Latest news with #BirminghamCityCouncil
ITV News
20 hours ago
- Business
- ITV News
Commissioner Max Caller brought in to oversee £300m in cuts to Birmingham's services to step down
The lead commissioner of Birmingham City Council, who has been overseeing £300m of cuts to council services over the last two years, is stepping down from his role. Max Caller, who has been referred to by campaigners across the city as 'Max the Axe', has announced plans to retire. He was sent in by the Government in 2023 to make hundreds of millions of pounds worth of cuts to services after the authority effectively declared bankruptcy. He will be replaced by Tony McArdle OBE, who is the former chief executive of Lincolnshire County Council, and Wellingborough Council. He also led the recent intervention at Nottingham City Council to help solve their financial problems two years ago. It's understood Mr Caller has written to deputy prime minister Angela Rayner confirming his retirement comes in the midst of a hugely damaging bin strike in the city, which is understood to have cost the council and taxpayers £4 million. Mr Caller had said last year that he intended to step down as soon as he felt the council's recovery and improvement was secure. He had said it would be a "disaster" if he stayed on for longer as it would show the council was not getting a statement Jim McMahon, minister for local government and regional devolution at the Ministry of Housing, Local Government and Communities has said: 'Max Caller has made a significant contribution to local government throughout his career including leading efforts to put Birmingham City Council on a sustainable footing. "We thank him for his work and wish him well in his retirement."While the city's recovery remains fragile, marked progress was made under his leadership including developing a stable medium-term financial plan, making progress towards resolving the outstanding equal pay situation, and re-implementing the Oracle IT programme."The government's priority is to ensure this work continues."I am confident that will be the case under the new lead commissioner Tony McArdle OBE who brings a huge range of experience to the role having been a well-respected council chief executive and leading interventions at other local authorities." His departure comes just one day after campaigners lost their legal battle over his decision to shut four day centres in the city for people with disabilities: Beeches GOLDD, Fairway, Harborne, and Heartlands. Mr Caller had blocked an attempt by councillors to scrutinise the controversial decision. The closures were part of a wider effort to address a £1.95 million budget gap for 2024–25 and £3.35 million in 2025–26. Following the cabinet's decision to close the centres, six councillors sought to have it reviewed by a scrutiny committee through the formal 'call-in' process. But Max Caller overruled them, blocking further examination by the scrutiny Mr Caller well, the council leader, Councillor John Cotton, said: "I want to place on record our best wishes to Max for his retirement and I have thanked him for his valuable contribution in helping Birmingham's improvement over the past two years."I have this morning also received a letter from the Minister of State for Local Government and English Devolution, Jim McMahon MP. The Minister has informed us that he has appointed Tony McArdle OBE as the new Lead Commissioner at Birmingham City Council."I am clear that the council still needs external support and the challenge of critical friends, but we need to ensure that they are aligned to our shared priorities as we move to the next stage of the council's improvement journey."We are very keen to continue the pace of progress and ensure it does not slow down during these changes. That is why work on producing next year's budget continues at pace." Since being appointed by the then Secretary of State Michael Gove in October 2023, Mr Caller has overseen a string of major cuts to the council's services. As commissioner, his role included ensuring financial sustainability was delivered, closing budget gaps, agreeing changes to the authority's operating model to ensure financial sustainability.
BBC News
a day ago
- Business
- BBC News
Birmingham Pride to return to city's Gay Village in May next year
Birmingham Pride has confirmed it is to return to its original location in the city's Gay Village in May next year following a search for a new ticketed festival has been held in Smithfield for the past few years, but can no longer use the site because it is being Lawrence Barton said the move offered an opportunity to "realign" the festival with "core values" of "protest, inclusion and grassroots celebration"."Our return to the Gay Village symbolises more than just a change of location, it represents a renewed commitment to the communities that built this event from the ground up." Organisers also said the event was searching for new partners after deciding to "transition away" from sponsor HSBC."We are grateful to HSBC UK for their support over the last seven years," Mr Barton said. "This partnership has had a meaningful and lasting impact on LGBTQ+ communities across Birmingham and the West Midlands." Meanwhile, Birmingham City Council has confirmed a major change to the Smithfield project, amid financial "pressures".The scheme is set to transform the former wholesale market site into homes, retail and leisure space and a new market an outline business case document revealed changes to the proposed cultural offer, with the Art Shed building and Round House music venue to be incorporated into a single building rather than two separate structures as originally council said it was to reduce the need for funding, as requested by government-appointed commissioners sent in to oversee the authority's financial recovery after it effectively went document stated commissioners did not support a funding ask of £209m linked to the proposal's enterprise zone, and it had now been reduced to £ council also confirmed Smithfield's leisure offer was set to change and would no longer offer a "big-box style" leisure complex, including an urban adventure playground and digital immersive experience."The leisure offer will now consist of two smaller leisure provisions," the outline business case continued. Additional reporting gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations. Follow BBC Birmingham on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
ITV News
2 days ago
- Business
- ITV News
Multi-million pound taxpayer cost of Birmingham bin strike revealed in report
The ongoing bin strike in Birmingham is estimated to have cost the city council almost £4 million. The industrial action, which has been causing disruption since January this year, has left residents having to endure missed collections and heaps of rubbish in the street. But it's also inflicted financial pain on the local authority, which effectively declared itself bankrupt in September 2023. In a recent finance report, Birmingham City Council said it incurred a 'significant level' of one-off response and clear-up costs during April and May because of the strike. They included street cleansing, extended opening hours of Mobile Household Waste and Recycling Centres, security costs and additional support to tackle the accumulation of waste. The report also stated that, as the strike continues, additional costs were building up for: A proportion of the costs were mitigated by the reduction in staff costs, with striking bin workers instead being financially supported by the Unite union. However, up to the end of May, the factors were still estimated to have cost the council around £3.9 million according to the report. 'It is not possible to determine how long the strike action will continue, thus a forecast for the future cost impact of the strike has not been incorporated,' it said. It added that the city council would not be providing a green waste service in 2025/26, which had been budgeted to achieve £4.4 million. 'Income from bulky waste and commercial waste are also anticipated to underachieve,' it said. 'However, the income received from the energy contract relating to the incineration of waste will over-perform and offset this as was seen in 2024/25.' The report also focused on the transformation of the council's waste services, which was pushed back because of the industrial action earlier this year. The project has been described as a key part of the crisis-hit council's recovery plan and will see collections move from weekly to fortnightly. Weekly food waste collections and a second recycling bin specifically for recycling paper and cardboard were also set to be introduced in phases across the city from April onwards. But the report said: 'The council has had to delay the delivery of several savings and the implementation of transformation plans. It is anticipated that as street scene transformation is rolled out, a proportion of these savings will be achieved but this will be subject to the timing and speed of rollout. 'Some, but not all, of the projected savings shortfall is therefore associated with the impact of the industrial action.' The council said a number of projects across its 'city operations' directorate faced the risk of slippage. In total, the cost of the 'non-delivery' of savings after mitigation, amid transformation plans being delayed, was forecast at £10.1 million, according to the council. Tensions over the strike have dragged on into the summer, with Unite voting to suspend the membership of Labour councillors at the city council, including leader Coun John Cotton and also deputy prime minister Angela Rayner. The council said it was ending negotiations with Unite to resolve the dispute, which was initially triggered by the loss of the Waste Recycling and Collection Officer (WRCO) role. Striking workers have raised concerns about pay while the Labour-run council's leadership has repeatedly insisted a 'fair and reasonable' offer had been made. Birmingham City Council said last week it would notify staff and unions of its intention to enter consultation with affected workers – while keeping the door open to those wanting to accept offers to retrain or be redeployed. Council leader John Cotton said at the time: 'We have negotiated in good faith but, unfortunately, Unite has rejected all offers so we must now press ahead to both address our equal pay risk and make much needed improvements to the waste service. 'This is a service that has not been good enough for a long time and we must improve it. 'Unite's demands would leave us with another equal pay bill of hundreds of millions of pounds, which is totally unacceptable, and would jeopardise the considerable progress we have made in our financial recovery.' Councillor Majid Mahmood, Cabinet Member for Environment, said last week that the council remained committed to creating a 'modern, sustainable and consistently reliable waste collection service for all residents'.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Travellers arrive at Birmingham park in 'greater numbers than ever before'
Travellers have arrived at a popular Birmingham park in 'greater numbers than every before.' A large group of caravans and other vehicles drove onto Swanshurst Park, on the border of Moseley and Billesley, on Sunday evening, July 20. It was said to be the fifth incursion this year and the council's Interim Head of Parks told a Moseley ward meeting the authority was looking to install extra barriers. READ MORE: Crowds at Birmingham New Street as trains north and south cancelled and delayed READ MORE: Birmingham city centre crackdown explained - affected streets and banned activities READ MORE: New security measures on the way for Birmingham park after Travellers set up camp multiple times It was said that travellers gained access this time by moving a large log and driving in past bike racks. The Friends of Swanshurst Park, a volunteer-run group, posted on Facebook on Sunday evening: "I'm sorry to say what some of you may already know - there are travellers on Swanshurst in greater numbers than ever before. Get breaking news on BirminghamLive WhatsApp, click the link to join "This was not because the council measures were inadequate. The new security measures are intact but they moved one of the large logs by the car park and drove in past the bike rack. "The eviction notice will be served tomorrow. It would really help if members of the public did not employ them. "Then they would not have an incentive to come here." The council said previously: "birmingham-city-council>Birmingham City Council is committed to actively protecting its land and will take steps to recover this land where unauthorised encampments encroach upon it.'The council has useable transit sites and plots for use by the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller community – which is in line with Government policy – and details of the Gypsy and Traveller Accommodation Assessment carried out and updated in 2019 can be found on our website."
BBC News
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
'Emotional' Benjamin Zephaniah mural unveiled in Birmingham
A mural of Benjamin Zephaniah has been unveiled in Birmingham, with the late poet's brother describing it as "emotional". Tippa Naphtali said he had attended "so many" events for his brother since his passing in 2023, but admitted each one got easier because "we recognise that people loved him so much".The new artwork is located at Acorns Hospice and was shown for the first time on Friday afternoon. Speaking at the event, Mr Naphtali said: "It's such a wonderful location that does such wonderful work." He added: "It's been fantastic today and really enjoyable."The team at Acorns have been wonderful. We have been working with them for about a year."They have been supportive, they supported the artist and gave him access [to the site] and we're here today, a culmination of a year's work." Asked how his brother would have reacted to the mural, Mr Naphtali said: "If he was here he'd probably have been jigging about, making up a poem on the spot and insisting on seeing some of the children. "He would have loved it. It's such a shame we didn't do this when he was still with us." It comes after a similar piece of art was painted over in 2024. Birmingham City Council issued an apology after a sub-contractor painted over the mural in an underpass in Hockley. Mr Naphtali praised the city council for addressing the problem "very quickly". He said: "We met literally weeks after here, at Acorns, to talk about how we would move forward and relocate the mural to these gardens. "It all turned out well in the end." Follow BBC Birmingham on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
