Dear readers — welcome, welcome, and to those of you nursing sore heads after St Patrick’s Day celebrations, we hope this Monday briefing will be a soothing balm, or at the very least, a distraction from work.
As we enter the second week of all-out bin strikes in the city, it has come to our attention that the man responsible for waste collections at the council may not even be in the country. Cabinet member for the environment Majid Mahmood is reportedly in Egypt on business completely unrelated to refuse — more on that at the top of today’s Brum in Brief. Elsewhere in politics, an inquest into the death of a Wolverhampton councillor rules death by misadventure and Mayor Richard Parker takes a trip to China.
We’ve also got plenty of quick hit stories for you, including an important update on Station Street and an exciting new food hall opening. Plus, big news for fans of an Irish fry: based on online ratings, you can get one of the best in the country in Kings Norton (and yes, it includes soda bread). All of that, as well as our media picks, home of the week and round up of things to do await below.
Catch up and coming up:
- The Dispatch is looking to extend its West Midlands photography contact book. Are you a professional West Midlands-based photographer with experience in photojournalism? We’d like to hear from you. Email editor@birminghamdispatch.co.uk.
- Our recently hired staff writer Samuel McIlhagga is not feeling the love from Birmingham PRs — music, art, theatre, culinary, political, financial and other specialists, send your press releases his way at sam@birminghamdispatch.co.uk
Weather
☀️Tuesday: Bright and sunny, not a cloud in sight. Max 11°C.
🌥️Wednesday: Sunny, with some clouds. Max 15°C.
🌥️Thursday: Things are heating up. Max 19°C.
☀️Friday: Break out the shades: sun with little cloud. Max 18°C.
☂️Weekend: Cooler, with a little drizzle. Max 13°C.
We get our weather from the Met Office.
Photo of the week
Barry’s Fabrics Photo by @dirty.brum. There was a lot of debate in the comment section over Dirty Brum’s recent photo of Barry’s Fabrics on Moseley Street. The Birmingham photographer, musing on the closure of the fabric store, worries about a gentrified city devoid of “interest,” containing miles of “new build blocks.” They ask “is th[is] the utopia we dream of?” But others disagree, with one commenter writing: “Do you believe these premises become vacant and derelict because of new (chronically needed) housing? Or rather because the demand for manufacturing has moved to more accessible out-of-town spaces?”
Do you think Digbeth is being gentrified? Or is something else entirely happening? Have your say in the comments.
Brum in brief
🐪 Birmingham City Council’s cabinet member for waste has been accused of being abroad while bin strikes escalate. A Frankley resident has started a petition, claiming that Councillor Majid Mahmood is in Egypt completing charity work as rubbish piles up on the streets in Birmingham. Mohammed Umar is demanding Mahmood’s resignation, stating “the timing of this absence is highly inappropriate, given the severity of the current rubbish collection crisis.” Umar writes that the trip could have been “easily avoided” and that the city’s issues should have “taken priority.” The petition, which currently has 331 signatures and a goal of 500, summarises the negative impact of the ongoing strikes, including the risk of rat infestations and damage to the city’s reputation. Former-Tory councillor for Frankley Great Park, Simon Morrall –who is currently sitting as an independent since his conviction for harassing an ex-girlfriend –has written to council leader John Cotton to say Mahmood’s absence is "extremely disappointing.” The Dispatch understands Councillor Mahmood has been in Egypt for a few days for a charity trip that has been planned for a long time. He will address the criticisms at a full meeting of the council tomorrow.
🗳️ A Conservative Wolverhampton councillor and former mayor died in a camping chair in a drug dealer's home with a plastic bag over his head, an inquest has heard. Les Winwood, 67, was found at a property in Bilston, Wolverhampton, on July 17 2022. He had been there for several hours alone, taking crack cocaine and drinking vodka before he died. Winwood had visited the address several times before and was likely “seeking sexual pleasure there,” a coroner ruled. The inquest into his death at Black Country Coroners Court on Wednesday revealed Mr Winwood died as a result of misadventure. Keith Kennedy had been out of the property when Mr Winwood died but he was later jailed for two years after he pleaded guilty to being concerned in the production of crack cocaine.
🐉 West Midlands mayor Richard Parker lands in China today as part of a regional UK delegation, alongside a set of deputy mayors from the East Midlands, London, Liverpool and Manchester (outside of South Yorkshire, he seems to be the only non-deputy mayor going). He’ll be visiting Shenzhen, Chongqing and Shanghai and attempting to promote the West Midlands as a green technology investment destination. There are potential investment opportunities worth £5.5 billion in the region, including a gigafactory and battery site in Coventry. Whether this kind of UK trade delegation to China will survive the current Trump administration is another question.
🚆 Consultations are due to start on closing Birmingham’s ‘ghost station’ at Bordesley, near Digbeth. The station currently has only one train running through it a week. The line goes out from the city centre to Birmingham City Football Club’s St Andrew’s stadium, passing through Digbeth. Currently the service only stops at Bordesley once a week for match days. The station might be closed to make it easier to connect new King’s Heath and Moseley stations under construction to Birmingham Moor Street. However, this Dispatch writer thinks it would be a short-termist move to close the station — what with the massive amounts of flats being built in the area, decreasing footfall in Digbeth pubs and clubs, and the poor state of other public transport options. If anything, the service at Bordesley should be extended. What do you think?
🍳 A Birmingham cafe has made it onto that most prestigious of lists: the Best New Bingo Sites top ten places in the UK to get an Irish breakfast. Molly's Cafe on The Green in Kings Norton earned its coveted spot based on Tripadvisor reviews and Google Maps ratings as well as the overall percentage of five-star ratings. Editor’s note: I spent many a happy lunch break in Molly’s when I was studying at Sixth Form and can confirm their food is top notch.
Quick Hits:
🏚️ Birmingham City Council’s planning department is now considering granting Station Street a local conservation area listing. Sarah Scannell, assistant director of planning, confirmed to councillor Martin Brooks that a conservation area was an option to protect the Old Rep Theatre, Crown pub and Electric theatre.
🥀 Brooks has been busy — late last week the independent councillor for Harborne also launched a tirade of criticism against his former Labour Party colleagues in Birmingham City Council chamber. He openly questioned their record on governance and cuts, claiming cabinet leaders were ‘unelected.’
🏛️ A collaboration between Baltic Market, Buddha Belly and Independent Birmingham are aiming to launch a food market in the Jewellery Quarter this year, just off St Paul’s Square. The food hall will include six independent kitchens and seating for 500 punters.
🏙️ The Australian multinational construction firm Lendlease has been given planning permission for phase one of the £1.9 billion Smithfield development project near the Bullring — delivering 400 rental units.
Home of the week
This three bedroom Jewellery Quarter townhouse has all the mod-cons but still blends in with its historic surroundings. While we’re pretty sure workers in the 19th Century jewellery trade didn’t have access to three en-suite bathrooms and underfloor heating, they’re some of the features that make the place so appealing. It’s available for £695,000.
Media picks
📰 Swords Drawn. In the market for a gold-hilted, 17th Century chilanum dagger? Well, you aren’t the only one: ancient weapons from Asia are currently big business. The foremost expert on the subject is a Warwickshire-based, Birmingham-born dealer and Antiques Roadshow expert called Ranjeet Singh. He started his career in the West Midlands Police where, presumably, he wasn’t using weapons such as a bagh-nakh (a claw-like dagger that slips over the fist and which Singh sold for a five figure sum). Singh is interviewed in this fascinating Times feature about the explosion in interest in this once niche area. “When I buy something that was made by a small tribe in rural India, or I come across a new marking that I haven’t seen before, I find myself drawn to figuring out what it is and the story behind it,” he says.
📰 Bleak and bleaker still. A new study by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) has revealed that Birmingham contains the poorest districts in the UK. Additionally, the most deprived districts of Birmingham now rank below the poorest districts of Slovenia, Malta and Finland. The NIESR puts this decline of living standards down to stagnate wage and productivity growth since 2008. Max Mosley, a senior economist at the institute, told The Guardian: “The uncomfortable truth our report has uncovered is that economic stagnation over the past decade is now threatening the UK’s position as a place for a high standard of living.”
📰 Lights, camera, action! Read this piece from three years ago published in Tribune exploring the history of Birmingham's working class cinema culture. The article notes that “there is relatively little cinema-going history from Edgbaston and Harborne’, two perennial upper-middle-class enclaves near Birmingham city centre, and ‘an awful lot’ from blue collar inner-suburbs like Balsall Heath and Small Heath.” Dozens, if not hundreds, of cinemas were built during the interwar years as council housing expanded on the peripheries of Birmingham: catering to the newly affluent manual working class. The piece also notes the explosion of Desi cinema and Blaxploitation programming in Sparkbrook and Handsworth in the 1960s and 1970s — genres which were easier to find in Brum, and of course New York, than in London!
Our to do list
☘️ If you missed out on the St Paddy’s Day celebrations yesterday, it’s not too late: head to Snobs for offers on Guinness and baby Guinness all day today.
📸 This free exhibition of photographs by Tom Hicks, better known by his Instagram handle Black Country Type, is on at Birmingham City University’s Parkside building until 27 March. Psychogeography meets typography – what’s not to love?
🖼️ A major new exhibition of etchings by Rembrandt, in collaboration with the American Federation of Arts and the Rembrandt House Museum, is on at BMAG now Weds-Sun. This is the first time that this body of work has been brought out of the Netherlands as a collection so it’s a must-see before it closes in June. Tickets from £8.
🎶 Norwegian ‘dark folk’ group Wardruna return to Symphony Hall on Tuesday following the release of their new single Hertan. The proto-Scandinavian word for heart, Hertan explores the rhythm of pulse. Tickets from £49.
📖 Hunger Games fans, assemble! The long-awaited fifth book in the series Sunrise on the Reaping is released on Tuesday. Head to Waterstones for a celebration including themed games, drinks and snacks. Dressing up is encouraged. Tickets from £4.
🎤 Multi-talented singer and songwriter Iniko plays the 02 Institute with her blend of trap, dancehall, rock and soul on Wednesday. Tickets are available from £22.60.
🎹 If Van ‘the man’ Morrison is more your thing, head to the Symphony Hall on Wednesday to see the legend himself — there are still seats available in the Grand Tier for £55.
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