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Paul Dale

Paul Dale

Burden accuses Whitby of egomania over Longbridge claims

Birmingham MP Richard Burden has accused city council leader Mike Whitby of hijacking the resumption of car production at Longbridge in a personal glory-trip. Read

Eastside Locks scheme ‘must save’ Victorian bicycle factory

Birmingham planners have welcomed the Eastside Locks development – a £500 million scheme for offices, apartments and shops – but have called for everything possible to be done to save the remains of a late-Victorian factory. Read

Neville trips over the green belt

Neville Summerfield, Birmingham cabinet member for regeneration-lite, had a big day last Monday. Read

New Street redevelopment hit by more delays

Frustration over the redevelopment of New Street Station has been exacerbated by a delay of six months in naming the architects for the £600m scheme. Read

Grand Central station plan was snubbed by council ‘half-wits'

The man behind plans for a £2 billion main railway station at Birmingham’s Eastside has hit out at “half-wit” politicians for failing to back the idea. Read

Small firm had to beg council to pay £70,000 for film promoting Birmingham

The firm responsible for making a promotional film about Birmingham, which was premiered at this year’s MIPIM property festival at Cannes, had to plead with city council chief executive Stephen Hughes for payment of bills totalling £70,000. Read

Birmingham will fight to protect green belt

Birmingham will resist the Government’s “aggressive and single-minded” attempt to sacrifice the countryside to house-building, city council leaders promised last night. Read

Birmingham’s gulf between rich and poor is 'akin to Victorian times’

Birmingham is to be condemned by a senior Tory politician as a deeply divided city where a sub-culture of poverty and deprivation sits alongside pockets of great wealth and prosperity. Read

Civic Society in a muddle over Colmore Row

Another embarrassing crisis has rocked the hallowed portals of the Birmingham Civic Society. Read

Forget Grand Central station, says Birmingham council chief

Supporters of Grand Central railway station at Eastside are dead and buried and the scheme’s supporters should stop engaging in “pointless” arguments about what might have been, Birmingham City Council chief executive Stephen Hughes has said Read

UB40 could quit Birmingham as studio plans are delayed

Birmingham pop stars UB40 have spoken of their frustration after a seven-year fight to win approval for new studios in Digbeth hit more problems. Read

Birmingham binmen to have job name change in council overhaul

Birmingham binmen will be renamed refuse and recycling collection officers and given a new role as the frontline eyes and ears of the city council. Read

Eco-town residents to pay service charge

Residents of the proposed Middle Quinton eco-town in south Warwickshire would have to pay an annual service charge, as much as £500, for management costs, maintenance and the provision of services such as waste disposal and heating. Read

Council chief blames press for invoice hell

The failure of an electronic payment system at Birmingham City Council which led to bailiffs demanding payment from the local authority is being blamed on the media. Read

City housing targets put green belt under threat

Green belt land surrounding Birmingham could be swallowed up by 5,000 new homes if ambitious plans to increase the city’s population by 10 per cent are to be achieved, it has emerged. Read

Plans to increase Birmingham population will mean homes on green belt

Plans to increase the population of Birmingham by 100,000 are likely to involve substantial house-building in sensitive rural locations, reports Public Affairs Editor Paul Dale. Read

Archbishop of Birmingham calls on Catholics to pray for Anglicans

Roman Catholics are being urged to help the Anglican Church find a way through its worst crisis in decades by praying for the Archbishop of Canterbury and 650 bishops attending the Lambeth conference at the University of Kent. Read

Now Spain starts making HP Sauce, too

Eighteen months after axing HP Sauce in Birmingham on the grounds that production costs would be cheaper in Holland, foods conglomerate Heinz has begun making the world-famous condiment in Spain. Read

Council stuck in the bus lane when it comes to decisions

It is four years since transportation cabinet member Len Gregory decided to suspend “temporarily” the A38 Tyburn Road bus lanes. Read

Civic Society U-turn on Colmore Row plan

The chances of a 35-storey skyscraper being built at the heart of Birmingham’s business district in Colmore Row have taken a knock after the city’s Civic Society announced a change of heart and said it was now opposed to the “over-ambitious” £160 million plan. Read

Author Profile

Paul Dale has been writing about local government in the West Midlands for more than 20 years. The Post's public affairs editor, he is a previous political editor of the Coventry Evening Telegraph and Local Government Correspondent of the Oxford Mail.

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