Birmingham City Council

The number of fake goods seized in Birmingham during lockdown has been "astronomical", according to the head of the city's trading standards.

Birmingham City Council

Tony Quigley was speaking to BBC WM as the council had £10,000 of counterfeit clothing destroyed.

The haul included fake items bearing the labels of brands like Nike, Versace and Gucci.

But Mr Quigley said it wasn't just clothing which was being seized: "We've also during the pandemic seen fake personal protective equipment, we've seen fake sanitiser, we've seen other items like Covid tests."

Residents in Birmingham will be able to take household rubbish to waste recycling centres in vans or trailers from tomorrow.

BBC

Until now, with the recycling centres reopening post-lockdown, only trips in cars have been allowed.

The city council said the service wasn't available yet to businesses and residents would still have to book a slot via their website.

Birmingham City Council is forecasting a shortfall of £212m over 2020-21 and 2021-22 and said effectively declaring itself bankrupt "would not rectify this situation".

Nearly nine out of ten local authorities face budget deficits as a result of the coronavirus, including 10 of the 14 in the West Midlands.

BBC

Birmingham City Council, the largest local authority in the country, is facing the UK's biggest worst-case shortfall, although the £212m includes a reduction in the council's rates and tax collection.

The shortfall equates to £186 for every person living in the city.

Some councils have considered using a section 114 notice, which basically stops a council from making any new spending commitments, but still honours its existing ones.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service in the West Midlands has been covering these stories:

• Plans for Birmingham's future after lockdown which could see wider pavements and curbs on car usage have moved forward a step. The city council's cabinet approved the emergency scheme, which also includes expanding the cycle network, and will bid for government funding.

Birmingham City Council

• Job losses and debt from the impact of coronavirus could lead to more people taking their own lives, health bosses in Walsall have warned. Councillors were told there's been no increase in suicides but officials were worried about the coming months as the economic affects set in.
• Two schools in Birmingham will be expanded to teach an extra 374 pupils as part of proposals to tackle the city's rising population. The city council approved business cases for both Kings Heath Boys Secondary School and Waverley School, Small Heath, amid an increase in birth rates and with more families moving into the city.

The effectiveness of the government's new test and trace system is being called into question by Birmingham councillors and local MPs.

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BBC Radio WM has seen a letter from them claiming five days after it was rolled out only half of positive coronavirus cases were tracked down by tracers employed by the government.

The letter also claims on average those people who had Covid-19 could only provide fewer than one contact each for the tracers to call.

Liam Byrne, Labour MP for Hodge Hill, is among the signatures to the letter and described the current system as "hit and miss".

"Only 40% of people who reported were actually contacted and the number of people that everyone reported looked weirdly low so the system isn't robust enough to keep the city safe," he said.

The Department of Health says the service is helping save lives and there are more than 25,000 contact tracers in place, who have all been trained and are fully supported.

Visitors to parks in Birmingham are being urged to take their litter home as the city council's struggling to keep up with the amount of rubbish left in bins.

BBC

The local authority says its parks department is emptying "more bins than ever" at a cost of £25,000 in May as lockdown started to ease.

The council's plea follows criticism of the amount of litter left at Cannon Hill Park over the weekend.

The leader of Birmingham City Council is urging chancellor Rishi Sunak to "plug the gap" faced by large local authorities during the coronavirus pandemic.

Ian Ward said the council was "stepping up to the challenge" of "delivering economic leadership" but the government must carry out "urgent action to protect frontline services".

A letter to government outlining demands has been signed by Mr Ward and the leaders of councils in Bristol, Liverpool, Cardiff, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham and Sheffield.

Complaints about noisy neighbours in Birmingham have almost doubled during the lockdown.

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Council officers received 1,073 about issues such as barking dogs, music, TV and anti-social behaviour between 23 March and 6 May.

The city council's figure for the same period in 2019 was 588.

The authority urged residents to be considerate of their neighbours and to raise issues with them first.