Dear Patchers — welcome to your very first Monday briefing of 2025. In case you missed our little update last week the Dispatch team has been enjoying an extended period of festivities (Sam in Cadiz, Kate in Paris) but now we’re very much back into the thick of it. Today’s topic? Perhaps not the most glamorous but a very important one if you know your recent Birmingham history…the bin strikes are back. Also, if you were a New Romantic, hanging around New Street Station in 1981 — we want to hear from you. More info at today’s pic of the week.
Catch up and coming up:
- Our weekend read about protesting students at the University of Birmingham ignited a lot of healthy debate in the comments section. One reader said: “Another interesting article on the Dispatch. You won't find much discussion of this on other media.” If you haven’t already, have your say.
- Were you a fan of Neil Kulkarni’s writing? The first anniversary of the death of the beloved Coventry music journalist is next week and we want to hear your tributes. Please send them to: kate@birminghamdispatch.co.uk
- New year, new stories. Got a tip that The Dispatch needs to know about? We want your info! Send it to us at: editor@birminghamdispatch.co.uk
In other news:
- Thanks to The Guardian’s John Harris, who referred to us and our sister titles in this column, as examples of innovative “agile” news outlets that are countering the erosion of quality local journalism.
- Read this story, published by our sister paper The Londoner, about the ‘cult-like’ Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG) which has a Birmingham branch on Suffolk Street Queensway. “Former members say they were shown graphic pictures of the corpses of people who had died after they exited the church to dissuade them from making the same choice.”
Editor’s note: We’ve got big plans for 2025— including new investigations and forays into local culture with plenty of scoops thrown in. As always, we rely on paying subscribers to keep us going, so we don’t have to plaster our reporting with annoying adverts and pop-up videos. If you want to join us for £8 a month and stay up to date on Birmingham’s biggest stories, click the link below:
“I want to read more intentional, slower, quality work that goes back to the heart of journalism." — Dispatch reader.
Weather
🍃 Tuesday: Mild with a gentle breeze. Overcast. Max 9°C.
🌫️ Wednesday: Misty and dry. Max 9°C.
🌥️Thursday: Cloudy to begin with, sunny intervals later on. Max 8°C.
🌫️ Friday: Patches of mist and fog with a few sunny spells. Max 6°C.
🍃 Weekend: Overcast with a slight wind. Max 5°C.
We get our weather from the Met Office.
Big story: Return of the bin strikes — Birmingham faces second of 13 days of action by refuse workers
Top line: Birmingham bin strikes resume tomorrow for the second time this year, with13 days of walkouts planned for between now and April. That means that your bins are usually collected on a Tuesday — tomorrow they’ll stay put. And if you know your local history, well, this might all be unsettlingly familiar…
Context: Birmingham City Council is in a row with Unite the Union which represents most of the refuse workers in the city. Approximately 350 are walking out because the council is planning to cut 150 roles, which Unite says will lose staff about £8,000 a year. The council says all affected staff have been given the option to move into other roles that pay the same as they are getting now, or they can take voluntary redundancy.
Deja vu: The Waste Recycling and Collection Officer (WRCO) roles — the ones set to go — might sound familiar to eagle-eyed Dispatch readers. The council tried to get rid of these in 2017, leading to a seven-week strike that left streets in such a state, one resident described the scenes as “a buffet for rats”. When the council went bust in 2023, the equal pay crisis was cited as the reason — and it had its roots in this dispute.
Why bin the bin roles? The council says it is rehauling its waste service, partly to save money, and partly to meet the demands of the government's 2021 Environmental Act. The new plans include weekly food waste collections which will be phased in between April and November.
Anything else? Another urgent reason the council wants to remove these roles is because they propose a hefty equal pay risk. That’s because employees in similarly graded jobs, often women, aren’t necessarily getting the same pay and perks as the WRCOs. Unite, however, says the WRCO roles are critical to the safety of workers and the public.
When are the next bin strikes planned for?
- January: Monday 6, Tuesday 14, Wednesday 22, and Thursday 30
- February: Monday 10, Tuesday 18, and Wednesday 26
- March: Thursday 6, Friday 14, Monday 17, Tuesday 25
- April: Wednesday 2
In the meantime: The council says it is “making every effort” to remove waste during the strikes. This might include collecting rubbish and recycling at the same time. They say they will try to separate recyclable materials afterwards through a “treatment process".
Good to know: If anyone was thinking of delivering their bin bags directly to the council HQ in Victoria Square, residents have been reminded not to do this. Not only will it not be removed more quickly but you could be prosecuted for flytipping.
Photo of the week
Two ‘New Romantics’ standing outside Birmingham New Street Station in 1981, shared from @thenightowlbham. One wonders if they’re now Dispatch readers, sipping coffee and nostalgically humming along to Duran Duran, if not The Last Dinner Party, somewhere in Moseley or King’s Heath.
Brum in brief
🧑⚖️ Joanne Roney, the new managing director of Birmingham City Council, will stand trial later this year accused of calling a property agent a “massive Jewish bellend” while chief executive of Manchester City Council in 2022. Roney and Manchester City Council (also listed as a defendant) deny the allegation.
📷 Birmingham photographer Vanley Burke has been awarded an honorary doctorate from Birmingham City University (BCU) for documenting Black British life in the 20th and 21st centuries. The “Godfather of black British photography”, as Burke is known, also travelled to South Africa to document life there following the release of Nelson Mandela in the 1990s. His huge archive of photographs is stored in the Library of Birmingham.
🏛️ Walsall Leather Museum's future is threatened, as the local authority holds consultations to close, relocate or digitise the institution. The Leather Museum was founded in 1988 and celebrates the area's heritage in leatherworking. Walsall Council has said that more visitors are needed to ensure the "long-term sustainability of the museum.” In reaction, a petition has been launched, gathering over 2000 signatures. “[Leather is] what Walsall was famous for, what is it famous for now?” one petitioner asks.
🗳️ Former Birmingham Labour MP and Secretary General of the Council of Europe Terry Davis has died aged 86. Davis was born in Stourbridge in 1938 and educated at the local King Edward VI grammar school. He served as a central Birmingham MP from 1971 to 2004, spanning the governments of Edward Heath to Tony Blair. After a career in Westminister, Davis was elected head of the Council of Europe in 2004: irritating the Obama administration, who called him an ‘unpopular lame duck,’ when he made moves to prevent the rendition of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.
Home of the week
This penthouse can be found in a Moseley apartment block called ‘Britannic Park.’ Both the name and the aesthetics put this Dispatch writer in mind of a J.G. Ballard novel — although potential owners may want to avoid any ‘High-Rise’ situations. The flat comes with a giant spiral staircase, original parquet flooring, curvy ceilings in the sitting room, and, potentially, a view of the University of Birmingham’s ‘Old Joe’ clocktower. It’s current owners welcome offers of £600,000 and above.
Media picks
⛓️ Is the famous Black Country accent disappearing? A BBC profile of linguistics academic Dr Esther Asprey, asks the question. On the one hand schools in the area have attempted to ban pupils from using native expressions like ‘you cor,’ instead of ‘you can’t.’ But, on the other hand, the internet is creating niche ‘Black Country’ communities where new original phrases like ‘twag’ (telling tales) are generated by the young.
🪓 Brought out of retirement for one last job: Max ‘the axe’ Caller is the government’s go-to council fixer. Here he is profiled by the New Statesman one year after being appointed lead commissioner of Birmingham. Reflecting on his 50+ year local government career he says there are always three things ailing councils have in common: “failures in governance, failures in leadership and a lack of honesty in communication.” Which doesn’t sound great but, hey, the only way is up!
Things to do
Tuesday
🎭 Catch an evening or afternoon showing of Peter Pan, pantomime-style, at the Birmingham Hippodrome on Tuesday at 7.15pm. Expect high-camp, bustling dames, and lots of ‘he’s behind you!’ Tickets start at £18.50.
🥘 Lots of Birmingham restaurants are offering money-off deals throughout January — especially on weeknights. Check out this list by blogger Bab About Town for inspiration for Tuesday night dinner.
Wednesday
📖 The unpublished works of one of Birmingham’s most admired academics, the late Stuart Hall, will be available to read and listen to in this series of seminars at the Birmingham Race Impact Group (BRIG) cafe in Digbeth. This week is the first session, which is free to attend.
🌹 On Wednesday, the CBSO (City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra) is combining Ukrainian composition with the Shakespearean classic Romeo & Juliet. Conductor Kirill Karabits and soprano Jennifer France team up to deliver first Borys Lyatoshinsky and then Sergei Prokofiev’s interpretations of the tale of fated lovers. Tickets start at £26. Doors at 7:30pm.
Thursday
🏦 Join the Unlocking the Vaults project, at the University of Birmingham’s Exchange Building, on Thursday. Dr. Justine Pick, a community historian, invites you to explore the history of the building when it was the city’s municipal bank and gain first-hand historical research experience. Free, but booking is recommended. Doors open at 10am.
🎻 The German National Orchestra is in town on Thursday with a blockbuster concert featuring Britten, Gershwin and Holst. Expect high-energy performances from the official partner of the Berlin Philharmonic. The show starts at 7pm. Tickets from £15.
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