Dear readers — how are we all faring? July is entering its final stretch and August is on the horizon, leaving us to wonder where exactly the year has gone. Kate's off on her very well-deserved holidays, so you've got Dan Cave and Moya holding down the fort. In today's edition, we're recommending long reads examining whether HS2 ever stood a chance of succeeding and writer Kasim Ali explores why he always felt he had to leave Alum Rock.
First though, your Brum in Brief.
Brum in brief
👮 A concerned stepmother has reached out to The Dispatch after being ‘disappointed’ by West Midlands Police who are handling a case concerning her stepdaughter. Police were notified in January after the 11-year-old girl was coerced into sharing explicit photographs in a group on Snapchat but, according to her stepmother — who we are not naming in order to protect the identity of the child — progress on the case has been sluggish. She claims that over the past six months, the family has been assigned three different officers and struggled to be given updates. “It’s really disappointing how the police have handled it,” she tells The Dispatch. After enquiries were made to West Midlands Police about these complaints, the stepmother says there’s been an improvement; the latest officer assigned to the family has been “more empathetic”. Of her stepdaughter, she reports, “She’s a little light, she’s trying to put it behind her. She’s being positive.” West Midlands Police told us:
We’re investigating after an 11-year-old girl was coerced into sharing child sexual abuse material online. We have been in touch with the girl’s mother, and have carried out a number of enquiries with technology companies to identify those responsible. Officers from our child abuse investigation team continue to investigate and provide updates to the girl’s family. Tackling child sexual exploitation is a priority for us. Find out more about the steps that can be taken to protect young people from online harm here: CEOP Safety Centre.
✋ The government has hit Dudley Council with a ‘best value notice’ after “governance problems” were identified at the local authority, the Local Government Lawyer reports . In a letter, senior civil servant James Blythe notified Dudley’s chief executive of the decision, adding that the notice comes after annual audit reports from November 2023, “found cultural problems relating to the inappropriate behaviour of some members towards officers”. Blythe acknowledged some improvements have already been made, however, he said the government wants to see "serious issues” addressed “at sufficient pace". Council leader Patrick Harley welcomed the notice, calling it an "opportunity" to evidence recent improvements.
🏍️ Brian Buck, longtime speedway league secretary and current environmental officer of the soon-to-be-disbanded Birmingham Brummies speedway team, claims that written pleas to save Perry Barr stadium have fallen on deaf ears. Buck has been involved in speedway racing in Birmingham since 1953 and is known as a ‘father figure’ in the sport. He wrote to The Dispatch just as we published our Perry Barr stadium retrospective this weekend, reporting that letters outlining the important of speedway to the city were sent to Mayor Richard Parker, the City Council’s Head of Projects, Birmingham City’s owners (who purchased the old Birmingham Wheels site) and ITV Central but went ignored. Interestingly, he writes that Sainsbury’s were refused a planning application on the current Perry Barr site in 1964 — the area was earmarked for the sole use of sports and leisure.
Quick Hits
🚄 West Midlands commuter rail services are among the most overcrowded as passenger levels overtake pre-Covid numbers. (The Guardian)
🤜 Schoolchildren involved in a last-day-of-school Cathedral Square (Pigeon Park) brawl have been condemned as ‘feral animals’. (BirminghamLive)
Catch up and coming up:
- On Saturday, Dan Cave headed over to Perry Barr stadium to watch one of the city’s last ever greyhound races — you can read about that here.
- Last Thursday, West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker wrote an op-ed for The Dispatch laying out his belief that the region’s economy can be reignited. The piece sparked a slew of replies from our readers, ranging from disgruntlement at the messaging to sharing their own views on the struggles of the West Mids. You can read Parker's article and take up your own right to comment here.
Birmingham Dispatch
Media picks
✍️ Alum Rock-raised author Kasim Ali has penned a reflective piece for The Observer on why he left the deprived east Birmingham ward for a career in writing and publishing in London. He reflects on the area’s history as a centre of south Asian migration, sprawling interconnected family networks, and what that means for his own sense of personhood and individuality. As well as the arguments this caused as he moved to London and broke from, what he describes as, south Asian family norms. “I have always wanted to leave and I’m not sure my family could ever understand that,” he writes.
🚄 Did the UK’s politics, geography and property ownership norms mean that HS2 was always going to be a mess? A new BBC long read looks at how the £81bn 135 railway project has floundered.
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Photo of the week
Nowka Bais CIC shared this picture of celebrations from the 10th annual dragon-boat style Edgbaston Reservoir race with teams from Birmingham, London, Cardiff and the North West competing. The race reflects Bangladeshi traditions on honouring the river in Monsoon season.
Our to do list
🎭 Tickets are still available for Sarah Kane’s harrowing cult play 4.48 Psychosis at Stratford-upon-Avon’s The Other Place on Tuesday (other performances across the week). Kane studied at University of Birmingham under playwright David Edgar.
📣 Join Lauren McQuistin at Waterstones on Tuesday for a discussion about her debut guide to recovery from alcohol addiction, No Lost Causes Club.
📽️ Birmingham’s Indian Film Festival continues across the week, with the UK premiere of Himalayan love story Pyre catching our eye. At the MAC on Wednesday.
📚Dan Hicks, Professor of Contemporary Archaeology at University of Oxford, is speaking at Millennium Point on Thursday; his latest book, ‘Every Monument Will Fall: A Story of Remembering and Forgetting’, is about the history of culture wars.
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