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Brum in Brief
🚄HS2 funds ‘reallocated’: Funding from the abandoned Northern leg of HS2 will be reallocated to Midlands councils — with the regions set to get £2.2billion in funding. The government said the money will go towards local transport with councils unitary authorities getting oversight on how it will be spent. Labour criticised the announcement saying it amounted to a “back of a fag packet plan”. Full details here.
⚖️XL Bully case hits court: A man has denied being responsible for an XL bully which injured two adults and one child in Bordesley Green last September. At the time, a clip of the incident went viral online and fed into a wider debate on the dog breed, which was banned earlier this month. Farhat Ajaz pleaded not guilty to being in charge of an out-of-control dog with the next hearing on 25 March.
🏗️Wolves redevelopment calls: While an international design competition has been launched in order to attract regeneration ideas for the old Sainsbury’s site in the city centre, the Wolverhampton Council leader has said there must be a development focus on other local districts. Stephen Simkins argued areas such as Bilston, Wednesfield and Tettenhall cannot miss out with the need for a “whole city approach”. Latest updates here.
🚫Stirchley venue chaos: A retro music venue, which was advertised as opening this coming Friday, will no longer do so. Despite selling out tickets to a launch party on 1 March, Sally Brown’s will now not open at all with co-owner Steven Davis citing a disagreement and funding as issues behind the decision to pull the plug. Full story via BirminghamLive.
🎺Free Jazz: At The Dispatch we don’t often share listings for Warwick but we stumbled upon a free helping of jazz at the Warwick Arts Centre so had to give it a signal boost. On this Friday, and for the next two Fridays after that, there is a jazz programme hosted by The Aaron Moloney Trio which includes an open jam session. All the musical information at a click.
📷Erdington photo walks: In order to help plot out next week’s fun, we’re sharing advance notice of Birmingham-born artist Jaskirt Dhaliwal-Boora’s photo walks and workshops around Erdington. With the walks exploring personal stories and experiences of mental health in green spaces, the sessions include photography, walking and writing. It all kicks off on Monday 4 March but there are other dates, too. All the details here and, wonderfully, no experience is necessary to take part.
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