uk_martin

Are there any other examples of how housing developments provide funding streams directly into the NHS? I always thought that the NHS was funded either by National or Local Government, who would (sometimes badly) assess the healthcare requirements of a region and provide funding accordingly. The NHS doesn't to my mind have the authority to charge money for that kind of thing themselves. Also, take Perry Barr as an example. Post Commonwealth Games, what was going to be the "Athletes Village" is being sold off (very slowly). There are 947 apartments up for sale, which will result in some 1800 - 2000 extra residents settling in Perry Barr. (how big is Brandon's proposed development?) And that's not to mention 9 other plots of land ready for development in Perry Barr for even more housing, There's not been any expansion in healthcare capacity, nor have we heard from the NHS about needing extra funding for this. All very odd.

Possibly, but I don't think that the £4k - £5K that processing a planning application will earn them will be that significant in the global scheme of things. But who knows?

It's a strange situation. Normally a council would be passive about these developments. It could just be that there was some blame shifting going on, with the land owner not wanting to be seen as being "pushy", so putting the blame onto the council in conversation. It's all so easy blaming someone else who isn't in a position to answer back if it makes you appear to be the good guy. Bear in mind that the Council OFFICERS who process planning applications are not the same thing as the local councillors. The local councillors will swing to where they will pick up most votes, that's their job. We also have to remember that these councillors also originally opposed the reintroduction of speedway into Perry Barr, so don't expect any huge loyalty from them. The local councillors are LibDems who are often kept in the dark by the ruling LABOUR Council, so this planning application came as much of a shock to them as it did to anyone else. There's also the Perry Barr 2040 Plan to consider, if anyone has the first idea of what stage of its consultation process it is currently at. https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/info/50253/perry_barr_regeneration/2388/perry_barr_2040_a_vision_for_legacy That plan has a stated aim of opening up access to the River Tame, so redeveloping the stadium according to the plans submitted will fit in with that. On the other hand, the plan states the desire to "make opportunities for place activation, cultural, heritage and other activities which create a vibrant place", for which the retention of the stadium would be ideal. Maybe with the council also now being technically bankrupt, they see the processing of a Planning Application and the fees that they charge for it, the income would be welcomed. Receiving income in the way of Planning Application Fees and actually GRANTING planning permission though, those are two different things.

OR, how about starting where we left off last time by signing a rider who's not appeared in the Premiership since his last appearance for the Brummies - Bartosz Zmarzlik?

And if it were to happen, I take it you'd change your profile name to "GiveusaW" ???

The "Birmingham Parry's Coaches Brummies"...??? Either CVS or Peter Adams as Team Manager...??? Whatever the outcome, it will surely be in the best interests of British Speedway.

Oh wow, Love the way that you can't resist a dig at the Tories for their 8 years in tenure, in which they were actually in coalition with the Lib/Dems. So, it's all their fault now? Nothing to do with Labour who were in charge forever before 2004 and who've been in charge for the 11 years since 2012? But hey, don't let the facts get in the way of a good politically motivated punchline, eh? In reality the Equal Pay dispute has been decades in the making, decades in the disputing by ALL political parties, and now has finally been acknowledged as a major issue following years of heads of all persuasions being buried in the sand. If you want to point the fingers of blame, look to the Unions who have the ability to pull their bin MEN out on strike if they don't get juicer cuts of the pay budget as opposed to those Unions in the social care sector who look after mainly WOMEN who aren't as militant and consequently couldn't hold the council to the same level of blackmail, leading to the pay inequalities that resulted. Add up the little differences here and the little differences there, and they all add up over time, and it's been a long time in the making. And in any case, the issues over the lease on the stadium and the Planning Application will be over before the next council election so any thoughts about the political landscape changing is not going to alter anything.

The Pandemic got in the way of timescales, so yes, the athletes were put up in Student Accommodation on the University campuses in Birmingham. The construction of 947 apartments on the site of the former University, which can be clearly seen on photos of the stadium was finished not long after the Commonwealth Games. And to this date, not a single person lives in any of them. Not one has been sold and not one has been rented out. And nobody has any idea when the rest of the development site is going to be started upon, which will feature more apartments between those already constructed and the One Stop Shopping Centre (to the south of the stadium) and an estate of town houses that will be built between the apartments and Wellhead Lane. All this available development land and all these unoccupied properties, and someone thinks it's a great idea to tear down a functioning facility in order to build more apartments that might also never be sold or rented. It Beggers belief.

The Council who own Perry Barr are effectively bankrupt and aren't in a position to take on any new financial obligations.

I bet Joe Thompson is feeling smug right now. Scoring alone as many as 4 Birmingham riders put together, and even matching Josh Pickwickering's score. Oh, and which club didn't need his services any longer, earlier in the year?

Going back to the original question..."Does UK speedway need a new televised product?" It's interesting what SkySports have done with Formula1. They have a specific programme aimed at kids watching F1, possibly for the first time. It's called "F1Juniors" and it's on their Sky Showcase channel. Bearing in mind Speedway's dire need to do something to attract a younger audience, maybe this "Juniors" format is an option for the future of speedway on TV, if the feedback is generally positive? Quick disclaimer - it's NOT my cup of tea and I only watched it long enough to gain a general flavour of it, BUT IF it gets kids watching, and it's in a format that they are used to from their games consoles etc, then maybe it serves a purpose. Gotta love the innocence of the kid interviewing Nico Rosberg live whilst the race was in progress and calling him a liar to his face! If only adult interviewers had the guts to do that.

Charles Dickens is also amongst the younger end of the speedway fan age spectrum too.

Where's Wonderful Radio Pyongyang when you want to listen to it?

It looks like Birmingham's easy option rather than to sign a permanent replacement for Nick Morris was to book Josh Pickwickering for as many of the remaining fixtures as possible (except for the meeting up in Edinburgh of course) - A semi-permanent guest #1 kind of arrangement kind of thing is probably better than having someone different every meeting.

Hopefully it won't be too long before Tolley qualifies for his own promoters license and the guy whose license the club is built around can be shown the door. THEN a team might get built properly, maybe even with 7 regular riders. You never know.

Maybe all the injured riders will have recovered in time for the restaging of the fixture then. And maybe, just maybe, the Brummies will have signed a new #1 and will actually field a 7-man team. It's a funny old world innit? Anything can happen. Like tonight's rain preventing this fixture appearing in the annals of #SpeedwayShambles for the way it was turning out.

That's a sad state of affairs but surely the fans want a 7-man team of their own, don't they? Something that they've only experienced two or three times in a 2-year period.

I see that Glasgow have just signed Vadim Tarasenko on an assessed 5.00 average. Would it have been beyond Birmingham's wit or imagination (or finances) to have made that signing first? Morris and Nielsen need replacing or are we just happy to plod along with guests to the end of the season?

This has all the hallmarks of a @SpeedwayShambles Special

Maybe, who knows? My point about the 8-day rule was in response to the suggestion that the Brummies could use a Poole rider as a guest in the second half of a double header where Poole are the first half team.

Have they scrapped the 8-day rule for guest bookings now?

Yep - it's the stuff that pays the bills. The stuff no doubt you and I work for as well. This is business, and Pickwickering has got his business head on. None of your Mills & Boone romance novels here. And good on him for it.

Should make Friday's away match at Edinburgh's trick track interesting then

A question I asked a few weeks ago. Is there a time limit on these "facilities"? Can the Brummies do what they've done for the past year and a half, just run with a guest til the end of the season? I'd have thought that they'd have had enough time to find an alternative permanent signing by now, but maybe guests are cheaper? I dunno. But then again with only 4 meetings until their season is over, is it worth signing someone just for those? No properly satisfactory solution, I fear.

As discussed on Facebook It's one thing suspecting or "knowing" that these fires are "insurance jobs" but it's quite another to prove it. I just hope that the insurance companies aren't conned because it's your premiums and mine that fund the pay-outs. It's US that are getting conned at the end of the day.