West Midlands Police are asking for people to come forward regarding anti-social behaviour in the Green Lane area of Castle Bromwich. The specific roads concerned are Wyckham road and Windleaves road.
If you have any information regarding people involved please contact telephone number 0345 113 5000 ext 7922 6741.
Alternatively, you can email castlebromwich@west-midlands.pnn.police.uk
Jane Baker / Greensnapper Photography
Driving through the Bromford Estate, it’s hard to spot- blink and you’ll miss it. Tucked away amongst the other shops on Bromford Drive is The Hub, home to Hybrid’s latest ‘Inhabit’ pop up arts tearoom project for the next few weeks.
Birmingham City Council funded the project that came into action after a tender was put out to fill empty high street shops around Birmingham. The project fuses artwork, tea and community spirit and has been successful in Handsworth and Stirchley. Hodge Hill is the latest area to play host to one of these unique pop up tearooms.
As I peek through the door, the woman sitting at the nearest table beams at me “Are you here for the tea room? Karen is over there.” I carry on walking past the old round tables and pretty cake stands accompanied by vintage cups and saucers when Karen pops up from under the counter.
Karen Meng, project assistant at Hybrid is working at the Hodge Hill tearoom over the next few weeks.
“It’s really culture on your doorstep,” she explains, “We want to bring people in to an arts space, it’s a great way to engage people with art work.”
The Hub already holds after school clubs on a weekly basis, so far the project has been popular amongst children and parents in Hodge Hill.
“When the children come in they get really excited and parents have been stopping for tea too,” says Karen “we sit at one big table so we try to encourage people to get chatting.”
There are a variety of different activities on offer at the tearoom involving several different independent artists commissioned by Birmingham City Council. Although the project does encourage local independent artists to come forward and they have the opportunity to host a workshop of their own at the tearoom.
“We have had different characters in each tearoom,” says Karen “from children to older people, the homeless and local workers who stop by for tea.”
So far, the project has been publicised through the use of Twitter and promotional post cards and has had attention from BBC4 and The Guardian.
Karen explains; “We like to take the soft approach, the project aims to target the surrounding area so usually we get a lot of publicity just by word of mouth.”
The project was funded from April 2010 and is due to wrap up at the same time this year. Many visitors to the pop up arts tearooms have been sad to see them go, so what does the future hold for projects such as this one?
“It wasn’t something that we anticipated would carry on, we knew from the beginning it would only last until April 2011. People could really benefit from permanent tearooms, just as momentum has built up with the tearooms it’s time for us to pack up again, particularly in Stirchley- people really wanted us to stay.
But what are the chances that a similar project would come round again? Due to Government cuts it’s not guaranteed that the project would receive funding again.
“It depends what funding is available and how the local council feel about the outcomes of the project. However it’s really not about the council, we hope that we have made an impact upon people and that a local business or local citizens decide to set something like this up through the social enterprise model.”
The next stop for the pop up arts tearoom is the Pavilions Birmingham, which opens on Thursday 10th March.
Find a full schedule of activities at the Bromford tearoom here.
2011 census
Hodge Hill residents- if your census didn’t land on your doormat yesterday, it probably will today, in one of the biggest single mailouts the Royal Mail has handled. According to the Office For National Statistics, the census is to reach 26 million homes in England and Wales by census day on March 27th.
The census is sent out every ten years and helps to plan the future of services such as transport, education, healthcare and housing.
This year we have the option to fill it out online or by traditional paper form, but surely filling it out online is easier for everyone at the other end reading the results?
According to the Office For National Statistics, 2011 Census Director Glen Watson believes that the online census is more convenient:
“This will be quicker and it’s better for us because we won’t need to scan the forms and decipher all that handwriting. Of course if people want, they can still do it by hand. Completing the census form promptly and sending it back to us means no one will have to knock on your door to remind you.”
However, 61 year old resident of Hodge Hill, Maureen will be filling her form out by paper: “I shall be filling my census out in paper form, I find it more convenient and I can fill out questions when I want and stop and come back to it if I need to.”
If you need help with you census visit www.census.gov.uk or call 0300 0201 101.
B36Blogger have put together a map of recycling points in Hodge Hill, Bromford, Alum Rock, Castle Vale and Castle Bromwich.
240 new year 6 pupils were offered places at Hodge Hill School yesterday according to the schools Twitter page. The news comes as many anxious pupils wait to hear if they have secured a place at their chosen secondary school.
The school, who currently has around 1186 pupils, announced the news on their Twitter page:
“Congratulations to the 240 Year 6 pupils who have been offered a place at the school today!”
The Twitter page has been set up and used recently as a new news platform to update staff, pupils and parents.
Castle Bromwich Hall Gardens/ Bill Dargue
The Rare Plant Fair will be paying a visit to the historic Castle Bromwich Hall Gardens this spring.
According to rareplantfair.co.uk “the impressive gardens of Castle Bromwich Hall grew, flourished and fell into decay. Having been developed by two generations of the Bridgeman Family (the son and grandson of Charles II’s great lawyer, Sir Orlando Bridgeman) these walled, terraced gardens have always remained somewhat of a mystery, to the extent that even in the immediate area, their true origins and pedigree had been forgotten in the intervening centuries.”
Held on Sunday 1st May from 11am to 4pm, tickets are priced at £4.00 for adults and £1.00 for children.
According to rareplantfair.co.uk, it will include the following nurseries:
For more information contact Castle Bromwich Hall Gardens.
www.cbhgt.org.uk
0121 7494100
*Image by Bill Dargue.
*Quotes from the Rare Plant Fair.
Coleshill road, Hodge Hill/ Jessica Dutton
It’s something most of us exclude ourselves from, mainly because we don’t have the time or perhaps we feel like we just don’t fit in, but community events not only give you a chance to meet your neighbours, but also make you feel even more a part of your local community.
Hodge Hill’s United Reform Church (Blue Cross) on the Coleshill Road is a regular in hosting coffee mornings, fairs and fete’s in the summer.
As it is a little too chilly at the moment, this week’s event will be held in doors. The jumble sale will take place on Saturday 5th March from 11am, so there’s no excuses for it being too early in the morning!
Go and have a browse through, you never know, you might find some hidden gems! If you have anything to donate or would like a stall for yourself please contact the church directly.
*B36Blogger takes ownership of the photograph used and all rights are reserved.
Have we, as local citizens of Hodge Hill, thought enough about what information is available to us online?
Frequently accessed data includes land registry information, crime statistics, planning applications and neighbourhood tasking meeting minutes, but what information would you like to access online?
Last night, B36Blogger attended the Make A Difference With Data unworkshop at Fazeley Studios in Digbeth, which is part of the Making a Difference With Data project.
We discussed what information is already available to local citizens, what barriers there are in accessing information, what information we would like to be able to access and how it would change things.
One interesting topic was the usefulness of Twitter, although we can complain to our local council via telephone or written letter, how many people complain via Twitter? It takes up far less time, common complaints can be easily logged and categorised and statistics can be compiled on a much easier and accessible basis.
Blogs, such as B36Blogger should also act as a complaints platform, local residents should make use of their local blog to make their opinions known and also create discussion around common complaints. Not only is this a great place to voice opinion, but through your local blog you can meet your neighbours and work together to get things done.
We want to be able to access statistics when it comes to complaints. We want our local council to record calls, put them under catagories and be able to access information on common complaints, and also find out how many are followed up, investigated or resolved.
As B36Blogger has already covered, Police UK have released a crime map web site for you to find out how many crimes are recorded in your area, but what we can’t access is the information regarding how often the information is updated, what was done in the area about the crimes and even when they took place.
It seemed to be a common problem that data can be confusing, data should be easy to read and easy to locate the most important information and highest and lowest statistics.
We want local authorities to make locating data easier, for example, Birmingham Ciy Council are often guilty for making information hard to find and ‘burying’ it within their site. For exmaple, accessing minutes from the last neighbourhood tasking meeeting can be particularly tricky. This could be because they have hundreds of pages and headings or perhpas that their search box isn’t effective or they are simlpy putting things under the wrong headings.
There are many issues surrounding access, availability and reading local data and statistics. Have you ever had any problems with local data, or problems accessing local statistics?
Nicky Getgood interviews B36Blogger’s editor Jessica Dutton, listen here.
As the work to demolish the Bayley and Stoneycroft Towers on the Bromford estate continues, passers-by stop to watch as bit by bit, the multi-storey falls away.
Pieces of the building are showering down to the ground, a faint rumble is heard in the distance and passers-by stop to watch the building be demolished.
Even local residents have been coming out to take pictures and videos on their phones.
Local resident on the Bromford estate, Andrew, says “I’m glad that they are finally being demolished, they were an eyesore.”
Bromford Towers demolition/ Jessica Dutton
Bromford Towers demolition/ Jessica Dutton
B36Blogger takes ownership of these pictures, all rights reserved.
In November of last year liambyrne.co.uk reported that the internal soft stripping had begun on the 20 storey Bromford and Firs towers.
This week, work has begun by Birmingham City Council to demolish the multi storeys that shadow over the M6 and the whole of the Bromford estate.
According to 24dash.com the work to demolish the flats has begun as the cost of refurbishment was estimated to cost around £7.4million.
The work to demolish the flats has been delayed for some time, but they have been coming down bit by bit each day this week.
Councillor John Lines said: “I’m delighted we are now in a position to get rid of these towers and I thank the Homes and Communities Agency for supporting us with funding.
Birmingham’s Cabinet Member for Housing continued,“I’m committed to building more high quality new council homes in the area and making improvements to the wider community. Last year we started work on 600 new council homes through the Birmingham Municipal Housing Trust and I’m keen to continue to deliver more new council homes for our people in Hodge Hill.”
Watch out for updates and pictures of the process on B36Blogger.
B36Blogger 