Longbridge village green could be saved

Residents hold out hope that the ‘village green’ in Austin Rise, Longbridge could still be saved from developers.

Full story from the Birmingham Mail: Longbridge village green could be saved

Retooled: Launching soon!

Just a note to say that, if you try accessing any of the links in the two posts about the Retooled Longbridge project, you may find they’re not working at the mo!

This is, in fact, good news though, as it means that Antonio Gould is putting the final touches to the site before it’s proper launch this Sunday!

Looking forward to seeing how it’s developing!

Retooled: Beginning Building Stories

Rover plant 2007 via 28dayslater.co.uk

A couple of days ago, I posted about the Retooled Longbridge project. As part of the Retooled project, Nicky Getgood & John Barnett have collected some content from the web regarding the Rover closure. Nicky’s post on the Retooled blog includes a recorded interview with John along with other goodies.

John also pointed Nicky in the direction of some fantastic images of the derelict plant and it’s underground tunnels taken in 2007, from urban exploration website 28 Days Later. Do click through to view more, well worth the time!

This is really going to be a fascinating project!

More Local Schools Will Be Affected by BSF Cuts

Colmers School & Sports College | Sas Taylor

The Birmingham Mail claims that an additional fifty-seven schools in Birmingham will have funding, previously agreed as part of the Labour government’s Building Schools for the Future programme, withdrawn. The promised funds were earmarked for works to be carried out over the next fourteen years.

Locally, these include:

• Frankley Community High School
• Colmers School & Sports College
• Turves Green Boys and Girls Schools
• St Thomas Aquinas
• Victoria Special School

Funds previously secured for development and repair of buildings at Shenley Academy in Northfield are still up for discussion.

A spokesman for Birmingham City Council told the Birmingham Mail that “[the Government] will still put money into refurbishment and new builds, but it will be under a different programme, different assessments and different time scales.”

A full list of all Birmingham schools affected can be found online with the Birmingham Mail article.

Retooled: Rover Workers’ Digital Storytelling Project

A new project is helping a group of ex-Rover workers record their memories of five years ago when 6000 jobs were lost at the plant in Longbridge.

Retooled is helping the workers build a website of stories about what it was like for them on the day the closure was announced and what happened next. The aim is that, in time, the website will become an interactive, open resource for others facing redundancy and job losses.

The group have joined together for the first time today and taken part in an initial session at Moseley Exchange. B<31 will be keeping an eye on how the project develops.

The project is  supported by the Arts Council, Birmingham City Council, Hello  Digital & Talk About Local, and is due to fully launch on 25th July 2010.

Longbridge Housing Scheme Funding Secured

The coalition government has announced it will honour a £3.6 million grant, previously  agreed under Labour’s Kickstart scheme, towards building over a hundred new homes on the former MG Rover site at Longbridge.

Full story – Birmingham Mail