Panic at the council: the battle for Birmingham’s budget is on

Dear readers — welcome to March. And what a lovely way to start off the month with a surge of people signing up to read The Dispatch following our weekend investigation into what happened during the downfall at Yorks cafes. Please make yourselves known in the comments or get in touch at editor@birminghamdispatch.co.uk — we’d love to hear from you.

Another thing you can do, newcomers and readers of old, is help spread the word that we are hiring! The Dispatch is on the lookout for a new reporter, someone with bags of energy, full of ideas for stories, and a flair for writing. Check out the job description in full at the link below and don’t hesitate to apply if you fit this description.

Catch up and coming up:

On Saturday, Kate’s bumper investigation into Yorks cafes — their rise and spectacular implosion — garnered a huge response. “Fantastic read. Proper journalism.” wrote one Redditor. There’s more to be written on this, so if you worked for Yorks or have any inside info, get in touch via kate@birminghamdispatch.co.uk. Catch up here.
On Wednesday, we published a feature by freelance writer Erin Lewis about Birmingham drag queens — and their embrace of ‘bastard’ drag. Read here.
The Dispatch needs your help: Madeleine is interested in knowing more about two organisations which fundraise on the streets of Birmingham. Attentive Management and NonStopNonStop are part of a youth-focused conglomerate which raises money to prevent knife crime. You may have seen them near the Bullring wearing black jackets with a gold logo. If you’re aware of them, have ever spoken to them, or know someone who has been helped by the work they do, please get in touch with madeleine@birminghamdispatch.co.uk.
Plus, we’re over half way to our goal of 500 pledged members to open a sister title in Leeds. Love what we do and want to support even more of our award-winning local journalism? Find out more here.

Photo of the week

Chamberlain Square, captured by Irina Mackie is at the centre of one of this week’s top stories. Birmingham city council has been landed with a £30m bill for the Paradise development that has transformed this part of the city centre into a polished thoroughfare.

Brum in Brief

😓 Is Birmingham a “cesspit”? That’s how one independent councillor described the city in a meeting last week. Jane Jones (formerly of Labour) made the comment during a debate on Tuesday about Labour’s proposed budget for the coming year. Labour leader John Cotton argued that the new spending plan confirms the now non-bankrupt authority is “back on track” and a “thriving powerhouse” prompting an angry response from opposition members. Jones countered that the city had actually become the “cesspit of Europe” and a “laughing stock”. Cotton and Birmingham Labour are in a tight spot — last week they postponed the vote on their budget because they were nervous they wouldn’t have the numbers needed to pass it because their majority has been slashed over the past year, due to a spate of resignations, defections and two tragic deaths. The vote will now happen at 2pm today but if Labour is unsuccessful — and the councillors The Dispatch has spoken to aren’t confident, on said the party is "panicking" — a fresh budget meeting will be held on Tuesday next week, with opposition parties bringing their suggestions to the table. As if that wasn’t enough, there is another dark cloud hanging over the group: the potentially bad omen of last Thursday’s Green Party victory in the Gorton and Denton byelection in Greater Manchester. One Labour councillor told The Dispatch on Friday “a lot of people messaging this morning to say the Manchester result makes them think Labour is finished here”. Still, Cotton is optimistic. Comparing his party with Reform and independents, also on Tuesday he described the elections as “a choice between fresh ambition, unity and progress with Labour, or opening the door to a politics of division and despair.” (BBC).

🗳️ Also at the authority: Birmingham city council may have to use public money to pay for half of a £60m bailout for the Paradise development on Chamberlain Square. The premier scheme that began development in 2015 (now home to up-market hospitality chains like Dishoom) initially required the loan to pay for the land and the cost of relocating businesses affected by the works. That money was due to be paid off by 2032, through land receipts and income. However, a council spokesperson said, “due to the wider economic conditions affecting the market” since the first building was completed in 2019, the development cannot afford the repayments. External auditors Grant Thornton have now identified that the council is liable for £30m of the loan, leading to the project being rated as a ‘red risk’ to council finances. They also noted that the liability had “not been previously identified or managed within the council.” It’s the second time the council has had to find the cash to save the £1.2bn project, which is widely seen as a promising symbol of economic renewal. The third and final stage — including demolition of the Copthorne Hotel to be replaced by two new buildings and a public park, and the creation of a new, luxury hotel — is supposed to be finished by 2030. An “urgent” review of the scheme is now underway. (Birmingham Mail).

Quick Hits

A 17-year-old boy has been charged with murder following a stabbing outside a mosque in Smethwick. (BBC).
Ozzy the bull has donned a flat cap in preparation for the premiere of the new Peaky Blinders movie which comes out this Friday. (ITV).
A Solihull Conservative councillor defected to Reform last Thursday. Cllr Prish Sharma said he believes the party has the “real answers”. (Solihull Observer)
Five men have been arrested in Oldbury following a stabbing early yesterday morning. Two men were taken to hospital with non life-threatening injuries. (BBC)

Media picks

💻 The Lie Feed, a short film YouTube channel, released a documentary last week called: Unspoken: The Birmingham Chinese Story. Funded by Arts Council England, the film was made over Lunar New Year in Birmingham, with researchers and West Midlands playwright and poet Ian Henery, to explore “migration, identity, belonging and lived experience.” The documentary is 44 minutes long, and tells “stories that have lived quietly for decades” about Birmingham’s Chinese community. (YouTube)

📰 If you’ve read our weekend story, you’ll know who Simon Ford is. He’s the “charismatic and elusive” owner of Yorks cafes — once a promising chain of coffee shops in Birmingham and Stratford-upon-Avon — now facing at least £750,000 of debt as well as the ire of investors and former employees. But back in 2014, Ford seemed to be an entrepreneurial powerhouse — that’s when he was interviewed by Steve Dyson for Business Quarter magazine. The interview traces his career from Next’s management scheme, becoming the youngest store manager in their Oxford Street branch, to “red tape frustrations” when running Debenhams in Dubai, and eventually to starting his own business, Blue Banana. That firm ended in disaster in 2009, when the UAE’s investment bubble popped and Ford received a "chilling threat” that led to him fleeing the country 48 hours later. For readers who enjoyed our weekend investigation, the interview is an intriguing insight into Ford’s way of thinking. (Business Quarter, pp.20-21.).

Letters

A response to our story ‘Cheap, hairy, hilarious: Brum’s queens are embracing ‘bastard’ drag’ by Erin Lewis:

“'Bastard drag' owes a huge amount to Lily Savage and her contemporaries but, as a cultural phenomenon, drag has been a mainstream entertainment in the UK since at least the late C19th: this is when the pantomime dame was established as a stock character by actors like Dan Leno, alongside 'drag kings', as we'd now term them, such as Vesta Tilley, in music hall. From then on, drag, in various guises, has been a staple of British comedy: to give just a few examples, Alec Guiness dragged up in the 1949 film Kind Hearts and Coronets, as did Alistair Sim in the St Trinian's films of the 50s and 60s; my grandmother was a huge fan of Danny LaRue, whose drag career launched in the 60s, and was followed by double acts such as Hinge & Brackett and Les Dawson and Roy Barraclough as Cissie and Ada a decade later.” — Paul Rodmell.

Our to do list

🥟 Crafts:

On Friday, pop over to Nexus Cafe in Digbeth for a spot of vinyl painting while listening to jazz. Tickets are £25 and include your vinyl, its vintage sleeve, and all supplies needed. On Sunday, head over to the Hampton Manor to take a dumpling-making class with the owner of Kings Heath restaurant Blow Water. Book here.

🍿 Stories:

The much anticipated movie Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man comes out on Friday. Catch the first screening just before midnight on Thursday at the Mockingbird Cinema. Tickets here — and by the way, they’re selling fast. On Saturday, float your boat at the Birmingham and Midland Institute listening to and learning about the shipboard diaries of two Brummie women who headed to the States in 1794, only to be captured and held prisoner by a French frigate. Tickets are £5 for non-BMI members and can be purchased here.

🍛 Iftars:

We are almost halfway through Ramadan, which this year coincides with lent. Whether you worship or not, there are a couple of interfaith iftars happening this Thursday, one hosted by Retrofit Balsall Heath at the Balsall Heath Church Centre, and another by the Dialogue Society at Birmingham city council.