Birmingham Post

Carnival Dancers

Split-Site Library Will Cost Pounds 147m

Birmingham will get a library fit for the 21st century within six years at a cost of pounds 147 million. The city council last night revealed plans for a split-site scheme - with the lending library in a purpose-built building next to Baskerville House, off Centenary Square, and the city archives and reference section in an extension to Millennium Point at Eastside.

Dire Warning to Midlands Health Trusts As Pounds 5 Million Debt Is Revealed

The scale of the financial crisis facing health services across the Midlands has been exposed after the Department of Health wrote to 20 Midland trusts warning they had 'significant' budget deficits. Hospitals, ambulance trusts and primary care trusts, which run GP services, have all been targeted.

Birmingham's First 'Gastro Bar' Goes Into Administration

Birmingham's first 'gastro bar' has gone into administration only days after celebrating its first anniversary. Mackenzie's Bar and Dining Room in Corporation Street was earlier this month said to have been virtually fully-booked since it opened.

Mountain Stages Take Us to Hell and Back ; As Former Wolves Player Geoff Thomas and His Team Reach the Halfway Point of His Charity Cycle Along the 2,177-Mile Tour de France Course, the Pressure of Reaching Paris On Friday Is Starting to Show. Here Are Extracts From His Online Diary.

Stage 11 Sunday, July 10

Baggies Boss Backs Man Alive Health Campaign

West Bromwich Albion manager Bryan Robson is urging men across the Midlands to stay in shape as part of a campaign to prevent cancer. The 48-year-old former England player is backing Cancer Research UK's Man Alive campaign, which aims to raise awareness of cancer among men and how to cut the risk. Obesity may now be responsible for more than 40,000 cases of cancer in British men.

My Shock Battle with Male Breast Cancer

Jeff Scriven is living proof that breast cancer is not a disease that only affects women. Mr Scriven, a former removal man from Wythall, had no idea that a lump that developed under his left nipple could be cancer.

Red-Tape Blunder Costs College Business and Four Workers

A private Birmingham college had to make four members of staff redundant and lost thousands of pounds in fees after an administrative mix-up meant it was labelled as 'bogus' by the Department for Education and Skills. Overseas students who applied to Aspire Training, which is based in Hockley, were refused extensions on their visas because the Government told them it did not recognise the institution.

Asbo Unit Grows to Meet Demand

A team set up to deal with anti-social behaviour in Birmingham is receiving 12,000 calls a year from the public. The pressure of work on the city council's anti-social behaviour unit is so great that it is to undergo a pounds 1 million restructuring and grow by 50 per cent.

Sites for Extra-Care Housing Announced

The first sites for extra-care sheltered housing in Birmingham, which will eventually replace council-run old people's homes, have been announced. Units providing 300 flats will be built at Turves Green in Longbridge, The Meadway in Sheldon and Alma Way in Newtown. Each of the schemes will be developed in partnership with registered social landlords and will provide a mix of properties for rent, low cost shared ownership and outright sale offering much greater choice to older people, the city...

Howard Obe Dedicated His Life to Safety

The chief executive of the Birmingham-based Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents has died at the age of 57. John Howard OBE was behind a number of safety campaigns during his 20 years with the Edgbaston-based charity, including the factory fitting of plugs to electrical appliances. He was appointed chief executive in January last year but joined RoSPA 20 years ago as director of home and leisure safety.

Rural Matters: Prescott Attacked for Green-Belt Homes Plan

John Prescott has been accused of launching an 'assault on the green belt' after he unveiled planning reforms designed to find land for 1.1 million new homes. Meriden MP Caroline Spelman (Con) led opposition to the proposals, accusing the Government of concreting over 2,500 acres of green-belt every year.

Rural Matters: Villagers Step Back in Time

Residents in a rural Warwickshire village will be able to take a stroll down memory lane this weekend thanks to an extensive exhibition by a local history group. The first exhibition by Barford Heritage Group is the fruit of six months work and a grant of pounds 25,000 from the Local Heritage Initiative, which is administered by the Countryside Agency on behalf of the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Rural Matters: Farmers Branch Out Into Poplars

A Midland family farm has got rid of most of its fruit and vegetable fields to grow lucrative poplar trees instead. H A Snell & Sons, in Lower Lulham, Herefordshire, has planted the woodland crop in most of its fields and on 1,300 hectares of land.

Rural Matters: Homeless Hedgehogs Need a Haven in Your Garden

Summer is here and as many of us set about gardening in anticipation of parties and barbecues, spare a thought for the humble hedgehog. It is breeding season and until autumn hedgehogs are on the look- out for a safe haven to raise their offspring.

Rural Matters: Wine Couple Toast Success

A Shropshire husband and wife team has scooped two medals at the England & Welsh Wine of the Year competition for wines produced at their historic vineyard. David and Christine Millington, of Wroxeter Roman Vineyard, just outside Shrewsbury, took two bronze awards for their dry Madeline Angevine and medium sweet Shropshire Gold whites, and two highly commended prizes for their Phoenix and Noble Roman reds.

Rural Matters: Take a Walk On the Wild Side in Staffs Monkey Forest

Animal lovers are being given the chance to leave their cars and see species of endangered monkeys up close when the first park of its kind in the country opens its gates today Visitors to the Trentham Monkey Forest, in north Staffordshire, will be able to see 146 Barbary Macaque monkeys, including six cuddly new arrivals, as they roam around their 60-acre woodland home. The monkey enclosure is within the 750-acre Trentham estate which is being regenerated by Trentham Leisure Ltd, and is the ...

Library to Help Regeneration ; Chief Reporter Paul Dale Talks to Birmingham City Council Leader Mike Whitby About His Vision for a Pounds 147 Million People's Library

The new Library of Birmingham will not simply provide high- quality public buildings, it will also deliver a much needed boost to regeneration in two key parts of the city centre. The lending section - working title: the Knowledge Centre - is to be built on what is, at the moment, a surface-level car park next to Baskerville House, in Centenary Square. It will kick-start the council's West End vision for the redevelopment of Paradise Circus by enabling the existing Central Library in Paradise...

Concerns Over 'Real Time' Buses

Birmingham passengers on Europe's longest bus route will soon benefit from a long-promised satellite-based real-time information system. However, while the pounds 25 million Outer Circle Bus Showcase scheme is drawing to a close this year, there is concern that Birmingham City Council is to leave some promised improvements unfinished.

Hospital Is Finally Ready to Be Used

A hospital complex delayed because builders mixed up the hot and cold water pipes is on course to open - 15 months late. The pounds 20 million treatment centre at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital, in Northfield, Birmingham, (above) has stood empty for more than a year even though it should have opened last summer.