Written by Nicky Getgood on Thursday, April 16th, 2009 ( Start discussion )
Tags: bigcitybus, bigcityplan, birminghamcentral, birminghamcitycouncil, Digbethisgood, links, simonfelton, toblog
Birmingham Central: Big City Plan consultation – a success? – Simon Felton reflects on the Big City Plan Consultation’s effectiveness at engaging the public. The verdict is it could have done better:
There were some community consultation events however, with one held on the 10th February at the Paragon Hotel for those with an interest in the Highgate, Digbeth, Eastside and Southside areas. This attracted 60 people. It’s worth pondering how many more would have attended if the event was more focussed on translating the aims and ambitions of the plan to the average Brummie and taking their thoughts on the areas into ideas which will influence the development of planning documents and the ‘core strategy’. With the areas this particular event focussed on experiencing upheaval 60 people attending is worryingly small. The gay village and issues of residential developments overshadowing the LGBT community, Digbeth and the continuing tussle between music venues and residents who want their ‘peace and quiet’ and Eastside’s development of wasteland into a new eastern centre of the city centre surely merit the need to actively seek out more than 60 attendees views and much more than the 283 contributors who contributed comments to the consultation.
Simon then goes on to mention something about a consultation ‘Beyond Midnight Bus’, which gathered just 88 responses out of its 386 visitors. It was meant to have visited Highgate, apparently. Funny – I don’t remember seeing it round these parts.
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Written by Nicky Getgood on Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 ( Start discussion )
Tags: &, antiquesdiva, bigcityplan, birminghamcentral, birminghameastside, creativerepublic, custardfactory, Digbethisgood, eagle, eccentriccity, fazeleystudios, harrypalmer, islamawarenessweek, links, michaelwolff, southbirminghamcollege, sundayflea, sundaymercury, toblog, tub, UB40
- Harry Palmer: Birmingham’s hedgehog crisis. – Make it to St Martin’s Church on Saturday afternoon to hear plight of the ickle, prickly things. ‘This will be followed by Dominik Kai Brotherton who will publicly speak about alternative relationships and why they have a lasting impact.’ Sounds bizarre enough to be fascinating.
- Custard Factory Flea Market – The Antiques Diva gives us the lowdown on the Sunday arts and crafts market. ‘Stalls range from the bizarre to the truly wonderful. Japanese baby clothes, vintage and handmade garments, rare records, original photography and art, crepe suzettes, pottery, kitsch collectables and homemade fudge are a small taste of what’s available.’
- A Creative Masterclass with Michael Wolff – Creative Republic offer you the chance to join the team of Michael Wolff ‘a champion of design and innovation’. ‘We have invited Michael to take on the challenge of developing a fantasy brief for that imaginary role, a creative director for Birmingham. This event is not a lecture – those attending will be participating and expected to contribute actively during the evening…we plan to run a session as if we, the creatives, were part of Michael ’s team . How would this team market the creativity of the city? How would Michael brief the first meeting of this campaign team? What would the immediate actions and priorities be in the first 90 days? Come along to find out.’ The event is at Fazeley Studios next Thursday 27th November from 5.30pm and is well worth signing up to the Creative Republic Charter for.
- Birmingham Central – The Big City plans outlines the options for each of the policy areas. Let’s see, do we want Digbeth to be Start-up Digbeth, Business Digbeth or Living and Working Digbeth? Or all of the above? And how will it connect to the core and other outer quarters? Ta to D’log for bringing this to the wider web.
- UB40’s Red Red Wine pub becomes a victim of the Credit Crunch – Birmingham Eastside blog features the Sunday Mercury’s coverage of the closed-down pub, with UB40’s Red, Red Wine video that was filmed there for those feeling nostalgic. Local ‘UB40 fanatic’ Helena Payne said, “The Eagle & Tun was an historical venue for UB40 and their fans, so it’s really sad to see it boarded up and shut down…it’s been closed for a while now, so although we really hope someone will take it over, we’re not hopeful that will happen. I don’t know what’s in store for the building. It may turn into apartments or it could even be knocked down.”
- Islam Awareness Week 2008: Celebrating the Best of Britain- Promoting Shared Values – ‘South Birmingham College are proud to be holding an event for Islam Awareness Week. Activities include a series of monologues followed by a Question Time session, a light buffet and an opportunity to view some displays.’ On Thurs 20th November 2-4pm. Part of a series of events going on around Birmingham.
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