Updated 12:54am 22 May 2013

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Neil Elkes

Neil Elkes

Birmingham Children's Hospital

Objections to late-night bar yards away from Birmingham Children's Hospital

Plans for a student bar open until 4am just yards from a ward treating young cancer patients have sparked objections from health chiefs.Read

Martin Mullaney

Planners told to ignore 'fake' letters in Moseley chip shop application

The city council’s planning department is set to ignore letters supporting a controversial chip shop plan amid complaints they are ‘fake’.Read

Plan for school at former Tesco office deemed 'recipe for chaos'

Plans to open a school for "disengaged" teenagers in a disused office block have been slammed by Birmingham planners as a "recipe for chaos".Read

Edgbaston Cricket Ground

Edgbaston Cricket Ground developer told to guarantee £1.5m spin-off payments

The company behind the £32 million development of homes, offices, hotel and restaurant at Edgbaston Cricket Ground has been ordered to guarantee it can meet its committments to pay Birmingham City Council almost £1.5 million in spin off fees. Read

Bob Jones

Labour's West Midlands Police commissioner hopeful to campaign against cuts

The Labour politician bidding to become the West Midlands’ first elected police and crime commissioner has warned there is no magic wand to generate extra funding for the force in an age of austerity and cuts.Read

Neil Elkes: Cleaning up the picture at council meetings

It’s wartime in Britain, 1940, and Winston Churchill stands up in Parliament to deliver a speech which will be remembered for generations.Read

Edgbaston Cricket Ground

Edgbaston cricket ground developer asks to defer payments to city council

The developer behind the transformation of Edgbaston cricket ground has claimed that it cannot pay almost £1.5 million spin off cash as early as promised to the city council due to a slump in the housing market.Read

Matt Bennett

Conservative police commissioner contender comes out fighting

Voting for Labour’s new police commissioner candidate would be a vote against democracy and against a new direction for policing a Conservative rival has claimed.Read

Jobs and growth plan for Aston, Newtown and Lozells

A regional business park, improved transport links and 1,700 new homes are included in a new regeneration plan which it is claimed will create 5,000 jobs in inner city Birmingham.Read

Ed Miliband

Ed Miliband: Police commissioner vote 'a referendum over cuts'

The elections for a new West Midlands police commissioner will be a referendum over the 20 per cent cuts in crime fighting budgets, Ed Miliband has warned.Read

Women's enterprise hub central to Bore jobs plan

Birmingham’s new Labour leader Sir Albert Bore has unveiled plans to turn the city into the Britain’s enterprise capital including a bid to create the textile equivalent of the Balti Triangle.Read

Rail / railway track

Centro calls for Government to back three new West Midlands rail projects

WEST Midlands transport bosses have called on the Government to back £60 million worth of rail upgrades which they claim would create 4,400 jobs.Read

Neil Elkes: Brigid Jones flies through the flak

Given the first opportunity to fire questions at Labour’s new cabinet the opposition clearly had the head of education and children’s social care Brigid Jones in their sights.Read

Birmingham

Birmingham and Manchester call truce in rival claims for Second City status

A ‘peace deal’ has been struck which, it is hoped, will end decades of rivalry in the bid to be Britain's official Second City. Read

Supermarket plans threaten historic Birmingham pub

An historic Birmingham pub again faces a battle against bulldozers after the Co-op submitted new plans for a supermarket on the site.Read

Paradise Circus plans drawn up by Friends of the Central Library

The Paradise Circus plan which retains Birmingham Central Library

Campaigners hoping to save Birmingham’s Central Library building from the bulldozers have drawn up plans for its inclusion in the regeneration of Paradise Circus.Read

Sainsbury's Selly Oak

Sainsbury's Selly Oak supermarket plan drops hi-tech industrial park

The long-awaited plans for a new major Sainsbury’s store and canalside development in Selly Oak go before the council’s planning committee for the first time next week when concerns over a missing high-technology industrial park will be raised.Read

Birmingham City University, BCU

MP calls for Birmingham City University campus plan to be dropped

A Birmingham MP has described the development of a £125 million new Birmingham City University campus as a “vanity project” and called for it to be stopped. Read

Artist's impression of food store planned for Sutton Coldfield town centre

Supermarket plan for Sutton Coldfield town centre set for approval

Plans for a new supermarket and cafe which would transform Sutton Coldfield town centre are set for approval despite concerns over links to the existing town centre shops.Read

Mike Whitby

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

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. Read

Author Profile

A local news reporter in the Birmingham, Sutton Coldfield and south Staffordshire area since 1995, Neil Elkes is the local government correspondent covering the activities of Birmingham CIty Council - Europe's largest local authority. An avid reader and collector of comics Neil is writing a column on this for the Birmingham Mail website.