Dear readers — welcome to your Monday briefing. It’s week five (we think, we are starting to lose track) of the bin strikes and we have a round up of the latest news on the dispute. If you are sick of all things waste-related there’s plenty more too: Priory Square shopping centre (home to the iconic Oasis market) has closed suddenly, leaving business owners confused and concerned. Meanwhile, an FOI to Birmingham City Council reveals that, the higher the salary, the less likely staff are to actually live in the city. And Solihull locals fear for the future of Jaguar Landrover in the face of U.S president Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Plus, fans of modernist architecture will love our Home of the Week recommendation, and our Picture of the Week highlights a local talent in animation. Read on for more.
Catch up and coming up:
- Over the weekend, Kate went ‘undercover’ at the home of a millionaire councillor in Wolverhampton. Plot twist: it’s an Airbnb and he doesn’t appear to be living there. Is he lying? Read it here.
- Last week, we sent Alex Taylor on the hunt for a mysterious pigeon feeder in Sparkbrook. What he found was startling (and very funny). Catch up on that one here.
- Samuel recently went inside the belly of the beast (Reform’s Birmingham-themed rally) so you didn’t have to. Check out his members-only dispatch here.
- Samuel has a few call outs this week. Know anything about the Westside BID? If so, please get in contact with your nightlife and business gossip. Hang out with the Conservative MP Nick Timothy in Aston in the 1980s and 1990s? Have thoughts about his book on Joseph Chamberlain? Email sam@birminghamdispatch.co.uk.
The family festival outside Birmingham that celebrates everything outdoors
From today's sponsor: Bearded Theory, a four day camping festival, is returning at the end of May with incredible music and lots of outdoor family activities. Headliners this year include Iggy Pop, Manic Street Preachers and Paul Heaton, and, with a sauna box, real ale pubs on site, cinema nights, silent disco, and comedy there's masses to keep you entertained. That’s not to mention an award-winning children’s village and a Festival School on the Friday (allowing parents to get approved absence from school via pre-enrolment). It's taking place at Catton Park, just a 45 minute drive from the centre of Birmingham.
See the full line-up and book your tickets here.
To find out about sponsoring future editions of The Dispatch, e-mail Daniel Timms here.
Picture of the week
Animation by Kyle (@_kyjhi on Instagram). The Electric Cinema rendered in early 2000s Grand Theft Auto style, set to ominous electronic music. Does anyone else walk around Birmingham at night listening to Burial?
Brum in brief:
🛍️ Spare a thought for the greebos and goths in your lives: Oasis Market closed with immediate effect last week. And it’s not just Oasis, all businesses in Priory Square were told to shut up shop within a couple of hours on Thursday evening by owner Hammersons. The real estate company, which also owns the Bullring, said the decision was made with the health and safety of tenants and the public in mind. But it has left more than 30 businesses, many of them independent, in the lurch. Sammy, manager of Sabina City hair shop, told the BBC eight out of 13 employees had to be let go with immediate effect, due to the short notice closure. What’s more, after leaving the premises, Sammy was shocked to receive an alarm alert suggesting someone was breaking in, only to discover bailiffs were there changing the locks.
In the case of the Grey Lantern Pub, the landlord Matthew Eason has been able to transfer six employees to the night club Glamourous in the gay village, but that comes with its own issues: Glamourous will soon be closing for a month for a refurb. Eason reported that security dog handlers were present when he was issued his sudden eviction notice, which gave him just an hour and a half to leave the premises, despite the fact that his tenancy agreement allows for three months. He said communication with the landlord about access had been good, but details about why the centre had been closed were "a bit iffy." A Hammerson’s spokesperson said: "We have continued to act in good faith, always communicating with occupiers as soon as practicably possible." Do you know anything about the sudden closure of Priory Square? Get in touch with Kate at kate@birminghamdispatch.co.uk
🌳How many Birmingham City Council (BCC) employees actually live in the city? Well, it depends on how high up the ranks they are in the organisation. A recent Freedom of Information request issued to BCC by X user @jordanbhx reveals that local government employees on a higher wage within the LGA pay grading structure, are more likely to live outside of Birmingham — and the West Midlands county boundaries — than other council staffers. The majority of lower paid staffers — e.g. in the Grade 2 band, which pays around £20k to £30k annually — live in Birmingham (81.38%) and the West Midlands (14.78%), with only 3.85% recording their residence as ‘elsewhere.’ But when you get to Grade 7, which is a £70K to £80K annual salary, 38.93% say they live outside the region. This begs the question, says Jordan, how can decision makers understand urban issues when they live in the countryside? "Why would they care about bins, or museums or libraries that they don’t see as theirs?"
🗑️ Sick of bins? So is Angela Rayner. Last week, Unite boss Sharon Graham wrote to the deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Local Government urging her to “get involved” in solving the strike, which is now in its fifth week with bin queues reaching a mile. In response to Graham’s letter, Rayner dispatched junior minister Jim McMahon to Birmingham before following herself this past weekend. Keir Starmer added urgency to the visit by calling the situation in Birmingham "completely unacceptable” in the House of Commons. There’s no end in sight yet but Graham has suggested that the Labour government could resolve the strike by freeing up funds through a cut to the interest rate applied to the city council’s debt.
🚗 Solihull, the base of the Jaguar Landrover (JLR) car plant, has been reacting to U.S. president Donald Trump’s 25% car tariffs. “I’m appalled. It will kill Jaguar Land Rover here in the town,” retired automotive consultant Robert Mills told The Guardian. After the European Union, the U.S is the second largest export market for the UK’s car industry and there’s a lot at stake in Solihull: 9,000 people are employed at the JLR site. At the time of writing, the company has paused all exports to the U.S as it decides its next move.
Quick Hits:
🏠 Unlike the people involved, this story isn’t going anywhere: the Birmingham Mail has a report on how thousands of vulnerable homeless people are being “dumped” in the city.
🚣♂️ Towns across the West Midlands and Staffordshire are set to receive £2.2m from the government to fund boosting flood defences across the region.
🏚️ An update on the unauthorised demolition of the Crooked House pub: a company linked to the flattening of the unique 18th century building has been liquidated, with £12m in debts.
🏛️ Amid a controversial cost-cutting restructuring process, Walsall Council has denied rumours of creating a new high-paying deputy chief executive role.
🃏 Another young entrepreneur emerges from Solihull: a 12 year-old from the area has invented a card game that’s going global.
🚗 A shop owner who says he’s erroneously been issued the most parking tickets in Birmingham has accused the city council of “horrific” treatment.
🐀 The workload — and profile — of Brum’s pest controllers has skyrocketed as rat populations “triple’ during the bin strike.
🏛️ Yet another local council is under threat of bankruptcy. Warwickshire County Council may have to issue a Section 114 notice next year over a funding deficit for SEND education.
Home of the week
Love James Roberts’s architecture? Get a slice of modernist Birmingham history — for cold hard cash. This 2 bed flat in the centrally located Rotunda is going for £199,950.
Media picks
📰 The saga at Unite the Union continues — and we aren’t talking about the bin strikes. The trade union is grappling with two scandals: one concerns an overspend on a Birmingham hotel development, which was valued at £29m despite costing £112m to build. The second: a criminal investigation into allegations of bribery, fraud, money laundering and tax evasion involving several companies. In October, following the publication of explosive court documents, The Dispatch revealed that former assistant general secretary Howard Beckett (he’s the man who led the 2017 bin strikes) and three unnamed people have been questioned in relation to the latter allegations. He denies any wrongdoing and no one has been charged. This weekend, the FT published a lengthy summary of the events so far, ahead of their accounts being published this month, for the first time in four years. The whole situation has exposed a power struggle within the union, with Beckett claiming he is the subject of a “witch hunt” by Sharon Graham, who took over as general secretary in 2021. A Unite spokesperson told the FT “underhand tactics” had been used in an attempt to “thwart” Graham’s attempt to clean up the union.
📰 Here at The Dispatch we’re returning to this, nearly decade, old article from The Economist. Titled ‘The Sage of Birmingham,’ it was published a few weeks after Theresa May became prime minister in 2016. The article explores the political philosophy of Nick Timothy, May’s then May’s special advisor. Timothy was born to a working-class family and grew up in North Birmingham, attending King Edward VI Aston Grammar School, before going on to Sheffield University and, eventually, Westminster. Once in power, he name-checked Birmingham, placing references to Joseph Chamberlain in May’s campaign speeches that year. The Economist refers to Timothy and those around him as ‘new Chamberlainites’ and cites their commitment to ‘Erdington modernisation.’ An approach to reform in the party focused on struggling working-class voters in that Birmingham suburb. Fast forward nine years, and Timothy is now a Conservative MP in Suffolk and is often labelled as a ‘Red Tory’ concerned with the ‘civic gospel.’ Yet, much of his presentation to Suffolk constituents omits this legacy. Timothy is increasingly seen as a potential contender for a shadow cabinet position in the party — a decade on, how much of Chamberlain’s philosophy and Birmingham’s influence remains?
Our to do list
🎤 Improvised comedy is like marmite. If you’re a lover, then head to 1000 Trades on Wednesday where the Box of Frogs improv group will be putting on a show.
📖 Journalist and author Sathnam Sanghera returns to his hometown of Wolverhampton on Thursday to discuss his latest book Empireworld, about how the British Empire continues to shape the globe today. Tickets £33.15.
🎭 Head to The Alexandra on Thursday with all the family as Horrible Histories comes to town. Choose between the Awful Egyptians or Terrible Tudors; tickets from £15.
🎶 Afrobeats or Amapiano lovers, your Friday night is sorted; Nolly Way at Club Colette will have you dancing into the early hours.
🎭 The Rep’s new production opens on Friday. A Thousand Splendid Suns is adapted from the novel by Khaled Hosseini set in Afghanistan in 1992. Broadway World called it “storytelling at its very best”. Tickets £19.50.
🎻 Symphony of the city: Birmingham’s symphony orchestra joins forces with the city’s best grime and rap artists on Saturday for this special collaboration between CBSO and Punch Records. Tickets from £23.50.
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