Birmingham’s heritage should be at the centre of 2013 City of Culture bid
Click above to find out more about Birmingham's bid for City of Culture
In an extract from an article in today’s Birmingham Post, Chris Hargreaves, Birmingham City Council’s head of conservation (who after almost 40 years in city planning, is retiring this month) says that the city has ‘failed to exploit great marketing opportunities from its rich history,’ and that whilst the city has many conservation successes to its name, there has been little mention of this with regards to the 2013 City of Culture bid.
The article also mentions the sad news that the council will not be replacing Hargreaves and his team of conservation experts will be ‘broken up and absorbed into the planning department as part of recession-prompted clampdown on council spending.’
You can read the article extract here.
Re the disbanding of the Conservation Department it would seem appropriate to remind again of Acocks Green Focus Group’s petition to ask the Council to re-consider this decision. Our blog and petition link, which you kindly published before, is here: http://bit.ly/dCutnh