‘My children play in this park. I don’t like them walking through s***.’

Raw sewage keeps flooding Bournville Park. What are the authorities doing to prevent it from happening again?

Morning Patchers — welcome to your Thursday briefing.

Today’s members-only story takes a closer look at the unfortunate plague that has intermittently hit Bournville Park over the last four years. The raw sewage leaks that had locals distraught have been temporarily stemmed, but we wanted to find out if Severn Trent was any closer to finding a permanent solution. It seems investigations are ongoing.

In your Brum in brief there are details of who walked the red carpet for the premiere of Peaky Blinders writer Steven Knight’s new show and, for the less glitzy among us (hi, me), news of cheaper flights to Spain and beyond from Birmingham Airport as easyJet’s new hub launches. In local development news, £18 million of public money is going towards building a swish hotel on Edgbaston Cricket Ground, and (less swish) Birmingham City Council has binned mobile recycling trucks in an effort to pinch pennies.

For paying members, today’s story is ready and waiting in full. If you are a free subscriber, you’ll get a window into the tale but will only be able to enjoy a few paragraphs. I know, noone likes a paywall, they’re no fun, but our intention is to change the media landscape in Birmingham for the better. It’s our hope plenty of you will want to contribute to ensure Birmingham has a quality local paper for years to come (and much of our writing will always be free to access too). Click the button to become a member today:

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Brum in brief

📽️Rolling out the red carpet: UB40, Steven Knight and the stars of the writer’s new show This Town took to Birmingham City Centre for its premiere on Tuesday. A long line of guests queued to enter the Town Hall for the screening of his much-anticipated follow up to Peaky Blinders. The story is set in the Midlands in the 1980s as the anti-racist Two-Tone music scene takes off. BAFTA-nominated actor Geraldine James told the BBC it was a faithful recreation of the period and “very dramatic and very alarming at times”.

✈️Dos cervezas por favor: Flights to the Mediterranean could be cheaper from Birmingham Airport this summer as easyJet’s new base competes with rival airlines. Aviation scheduling analyst (I didn’t know these existed either) Sean Moulton, said: “EasyJet coming to Birmingham has led to significant competition, which should be good for the customer.” The development will see 16 new links from the city with five serving key Spanish resorts: Alicante, Barcelona, Fuerteventura, Malaga and Tenerife. One-way flights to Barcelona in June cost as little as £26. Read more at The Independent.

🏏Stump up the cash: £18 million of public money will go towards building a sparkling four star hotel at Edgbaston Cricket Ground, complete with pitch-view rooms with balconies and rooms that can be converted into hospitality boxes. West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) says the project will see the stadium’s contribution to the local economy rise from £35m to £40m and will create a modest 367 jobs during construction and 100 post-completion. Work is due to finish by Spring 2017, in time for that year’s men’s Ashes Test Final against Australia. Two stands will also be redeveloped with better food and drink options and improved access for disabled spectators.

♻️Get in the bin: The council’s Mobile Household Recycling Centres have stopped recycling in a bid to save money. Four teams visit 20 different locations across the city every week between 7am and midday and used to offer a waste truck and a recycling vehicle for residents to bring their items to. They have now been renamed the Mobile Household Waste Centres and any recycling must be taken to one of the city’s five static sites instead.

🍛Silly games: ‘Lover’s Rock’ was the jewel in the crown of Steve McQueen’s Small Axe TV series in 2020 and the smooth reggae genre will be playing throughout this Caribbean brunch in Digbeth on Saturday afternoon. Tickets £13.47. 

🎭To see or not to see? A live stream of the National Theatre’s production of new play The Motive and the Cue will screen at the MAC from today. The comedy centres on theatre greats Richard Burton and John Gielgud as they attempt to collaborate on a 1964 production of Hamlet. Tonight’s screening is at 7pm and tickets are available from £12.50.

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‘My children play in this park. I don’t like them walking through s***.’

By Kate Knowles and Daniel Timms

In 1878, George and Richard Cadbury moved the chocolate-making business they had inherited from their father out of Birmingham’s industrial centre and into the countryside. The two brothers had built a factory designed to help their workers live healthier, happier lives on the edge of a clean water source, the Bourn. The stream flowed, as it does today, directly through the chocolate factory. But lately, the brook has been tainted by a substance much fouler than chocolate. 

The idyllic Bournville Park, on the banks of the brook, sits on the busy Linden Road, directly next to a primary school and opposite Cadbury World. In September 2019, the park was flooded with faeces for the first time in recent memory. Repeated leaks followed that winter. On 3 March 2020, Magdalen Gorringe sent a message to Severn Trent over Twitter to let the company know that sewage had been spotted on the bridge in the park that morning and that the repeated leaks suggested a wider problem. “My children play in this park,” she said. “I don’t like them walking through shit. I think you will need to investigate again and maybe make the investigation wider.” The Severn Trent employee responded politely and arranged for a local area manager to visit the park. “He's looking to implement a permanent solution,” the messenger said. “Hopefully this will be completed within the next couple of weeks.” Reader, it wasn’t.