Dear readers — having resigned ourselves to the bad weather, we spent much of our weekend indoors. Kate mainly worked on the Sunday read about Craig Guildford, while finding time for a pitstop at Mario’s Catch in Smethwick for chips and curry sauce. It’s a combination southerner Sam still struggles to get his head around, although he has traumatic memories of a drunk student regurgitating the combo all over his shoes while at uni in Scotland. That might have something to do with it. His weekend was spent reading: 100 pages of War and Peace and a Financial Times feature on how to cook with a cast-iron skillet. Don’t say we don’t know how to have fun.
Enough of that though; on with the Monday Briefing. After Guildford’s resignation, West Midlands Police remains under intense scrutiny, and an(other) old building has gone up in flames.
Catch up:
Last week we published a bevy of stories, including:
- The revelation that the wife of Hall Green North councillor Akhlaq Ahmed, who has previously campaigned against HMOs in his ward, owns supported exempt accommodation.
- A deep-dive into an ongoing conflict between residents at Wakefield Court in Moseley and a multi-billion pound London-based property empire called Freshwater. “Appreciate you shining a light on the exploitation these property management companies are inflicting on millions of people,” says Eamon in our Instagram comments.
- A run-down on the events leading up to WMP chief Craig Guildford’s resignation.
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Photo of the week
Alternative transport around Smallbrook Queensway. Early 1970s Photo: via @BirminghamHistory. Ever ridden a horse through central Birmingham? Let us know in the comments.
Brum in Brief
👮 The turmoil continues for West Midlands Police (WMP), who have been accused of “ignoring” alleged hate crimes against Jews by a whistleblower. The informant has called the force “institutionally antisemitic.” A dossier of internal emails and crime logs has been leaked to the Telegraph detailing complaints made to the force by members of Birmingham’s Jewish community, which WMP appears to have “disregarded.” These include a complaint by a former police volunteer who claims she was dismissed after raising her concerns. In one incident, WMP is accused of “failing to act” after a 12-year-old Jewish girl was punched in the face and kicked in the stomach by a classmate shouting “free Palestine,” leaving her in need of medical attention. In another, the WMP’s Prevent Unit allegedly failed to act when it discovered a school WhatsApp group, in which a student said he wished Hitler had done more to “kill the dirty rats [Jews.]” A spokesman for West Midlands Police, responded to the Telegraph article, saying the force will “never tolerate any form of hate crime.” (the Telegraph).
🚒 Last Friday, Birmingham’s Grade-II listed answer to NYC’s Flatiron building, affectionately known as ‘the red palace,’ went up in flames. The building sits on Constitution Hill, between Hockley and the Jewellery Quarter, and in recent years has housed the restaurant Syriana. The blaze broke out on the fourth floor at around 7.30 and it took eight hours to extinguish, with one person injured and sent to hospital. The West Midlands Fire Service (WMFS) have said the cause was “accidental” and the exterior of the building remains relatively undamaged.
💸 Birmingham heritage campaigner, known online as Save Station Street, claims that there was a failed application to demolish the red palace in 1996, a failed application to turn it into flats in 2003, and an earlier fire in 2007. The Dispatch did a little digging and found 1-7 Constitution Hill’s freehold is owned by Brilliant Conch Limited, an “overseas entity” according to Companies House which bought the building in 2017 for £1.02m. Interestingly, the firm is registered at Palm Grove House, Road Town in the British Virgin Islands — a hub for offshore business that appeared in the 2017 Paradise Papers, a huge leak of financial documents which shed light on the world of offshore finance.
🏙️ Needless Alley, the little street that winds its way down from Cathedral Square to New Street, is one of those Brum curiosities which often captures the attention of visitors. An international student recently posted a photo of the street sign on the Reddit r/Brum thread, writing: “I don't know if street names like these are common in the United Kingdom, but I just found this sign so funny- like what did the poor alley do [sic]”. Although the road is a little under-utilised these days (it has few shopfronts and is lined with bins from nearby businesses) it has an interesting history. Birmingham Conservation Trust writes that the alley is a remnant of old Birmingham; it is first mentioned on maps in 1773. In the Victorian era the street got a bit of a bad reputation when six residents were hauled in front of the magistrate for keeping “disorderly houses.” One woman in the dock was described as “a nymph, resident in Needless Alley.”
⚕️ Alec Gandy, a former NHS manager in Dudley, has been jailed after pleading guilty to fraud worth £123k, which was diverted from patients and used for gambling. Between 2022 and 2023, Gandy, a manager at Integrated Health and Care Trust, registered two "fictitious" workers on his books. Using personal details from a friend and his ex-wife, the NHS manager created fake invoices for them, funnelling most of the money back to himself. (BBC).
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Quick Hits
🚗 Birmingham City Council (BCC) spent £51 million on special needs transport in 2025, a £25.1 million increase over the last five years. (Birmingham Mail)
🧲 A recycling plant commissioned by the University of Birmingham has opened. The facility processes rare earth metals into magnets used in electric cars. (Business Green).
🎓 Coventry University has cut costs by £39 million, and the vice-chancellor claims the institution is on an “upward trajectory.” (Coventry Telegraph).
🚆HS2 Ltd is set to get the green light to carry out vital repairs on the old Curzon Street Station. (BBC).
Media picks
📰 Shabana Mahmood’s predecessor, former Ladywood MP Clare Short has said there would be “no place” for her in Starmer’s Labour cabinet and that the party is “less tolerant” than under Blair. In this New Statesman profile, the one-time international development secretary who famously resigned in opposition to the Iraq War, also reflects on her Birmingham upbringing. As a rather serious sounding 10-year-old during the Suez crisis, Short says she instructed her classmates to sympathise with the Egyptians: “I had to get them all together and say ‘no, no, no this isn’t right. It’s their land. It’s their canal. They’re allowed’,” she said.
📰 Metal Hammer, an online heavy metal magazine has interviewed the man behind the campaign to name Birmingham International Airport after Ozzy Osbourne. Dan Hudson, a Brummie comedian and podcaster, launched a petition in July 2025 after Osbourne’s death, to rechristen the airport. Over seven months, the petition has garnered over 80,000 signatures. For now, CEO of Birmingham Airport Nick Barton has declined Hudson’s offer. “Birmingham has always been embarrassed about its heavy metal heritage — and that’s unacceptable,” said Hudson.
Our to do list
🌻Tomorrow, head to The Sunflower Lounge for a soulful blend of Afro-folk by the Kenyan musician Coster Ojwang. Don’t dawdle — there was incredible demand for his London show and tickets are just £10.04 for this more intimate gig.
🎻 On Wednesday, enjoy a transatlantic, musical road trip with an interlude in outer space at this performance of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, conducted by the CBSO’s Kazuki Yamada. Tickets from £26.
🏴On Friday, celebrate Burns night in style at Edgbaston’s Chapter restaurant. They’ve got a £70 pp three-course meal plus there will be a piper, the Selkirk grace, a rousing Address to the Haggis and a live Celtic ensemble.
⚔️ On Saturday, history nerds rejoice — you can book in an hour-long session to study six, incredibly rare books on the English Civil War at The Birmingham and Midland Institute. Historian in Residence Andrew Reekes and librarians will be on hand for questions. From £22.38.
🐊 On Sunday, be transported to Louisiana with the Oscar nominated and Caméra d'Or winning film, Beasts of the Southern Wild at Rock n Roll BrewHouse. Tickets £8.33.
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Correction: 19.01.25 - An earlier version of this edition stated that the council had spent £25.1m on SEND transport. The correct figure is £51m, a £25.1m increase.
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