• “Save Birmingham” Campaign

     

     

     

    The Save Birmingham Campaign aims to protect community spaces amidst Birmingham City Council’s current financial struggles. It seeks to prevent the hurried sale of vital spaces and services, connecting with local organisations and empowering residents to safeguard their community’s interests.

     

    The Save Birmingham Campaign wants to bring together community groups and residents to:

    • show how much the people of Birmingham care about their community places – from the City Centre to parks, buildings and venues in every local area,
    • identify and officially register those community spaces and places for protection; and
    • explore community-owned and co-operative solutions for public spaces and services that are fair and sustainable.

     

    Have you already nominated a local community place (including parks & open spaces) that you think should be protected in Birmingham?

    Click here to nominate your local place now via the Save Birmingham website! 

     

    “Birmingham City Council effectively declared bankruptcy in early September 2023, and the UK government indicated it would appoint “commissioners” to take over the running of the council shortly afterwards. It’s currently unclear what that means in practice, but we are concerned that residents could be worse off if the commissioners consider selling off council-owned assets without considering community-based alternatives.

    One way to do this is by designating a building, venue, park or other facility that is owned by the council as an “asset of community value”. This would give local residents a “right to buy” when the council considers selling the asset – delaying the sale by around six months. If the community raises enough funds and is successful, this could lead to residents take responsibility for owning and running the asset.

    We’re working through the details, but we think this process would help to show the strength of feeling that local residents have about council-owned assets in their local community, either preventing a sale in the first place or leading to community ownership.

    Longer term, we want to develop community and co-operative solutions for council-owned or run spaces and services, learning from good practice elsewhere in the country to ultimately make things better for Birmingham’s residents and communities.” – Save Birmingham 

     

    Posted on 23rd October 2023