Birmingham Post

Auto Summit Rolls Into Town

More than 200 delegates are expected at tomorrow's West Midlands Auto Industry Summit to discuss the challenges still facing the industry despite the launch of the "Mandelson Plan" last week. Industrialists, union leaders, politicians and academics will hear contributions from Jaguar Land Rover chief executive David Smith, union leader Tony Woodley of Unite, and David Bailey of Birmingham Business School.

Wrong-Headed Business Rates Regulations Should Be Scrapped

When a tax-raising and tax-collecting body starts complaining about the iniquity of the very charges it levies, you know something's seriously wrong. Birmingham City Council has to collect rates from businesses. Unlike domestic rates - which go directly to a local authority - business rates are forwarded to central government, which then redistributes the proceeds as it sees fit around the country.

... The Tough Get Going

More than 6,000 competitors battled sub-zero temperatures, fire, barbed wire and unwise costumes during Perton's legendary ToughGuy challenge. Cuts, bruises and broken bones are par for the eight-mile course in what's been billed as the world's toughest endurance battle. Competitors and TV crews from across the globe descended on leafy Perton, near Wolverhampton. for the event, now in its 24th year; all eager for the chance to crawl through barbed wire, vault over burning tyres, and swing thr...

Lottery Grant Helps City to Get in Tune with Its History

From Ozzy Osbourne to Duran Duran, and not forgetting UB40, Birmingham is Britain's very own music hit factory. Now, in news that will be music to the ears of fans of the city's bands, the National Lottery has awarded a pounds 50,000 grant to a community heritage project celebrating that history.

Dead Businessman 'Faced Huge Tax Bill'

Relatives of a millionaire businessman found shot dead have paid tribute to him amid reports that he had killed himself because of a looming tax bill. Lord Howard Worthington, aged 52, was found dead in a field bordering his pounds 900,000 luxury home in the leafy Staffordshire village of Brewood, near Cannock on Thursday evening.

Council Told to Put Social Services House in Order

Birmingham City Council has been ordered to make "robust and sustained" Improvements to its children's social care services following the deaths of 15 youngsters from abuse and neglect.

City's Pounds 67m Budget for Consultants and Advisers ; Leaders to Slash Costs and Take Advice in-House

Birmingham city council bosses have ordered a clampdown on the use of outside consultants after it emerged that pounds 67million of taxpayers cash is being spent on outside help this year. The charges, which range from pounds 200 per day for technical computer support up to pounds 2,000 per day for top legal advice or leading management consultancy, have been defended as a drop in the ocean compared to the city's pounds 3billion budget.

Hemming Wants New 'Clean-Up' Punishment for Graffiti Vandals

Removing graffiti from the streets of Birmingham could be the key to cutting crime and anti-social behaviour, according to a city MP. John Hemming (Lib Dem Yardley) is calling for a government crackdown on spray-painted slogans on walls and doorways.

On the Wings of True Record-Setter ; Christina Savvas Talks to a High-Flying Record Breaker Who has a Long Way to Go Yet

Businessman Attila Balogh has always set his heights high but in2008 he reached record levels and this year hopes to go even further. The 44-year-old, who lives in Sutton Coldfield and is about to embark on a new role as chief executive of a European company, has made his way into the speed record book with his Cirrus SR22 plane.

Mep Calls Mass Response to Eco-Town Plans

The battle against a planned 6,000- home new town in the Warwickshire countryside can still be won, a West Midlands MEP has insisted. Liz Lynne (Lib Dem West Midlands) said a renewed drive to flood planning officials with thousands of individual objections would boost the chances of the Middle Quinton site being dropped from the programme.

Snow Falls Forecast to Become Heavier

The West Midlands will today be hit by heavy snow showers with forecasters predicting up to 2in in the region this afternoon. The heaviest showers are expected to hit Birmingham, plunging the temperatures to minus 2degC.

Prisoners Have to Move Out of Winson Green

Prisoners at Winson Green are being moved north to make way for inmates from the South East of England, according to a new report. The report by the Independent Monitoring Board expressed concern at the "disruptive" practice of moving Midlands inmates to ease overcrowding in other jails. Inmates are often moved when they have a short time left to serve but board chairman John Smith said the practice made it harder to retain family links and could affect rehabilitation.

Bungling Speech Therapist Struck Off After a Series of Blunders

A Midland speech therapist has been struck off for incompetence after a catalogue of failures, including a blunder that left a schoolchild unable to eat and drink for the whole day. Sarah Dugdale-Pointon, who was employed by Dudley Group of Hospitals, was described as below standard, disrespectful of colleagues and with a lack of clinical reasoning by the Health Professions Council (HPC) at a hearing.

Thousands Celebrate Year of the Ox

Roof Sliced Off Double-Decker Bus

Passengers were forced to dive for cover when a double-decker bus ploughed into a bridge and sliced off the roof. Ambulance staff were astonished that the 21 passengers were not more seriously injured after the Travel West Midlands bus collided with the 13ft bridge in Corngreaves Road, Cradley Heath at lunchtime on Saturday.

Free Places Funded by Old Boys

Former pupils of one of the country's leading independent schools are dipping into their pockets so less affluent Midlands children can benefit from the same prized education. Half a dozen people who themselves benefited from a free schooling at the fee-paying King Edward's School in Edgbaston, Birmingham, are now putting something back in the form of scholarships.

Jobs Ban for the Speeding Glazier ; Police National

House Demolished After Crash ; Deaths National

A family home had to be demolished after a car ploughed into the property, killing the driver and two passengers. The men aged 19, 27 and 35 died when their Ford Mondeo careered into the two-storey detached home in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, on Saturday.

Nurse Faces Sack for Offering to Pray ; Social National

A section of the M5 near West Brom wich was closed after a man died from multiple injuries on the southbound carriageway. Paramedics arrived shortly after 10.30pm on Saturday to find the man being cared for by an off-duty doctor near to Junction 1, but desperate efforts failed to save him .

Wild-Cat Strikes Poised to Widen ; National

Wildcat strikes are expected to spread today in an escalation of the row over foreign labour ahead of frantic moves to try to resolve the increasingly bitter dispute. Hundreds of contract workers at the Sellafield nuclear site in Cumbria will hold an early morning mass meeting to discuss taking industrial action.