Random Stuff!

[richard winterbourn]

Maybe this is the right thread to raise my concerns. For the past four-five years Brum has been riding the crest of a wave in terms of its reputation. It is now a city of international standing with a growing reputation in the finance world; a city which is now a place to visit; a city with a fine and varied culinary reputation in terms of ethnic, honest good food and Michelin-starred restaurants (the most of any city outside London i believe) and a city with vastly improved transport links due in no small measure to the development of Birmingham Airport.
We have a bid in for the Commonwealth Games which, on a level playing field, Birmingham should win hands down. So what could go wrong?
Rubbish! piles and piles of it on our streets. This current dispute has degenerated to the level that it is of national importance; TV coverage this morning showed streets crawling with maggots, rats the size of 'pussy cats' running all over open and festering bags. This is being seen daily by millions of viewers not only in this country but, i am sure, abroad.
Four-five years of hard work can be destroyed in one image, a city in a complete mess. And that is what i saw this morning on the TV.
I will not go into the merits of the dispute with the binmen because i don't know enough about it, but one things is for certain, if this problem is not resolved this week, it will takes years to repair the damage that has already been caused.
I am raising this issue and i hope all of us on F4A can use whatever means to apply pressure wherever and whenever we can to bring this 'disgusting' situation to an end.

 

[richard winterbourn]

Maybe this is the right thread to raise my concerns. For the past four-five years Brum has been riding the crest of a wave in terms of its reputation. It is now a city of international standing with a growing reputation in the finance world; a city which is now a place to visit; a city with a fine and varied culinary reputation in terms of ethnic, honest good food and Michelin-starred restaurants (the most of any city outside London i believe) and a city with vastly improved transport links due in no small measure to the development of Birmingham Airport.
We have a bid in for the Commonwealth Games which, on a level playing field, Birmingham should win hands down. So what could go wrong?
Rubbish! piles and piles of it on our streets. This current dispute has degenerated to the level that it is of national importance; TV coverage this morning showed streets crawling with maggots, rats the size of 'pussy cats' running all over open and festering bags. This is being seen daily by millions of viewers not only in this country but, i am sure, abroad.
Four-five years of hard work can be destroyed in one image, a city in a complete mess. And that is what i saw this morning on the TV.
I will not go into the merits of the dispute with the binmen because i don't know enough about it, but one thing is for certain, if this problem is not resolved this week, it will takes years to repair the damage that has already been caused.
I am raising this issue and i hope all of us on F4A can use whatever means to apply pressure wherever and whenever we can to bring this 'disgusting' situation to an end.

 

[JENNYJET]

What is the Mayor doing to bang some heads together? MR. Street has a reputation to lose does he not?

 

[wolfheze]

Hello wolfheze really like that Coronado I remember that Spantax it used to leave a smoke trail like no other it would dissappear from view but you could still hear it long after and the smoke trail lasted for ages, makes the Antonov,s of today look amateurs by comparison? Today's environmental lobby would have had blue fit.

I think that they operated weekly to Palma and were the fastest passenger jet ever at 600mph plus not counting Concord although the Tridents might have been a bit quicker, no doubt someone will put me right if that's incorrect.

Happy Days

Unfortunately I never got to see a Coronado (except the long abandoned hulk at palma) I do remember my dad saying that they had started flying into Birmingham, I'm guessing in the early seventies?

 

[rollo]

Unfortunately I never got to see a Coronado (except the long abandoned hulk at palma) I do remember my dad saying that they had started flying into Birmingham, I'm guessing in the early seventies?

Pretty sure they operated from the late 1960s maybe for deadly Doug's MATO outfit.

 

[wolfheze]

Pretty sure they operated from the late 1960s maybe for deadly Doug's MATO outfit.

To around 74 ish?

 

[58terminus]

To around 74 ish?

Certainly well into the 70's.I can remember hearing them taking off on a Sunday morning when i was young.
I was living in Erdington and they were taking from runway 15! Imagine the fuss now.

 

[Ray Finkle]

3x3 Basketball in Victoria Square, running alongside the Birmingham Urban Street Festival.

http://www.birmingham2022.com/2017/...eet-festival-at-the-heart-of-birminghams-bid/

 

[richard winterbourn]

Before i posted this i had another good look at the image above and was again impressed with the vision that our city has projected as it makes its plans to host the Commonwealth Games.

Therefore i am both bemused and appalled at the comments made by outgoing UK Athletics chief, Ed Warner, in his suggestion that both Brum and Liverpool should move the athletics to the London Stadium as it is 'more cost-effective'.

This man, who seems to be out of touch with some of our top coaches as well, is basing everything on cost, provide the games as cheaply as possible????

Brum already has a fine athletics stadium, eminently suitable for Diamond League meetings and UK Athletics Championships and the city already has the facilities for both the top two athletics nations notably Jamaica and the US to choose it for training purposes. The Alexandra Stadium with the right investment can easily be developed into one of the finest in Europe and will be an eminently suitable venue for the Commonwealth Games.

Brum needs to reply swiftly to this cheapskate suggestion of Ed Warner and beg an answer from him of the question: 'Do you honestly believe any city would want to host the Commonwealth Games in the UK if it was not able to host the 'plum' attraction - athletics?

Good luck in your Bid Brum, you deserve it, we need it and the country will celebrate it with us - here in the Heart of England.

 

[rollo]

Richard surely you can see the problem Birmingham like Liverpool is not in London which as everyone knows is the center of the universe.

Weren't USA and Jamaica based in Brum for the Olympics?

 

[Jerry]

Richard surely you can see the problem Birmingham like Liverpool is not in London which as everyone knows is the center of the universe.

Or UK Athletics has a massive stadium they need to use! How many athletics events in London that would get a decent crowd? They had to get a football team in there just to make sure it wasn't a white elephant!

 

[rollo]

I'm sure you're right UK Athletes have ended up with a potential millstone round their necks so everyone one instead in the provinces is expected to travel to London.

Recently discussed on the Cardiff forum were similar comments about the concentration of resources to Cardiff at the expense of the rest of Wales and Swansea in particular.

My mother used to live in Cornwall (St, Agnes ) and the locals used to complain that most of the money never got past Bristol and any that did stopped at Plymouth, for some reason the Eden Project didn't seem to count?
I suppose in the end we all feel hard done by in one way or another.
.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

My mother used to live in Cornwall (St, Agnes ) and the locals used to complain that most of the money never got past Bristol and any that did stopped at Plymouth, for some reason the Eden Project didn't seem to count?
I suppose in the end we all feel hard done by in one way or another.
.

I certainly agree with your last sentence.

Bristol complains that it gets very little public money because successive governments reckon it's too wealthy to need any, despite having some of the poorest and most deprived wards in the country.

 

[58terminus]

A huge stadium dedicated to athletics will not work in any city in any country.It was a good idea to to build it so
it could be converted to a football stadium and back again when required.Unfortunately they they came up against
Messrs Sullivan and Gold and before they realised it they had given it away but are still responsible for the upkeep.
It's a bit of a scandal actually that has been swept under the carpet.

 

[richard winterbourn]

I don't altogether agree with 58Terminus. Firstly, as part of the Commonwealth Games bid Birmingham does not plan to build a new venue for athletics. The Alexander Stadium already has a capacity of 12,700 seated and a open-air 'concert' capacity of 20,000. The plan is to renovate the stadium, not re-build it, and thereby bring the capacity up to 50,000.

But whereas the London Stadium is effectively tied to football during the football season and also having to negotiate with the current administration, the Alexander Stadium is already the home of UK Athletics, is used by UK Athletics for the National Championships, together with Diamond League meetings and open-air concerts as and when required. In short, i think it would be have much greater and diverse use than the stadium in London.

But to return to the focal point of my earlier comment, I think it bizarre for the retiring head of UK Athletics to believe that any city in the UK would want to hold the Commonwealth Games without the 'plum' of the athletics competitions.

 

[58terminus]

I don't altogether agree with 58Terminus. Firstly, as part of the Commonwealth Games bid Birmingham does not plan to build a new venue for athletics. The Alexander Stadium already has a capacity of 12,700 seated and a open-air 'concert' capacity of 20,000. The plan is to renovate the stadium, not re-build it, and thereby bring the capacity up to 50,000.

Where did i refer to the Alexander Stadium plans of which i no very little? Now i know a little more I presume a lot is temporary and can be removed afterwards.How would you ever get permission to build a permanent 50000 stadium in that location?

 

[richard winterbourn]

As Birmingham City Council is behind the bid and is the de facto planning authority, i would not think permission to develop would be a great problem....

 

[58terminus]

As Birmingham City Council is behind the bid and is the de facto planning authority, i would not think permission to develop would be a great problem....

Your probably right.Sod the local residents.Only problem might be getting the construction plant through
the mountain's of uncollected rubbish.

 

[58terminus]

Watching the programme on ITV about pilot training.How do Easyjet do it.Fair play to Easy but Ryanair must be fuming.Easyjet get a series if one hour adverts at peak time again and all they ever get is Watchdog!

 

[Brum X]

Watching the programme on ITV about pilot training.How do Easyjet do it.Fair play to Easy but Ryanair must be fuming.Easyjet get a series if one hour adverts at peak time again and all they ever get is Watchdog!

Yeah and i was really enjoying it until they started talking about "Boobs and Bums" in the cockpit