Tamworth Blog

Dosthill Pools (Allen Cook, RSPB)

Fancy an evening stroll around an upcoming local beauty spot?  Want to learn more about the work being carried out there?  Want to learn more about the wildlife there?

This Wednesday (22 July), the RSPB are holding guided evening tours of Middleton Lakes.  The tour is free and will allow you to see the new nature reserve in it’s infancy and learn more about the work the RSPB are carrying out on the site.

If this is of interest to you then you need to book your place by either emailing middletonlakes@rspb.org.uk, call to book your place on 01827 259454 or you can RSVP via their Facebook page.  The walk will last about 2 hours and start at 7pm.

Don’t worry if you can’t make it.  There is another evening walk scheduled for early August (August 4).

Following the announcement made by Trinity Mirror earlier in the month about the closure of Midlands based titles, including our own Tamworth Times, union members have voted overwhelmingly to strike.

A report in yesterdays Guardian suggests that 80% of Trinity Mirror Birmingham National Union of Journalists members voted in favour of the strike amidst the news of the closures and changes to other titles in the region, including the Birmingham Post and Mail.

The closures which include Tamworth’s own weekly Tamworth Times publication and other changes are threatening the jobs of up to 120 local staff in the region.  Chris Morley, Northern organiser for NUJ said:

“Trinity Mirror management should realise that compulsory redundancies, and the attacks on journalism in the Midlands that they propose, are totally unacceptable to their own workforce,”

However, Trinity Mirror have hit back at the NUJ ballot and comments, branding them reckless and negligent.  A spokesperson for Trinity Mirror told the Guardian:

“The NUJ’s claims are hugely misleading when in reality less than 45% of all those who were balloted voted in favour of this strike,

“We are obviously disappointed with this reckless and negligent decision. We are fighting to secure the future of our businesses in the Midlands which are now running at a loss. This action will not benefit their members in any way whatsoever.”

As reported last week, it is believed that Tamworth Times final edition is this week, (although we have not been able to confirm this as of yet) so these strike actions may come to late to save our local title.

The changes to the local publications though runs much deeper with many Tamworth residents regularly reading the Birmingham Mail and Post.  Our local neighbours up the road in Lichfield are also set to loose their local title as reported on The Lichfield Blog.

Last Friday the Staff, pupils and their families past and present attended a special Mass at the Sacred Heart Church, Glascote to say goodbye to Headteacher, Julie Collins as she leaves St Gabriels RC Primary in Belgrave. Mrs Collins joined the school in September 1996 and in her 13 years as Headteacher  she has secured a special place in the school community. The Mass was a celebration of Mrs Collin’s time spent as Headteacher and the many happy and memorable occasions shared. Mrs Collins will be greatly missed by all her colleagues and friends as well as the pupils and families of St Gabriels who all wish her every happiness for her future.

Mrs Collins leaves to take up a post with the Local Authority in a consultancy capacity and the post of Headteacher of St Gabriels will taken up by Mr John Hayes.

Tamworth Blog and TCR FM have today become partners with Tamworth Blog providing the local news for the re-launched Community radio station when it goes live later this summer.

Initially the Tamworth Blog news feed will be added to the TCR FM website, allowing visitors to the radio stations website to access the local news.  Then when the station goes live later this summer, the news bulletins which will form part of the programming will carry Tamworth news, provided by the Blog alongside national news.

TCR FM management are keen to avoid just providing national news on the community driven radio station and want to give news about Tamworth a platform on the radio waves, providing a real time, local news service to listeners.

Speaking about the partnership, Martin Summers, Joint Managing Director at TCR FM said:

“Concentrating on national news is easy and something that is already catered for on the stations throughout the region.

“What we want to do here at TCR FM was to give local news as much air time. Where better to get the news than from the community?

“Both TCR FM and Tamworth Blog are community driven, so the partnership seemed natural.”

The partnership will begin shortly once some jiggery pokery has been carried out on both websites.

We here at Tamworth Blog are excited about this partnership as it brings both community radio and community news services bought together to provide locals with not only local news on the internet but also on the radio, bringing traditional and new media together.

Tamworth Blog provides a platform for local contributors to tell readers (and soon listeners) about stories and events in their local areas.  If you are interested in joining either teams then please contact us.

Keep an eye on Tamworth Blog for more information on this new partnership and to hear about TCR FM news first.