May 2012

Wallace and Weaver wanted to take over Trinity Mirror and sell off regionals, claims Telegraph

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Published May 31, 2012, in Recommended

Richard Wallace and Tina Weaver, the editors of the Daily Mirror and the Sunday Mirror were secretly planning to buy out the Trinity Mirror Group before they were this week,

The Telegraph says Wallace and  Weaver were “plotting to take over the listed company, with potential backing from a wealthy figure.”


It adds: “They wanted to break up the group and sell off its 130 regional newspapers, including the Liverpool Echo and the Manchester Evening News, leaving them in control of the more profitable national titles.

“It is unknown whether the pair intended to hang on to Trinity’s Scottish national titles, The Daily Record and The Sunday Mail. The plans are understood to have been at an early stage.


“Mr Wallace and Ms Weaver would have found it hard to secure enough funding to take over the newspaper group while still working there, sources said. It is thought it might actually be easier for the pair to mount a bid for Trinity now that they are outside the company, which had a £230m pension deficit at the end of last year.”
Curated from , written by Jon Slattery

Lowest-paid council workers to get immediate pay rise

First Labour cabinet will approve Living Wage deal, but Tories warn of legal implications

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Published May 31, 2012, in Councils

The first cabinet meeting of Birmingham City Council under Labour administration will approve an immediate wage rise for 3,000 of the local authority’s lowest-paid workers.

Under the proposal, all staff on the lowest grades will be paid a minimum of £7.20 an hour, up from £6.39 at the moment. The increase will be worth up to £686 a year.

The ‘’ commitment was a central feature of Labour’s manifesto at the council elections on May 4, where the party cruised to power by taking 77 of the 120 council seats.

Labour is yet to say exactly where the money to pay the increase will come from. Council leaders simply state that

Continues…

Birmingham Central Library ‘will be demolished’

City council leader Sir Albert Bore rejects final attempt to save famous 1970s 'brutalist' structure

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Published May 31, 2012, in Councils

Central Library

Campaigners fighting to save Birmingham’s have had their hopes dashed.

The 1970s building, designed by celebrated architect John Madin, will be demolished to make way for a £500 million redevelopment of Paradise Circus, city council leader Sir Albert Bore confirmed.

Sir Albert rejected a last-ditch attempt by Friends of the Central Library to incorporate the library into a regeneration scheme, adding that “exciting” proposals for the area were advanced and did not include Mr Madin’s building.

Sir Albert said he expected a formal planning application to demolish the library and regenerate the key city centre site to come before the council by the end of the year.

Developers Argent and Altitude unveiled a master plan earlier this year, with the backing of the city council, which proposes transforming Paradise Circus with new offices, public spaces and a concert hall. The Conservatoire and the Copthorne Hotel would disappear, along with the library, in a 1.7 million square foot redevelopment scheme.

The Central Library, once famously likened to an ugly book-burning incinerator by Prince Charles, could not be retained because its size would constrain redevelopment of the area, according to the developers.

An alternative masterplan, drawn up for Friends of the Central Library by Birmingham architect Joe Holyoak and Rob Turner of Eatarchitecture, places the library at the centre of a redeveloped Paradise Circus.

Mr Holyoak stressed that English Heritage have twice recommended the library for listing as a building of significant architectural merit, only to be turned down by the Government.

However, Sir Albert said he stood by the comments he gave to the Birmingham Post in October last year when he said: “My view is that the Central Library building must go to make way for the redevelopment of Paradise Circus.”

Sir Albert told Chamberlain News: “Plans for the redevelopment of Paradise Circus are well advanced and I would expect a planning application before the end of the year.

“Argent really does want to get on with this. The position remains the same, the site will be cleared and that includes the Central Library.”

Sir Albert first proposed demolishing the Central Library and all other buildings in Paradise Circus in 2001, when as the then council leader he went to London seeking private sector investment for a huge city centre regeneration plan.

Both the current Labour council leadership and the previous Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition regarded the Central Library as a major obstacle to pedestrians attempting to walk between the central shopping area and Broad Street.

An important aim of the Argent/Altitude redevelopment scheme will be to open up views between the Council House in Victoria Square and the new civic library in Centenary Square, which is due to open in 2014.

Built in the mid-1970s, the Central Library was regarded as the last word in modern design when opened by Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson. But a lack of maintenance over the years and the changing demands of a modern library service left the building outdated and unfit for use, according to the council.

The Central Library was placed on an at-risk list by the last year.

WMF chief executive Jonathan Foyle said: “We can never afford to take for granted our irreplaceable and enriching cultural inheritance, but in an age of greater austerity this Watch further reminds to be vigilant, look after and enjoy historic places, many of which we could not afford to build today.”

How can the latest Thick of It episodes compete with reality?

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Published May 31, 2012, in Recommended

Armando Iannucci announced yesterday that The Thick of It had finished filming seven new episodes. Since the last series ended in 2009, the Coalition has taken the show’s absurdist mantle and sprinted off into the night with it. Here are just some of the potential plots ruled out for being too ridiculous even for TTOI:

Curated from , written by (author unknown)

The Bore cabinet: Spaghetti Junction, or a well-stirred risotto?

Local government suspicion of radical change is biggest threat to new council structure, argues Paul Dale

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Published May 30, 2012, in Opinion

The new cabinet structure at Birmingham City Council has been described as symptomatic of the worst 1990s management-twaddle, and even compared unfavourably to Spaghetti Junction.

Actually, the motorway analogy could backfire since Junction 6 of the M6 is generally reckoned to be one of the most efficient highway interchanges in this country, and possibly the world.

Council leader Sir Albert Bore might prefer to think of his creation as a risotto, which of course involves lots of mixing and stirring to achieve a flavoursome result.

Whether the new cabinet set up, which is designed to encourage lateral thinking and co-operation, turns out to be

Continues…

Mike Whitby takes the furniture from Birmingham council leader’s office

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Published May 30, 2012, in Recommended

Former Birmingham City Council leader Mike Whitby has cleared his desk – and stunned the new leadership by taking much of his old office furniture with him.

Curated from , written by Birmingham Post

Bore: Financial probe will uncover ‘£20 million’ cash crisis

'Black hole' in accounts will cause Labour group heartache, warns new leader

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Published May 29, 2012, in Councils

An investigation by forensic accountants is likely to uncover a shortfall of more than £20 million in the amount of money Birmingham City Council requires to keep social care and education services running.

The forecast of a “black hole” left by the former Tory-Liberal Democrat coalition comes from the new council leader, Sir Albert Bore, who predicted that plugging the financial gap would cause “a great deal of heartache” in the controlling Labour group  and involve taking tough decisions.

Sir Albert is close to approving an urgent independent review of the council’s 2012-13 budget.

He expects the study, by an as yet unnamed company, to show that the city’s outgoing Tory-Lib Dem partnership failed to identify all of the £312 million savings demanded by the Government and raided cash reserves to shore up the Children, Young People and Families and Adults and Communities directorates.

In a wide-ranging interview with Chamberlain News,

Continues…

Top Birmingham city councillors to get 179% pay rise

Ten district committee chairs get more money to reflect additional responsibilities

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Published May 28, 2012, in Councils

The chairmen of Birmingham City Council’s 10 District Committees are to receive a 179% pay rise to reflect the new responsibilities that they will have to take on under Labour’s administrative shake-up.

At the moment, the chairman of a Constituency Committee receives a special allowance of £3,776.

But under the new system and a name-change, the District Committee chairmen will be paid almost three times  as much at £10,574.

The increase was proposed by the Independent Remuneration Panel following talks with new council leader Sir Albert Bore and his deputy Ian Ward and will be on top of a basic councillor allowance of £16,267 – putting each of the district committee chairmen on a total of £26,841.

The panel said the new rate would be set at an “interim” level and reviewed at the end of the municipal year when a view could be taken about the amount of additional work undertaken by the district committee chairs.

Under Labour’s changed governance arrangements, District Committees will take on responsibility for a range of extra duties including housing management. The 10 chairmen are executive members with the right to attend cabinet meetings.

Other changes mean that some posts will no longer warrant special responsibility allowances, or are to be abolished. The council’s total bill for paying councillors’ allowances will be reduced by £70,000.

Some new posts attract special payments including the Employment and HR Committee, whose chairman, Coun Muhammed Afzal (Lab Aston), will receive an allowance of £14,803.

The chairman of the new Licensing and Public Protection Committee, Barbara Dring (Lab Oscott), will also be paid £14,803.

Some posts are to be downgraded. The chairman of the main scrutiny committee will suffer a pay cut from £19,728 to £12,689, while allowance paid to the chairman of the Trusts and Charities Committtee will be reduced from £12,689 to £5,659.

Remuneration panel chairman Sandra Cooper said: “We are considering these changes at the beginning of a municipal year. Evidence of how the new posts and changed responsibilities will be performed in practice is not yet available.

“The only road open to us, therefore, was to consider the rationale behind the changes and expectations for the year ahead. Our conclusions are therefore interim in nature, subject to review during our next annual exercise, when we will expect to see clear performance information.”

The new pay rates are expected to be confirmed at the next full council meeting.

RT @magapanthus: “@GiselaStuart: #chistinelagarde – “let them eat cakes” – might want to think about apologising to greek children” Spot on, inappropriate

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Published May 26, 2012, in Recommended

RT @: “@: – “let them eat cakes” – might want to think about apologising to greek children”

Spot on, inappropriate

Curated from , written by GracieSamuels (Gracie Samuels)

Mike Whitby looks ahead at the prospect of opposition – The Birmingham Post

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Published May 25, 2012, in Recommended


The Birmingham Post
by Neil Elkes, Birmingham Post The Conservative and Liberal Democrat groups, in opposition in Birmingham for the first time in eight years, have branded a new Cabinet introduced by Sir Albert Bore this week as “unclear” and “lacking accountability”.

Curated from , written by (author unknown)
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