10bn ‘city masterplan’ said: “It is a city with the will and commitment to deliver and it does not need to work with outside agencies or partners – everything is here.” doesn’t inspire too much confidence, three quarters of a million and the first thing he says is – you don’t need us. See the Post Article

Prat Nav

The Times reports that “Officials will fit sensor equipment to Birmingham’s fleet of 70 dustcarts so they can pinpoint their location every minute of the working day.” The paper claims that this is because the binmen are “taking unauthorised breaks”, which is probably not the whole story – it might have more to do with efficiencies of routes and planing and that. But as an aside, it’s possible that it’s to track the workers. Gone are the days when workers would be trusted to do their jobs without ‘tagging’, it would seem. Perhaps if workers weren’t outsourced, messed around and were safe in their jobs this sort of monitoring wouldn’t be necessary (but that’s just a personal rant, so please ignore).

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Birmingham City Council

Strike three

Tomorrow the World?

Birmingham 2026

Pool your thoughts

Sponsor the Sandvik lights

Get Scrobbling with BCC

Tanks for all the fish

Joined up thinking

Prat Nav

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