urban street crime in middle-class B29 shock

There's a burnt-out car in Selly Wick Road!

From b29

Apparently the fire service were busy putting it out on Sunday evening around 6:30 PM.

Must remember to add it to Fix My Street, but in the meantime we're enjoying the NIMBYness of some of the B29 FMS entries: this person from the ever-lovely Weoley Castle posting in the "Flytipping" category clearly thinks that the race of the "youths" is relevant, though she hasn't quite grasped the precise definition of teenager ...

Brum taxis: lottery?

You may have seen the headlines on 11th Jan about the odd criteria being applied to people applying for taxi licenses in the Midlands.

The situation in Birmingham is still unclear: the Council's newsroom website reported the story as part of its Media Watch, but there is no release about it, and we've been asking for a link to their policy on twitter, which they seem to have been ignoring. (Not even a reply saying why they don't want to give it to us). Does this mean the BBC newsroom is overworked, inept, doesn't care or is trying to avoid the issue?

The Council's own site (the newsroom is a separate bit, presumably because the expensive new content management system on the main site doesn't allow them all the functionality they need) just has links to application forms - there's no mention of what criteria will actually be applied. I'd find that a bit weird if I were applying for something ... However, there is a list of prosecutions, which mainly features driving without insurance.

So we'll do some more digging ... I can't believe the Council doesn't understand that people are concerned about this, and that it *might* be a good idea to try and be a bit more transparent? Interestingly, although the Post reported the story, they didn't get a quote off BCC. Is that cos they didn't try, or is the BCC newsroom ignoring them too?

Igloo, Selly Park

new_folder has captured a beautiful snow construction in Selly Park...

Brrrr proof

Naturally you've noticed it's cold, but the Birmingham Selly Oak Weather station has the proof: -9.3°C on Thursday 7th Jan.

snow snow snow snow

This morning, snow at about 7/10 on the #uksnow scale morphed B29 into Narnia ...

  

B29 Through The Viewfinder

As I was idly perusing the Birmingham B29 flickr pool today, I came across this rather lovely construction:

It's a Through The Viewfinder (TTV) picture by Pete Ashton of the actual park in Selly Park. TTV pics are often taken by aiming a newfangled digital camera at the viewfinder of a ye olde one, creating some interesting effects. Pete's also in the process of setting up a shop if this has got you slavering to purchase one, and he's got a whole load of other pleasingly wonky pics on his site too.

I also find new_folder often has some fresh takes on B29 ... anyone got any more suggestions of unusual pics of the area?

Local issues for the next election

Are you interested in making the next general election a more transparent process? Then you might be interested in the Democracy Club, a network of volunteers to help mySociety and TheStraightChoice ahead of our next big vote.

They want to know what the local issues for the next election are for a variety of areas to help inform their website - so we'd love to hear from you what you think are important decisive topics for the local area.

Here's a possible list to get started:

1. Flooding - is enough being done to protect local residents? Can the various agencies responsible for flooding work together well enough?
2. Green transport - is enough being done to keep public transport low to encourage cars off the roads? (The endlessly increasing bus fares are a personal bugbear of mine. Especially when you have to get on a 47, pay £3.30 for a return and there's someone smoking dope on the top deck at 9AM.)
3. Congestion - why is driving into or through the city centre such a convoluted unmitigated nightmare?
4. Council finances - how can central government help to make BCC more transparent? How can we counter local borkups like BCC spending £2.8 million on a new, broken website and having the head of the scrutiny committee say that local people aren't interested in how the council is run?

And a few yes/no ones:

1. Should South Birmingham PCT be allowed to continue with presumed opt-in to Lorenzo patients record system?
2. Should the redevelopment of the Central Library go ahead? (though I realise it's not in B29).
3. Should we get the Stirchley swimming pool redeveloped?

Perhaps a better question is "Are there any local issues which divide the candidates standing at the next election" - let us know in the comments below, or by using the hashtags #localissues and #b29 on twitter, and we can feed them back to Democracy Club :).

Selly Oak New Road - Bournbrook stuff

Phase 2 has got its own website, mysteriously full of watercolour paintings of dual carriageways, and a map that's far too small to be useful.

They have got some progress pictures, though, and some brief information about what's going on. I was interested in the mysterious crane action in Bournbrook Road - they are apparently realigning the river, extending the bridge and culverting (enclosing) part of the river.

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It means Bournbrook Road is shut (until Feb 2011!), but it doesn't seem to stop people optimistically driving past the Road Closed signs and frowning at the inability to get on the Bristol Road.

Supermarket slight relocations

Looks like the Selly Oak New Road Phase II has a theme: relocating supermarkets by approximately 20 yards.

Not only are Sainser's planning to rebuild themselves on Battery Park, just across the road from their existing store, but Tesco Metro on Bristol Road has relocated ... approximately 20 yards. The new one is due to open today; will you miss the old one?

Spot the difference:

ready to run?

In case it had escaped your attention, Birmingham's going half-marathon crazy on Sunday (11th oct) with a "normal" half marathon starting around 10AM and the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships, women starting at 9 and men at 9:30. Both routes go through the area, so it's your chance to hang out in B29 (in my case, on the Pershore Road) casually eating sandwiches and watching sporty people flash by.

Unless of course, you're actually running, in which case (a) it would be great if you could film it using a chest-mounted camera; and (b) good luck! Apparently the professionals go by much faster than you'd expect . . . the IAAF site tips Ethiopian Tilahun Regassa for the men's race. His personal best from last year was 59:36: using very basic maths, that's about 13 miles an hour. Speedy :).

The Birmingham Half Marathon people (the council and an energy company) have also laid on some entertainment, including a saxophonist in Cannon Hill Park, and an African drum band and a ceilidh band on the Pershore Road. The latter two I can see helping people with their rhythm, but I've never tried to run to The Pink Panther theme before :). Here's a map of the route (PDF) plus entertainment points overlaid.

From the map, looks like a good place to stand is by the Nature Centre on Pershore Road so you get to enjoy the drums and see contestants going both ways. It also seems to be near a water station, but is it wrong to hold out your own refreshments to the runners? A boiled egg, perhaps? A cooked vegetarian sausage? A selection of crudités? Though I expect the houmous would go everywhere.

*Everyone* I've talked to about the event so far has mentioned the unfortunate Paula Radcliffe evacuation incident, so I won't :). Sadly, though she was billed to appear, she's been struck down with tonsillitis so we won't get to snap her zoooooming past. I'm also looking forward to seeing the wheelchair race - you often see people running in the park, but I've never seen a wheelchair racer training. The wheelchair half marathon starts at 09:50. If you get any good pics, please add them to the flickr B29 group - we'd love to see them.

The Beeb decided not to show the IAAF race, but Sky will. This means images of Broad Street (the finish line) will be beamed across the world on Sunday morning: let's hope they get to clean up all the vomit & drinking rubble left over from Sat night first. In theory, the race(s) should boost the local economy - Bristol's 2001 hosting netted the local economy at least £0.58m!

Finally, if you've got a car, remember not to park it on the route on Saturday night - restrictions start at midnight. They'll take it away somewhere, though it's free to get it back. The helpline is 0844 888 3883.