Birmingham Post

Hartland described the proposed Chamberlain Square beach in less than glowing terms. It would be akin to treating the surrounding Victorian civic buildings with contempt, he claimed, before adding that he despaired of the council.
No one disses the council and gets away with it, particularly when, as in this case, the beach is the pet project of council leader Mike Whitby and his chief of staff James North.
Hartland has now been banned from speaking to the press on Civic Society matters, with the spinning mantle being passed to Glyn Pitchford, one of the society's vice-chairman, who is known for choosing his words rather more carefully than Mr Hartland.
If I was Tim Walley, manager of the Bullring, who intends to open a rival beach next month, I would be very careful. Nasty things tend to happen to people who upset the Whitby regime.
Pitchford was keen to point out that Hartland has not been singled out for punishment. All chairmen of the society's various committees have been told not to speak to the media. It's all to do with having a more corporate approach, apparently.
Pitchford explained: "Most organisations and businesses abide by a strict code of conduct including having a communications code, which becomes particularly critical when growth, especially rapid growth, is apparent. The Birmingham Civic Society is no exception. The officers of the society have thus introduced such a code which it is hoped will satisfy the aspirations of its members."
And that's all there is to it. Honestly.
Whitby, meanwhile, further infuriated the conservation lobby by popping up on BBC Radio to announce that the TV Big Screen in Chamberlain Square, an essential element of the beach project, would remain in place over the summer. In doing so he naturally pre-empted the decision of the council planning committee, which meets at the beginning of next month to consider an application for the screen to stay in Chamberlain Square until September.
Still, as we all know, the planning committee is a quasi-judicial body which decides applications on their merits and does not make decisions in advance of meetings.

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Now that the dust has settled on last week's council elections, Labour are putting it about that all things considered they did reasonably well in Birmingham.
Well, if it cheers them up to think like that all well and good.
A glance at next year, however, suggests Labour will lose at least another four seats to the Tories, in Longbridge, Quinton, Erdington and Weoley. There are no elections in 2009, but in 2010 the Conservatives will start defending many of the former Labour-held seats they have picked up since 2004.
Labour may begin to gain ground after the honeymoon period of a Cameron Government, but it will take years to claw back to 61 seats and outright majority. Iron Angle's money is on the Tory-Lib Dem coalition remaining in power until 2014 at least.