News
News
Suspect package found in Walsall town centre
Express & Star 28 Feb 11Walsall town centre was brought to a standstill this afternoon when a suspect package was discovered near the bus station…
News
Number of traffic lights up by 30 per cent
Express & Star 28 Feb 11The number of traffic lights on Britain’s roads has increased by nearly a third in eight years, a report revealed today, prompting calls for an overhaul of jam-causing junctions, with one recent example being the overhaul of the island near Walsall Arboretum…
News
Manor Hospital wards cleared of winter vomiting bug
Express & Star 28 Feb 11Norovirus has been completely eradicated at Walsall Manor Hospital, bosses revealed today, as they began counting the cost of more than two weeks of disruption…
News
High hopes for £250k rope adventure park at Sandwell Valley
Express & Star 28 Feb 11Plans have been unveiled for an adventure park at Sandwell Valley at a cost of £250,000, including an assault course high above the ground featuring a zip wire…
News
Black Country pubs take free kick at Sky football deal
Express & Star 28 Feb 11Pubs across the Black Country are challenging Sky TV’s grip on football by showing live Premier League matches beamed from abroad – and even advertising the screenings on hoardings…
News
Brownhills school’s £150k bill for extra Sneyd pupils
Express & Star 27 Feb 11Brownhills School is taking in 94 mid-year admissions from soon-to-shut Sneyd School in Bloxwich, 81 of which have not been funded — leaving a loss to Brownhills School of £144,901.83…
News
UK’s oldest twins dad from Brownhills has 13th child… and wants more
Mail 27 Feb 11The oldest father of twins in Britain has had another child at 72 and – he says he wants even more children…
News
More than 430 Walsall Council jobs to go
BBC News 25 Feb 11More than 430 jobs are to go as Walsall Council aims to save £23.5m over the next year…
News
Walsall Council workers set to lose bonus of bank holidays
Chris Philpotts Advertiser 25 Feb 11Walsall Council is set to wave goodbye to its Bank Holiday Tuesdays, council leader Mike Bird revealed this week…
News
Police hunt to find flashers in Walsall
WM Police 25 Feb 11Police are hunting two men who indecently exposed themselves to a mother as she collected her children from a Walsall school…
News
Police fighting plan to make them quit
Express & Star 25 Feb 11Dozens of West Midlands Police officers have fought a controversial move to make them retire after completing 30 years of service, figures revealed today…
News
Walsall children’s outdoor centre safe – for the summer, at least
Chris Henwood B'ham Mail 25 Feb 11A much-loved outdoor centre in Wales has won an 11th hour reprieve after a Midland council’s cutbacks looked like forcing it to close…
News
Bloxwich library to give away free books
Common People 25 Feb 11Bloxwich Library is giving away free copies of Philip Pullman’s classic story Northern Lights as part of World Book Night…
News
Homeless man attacked in Pleck
WM Police 25 Feb 11Walsall police are appealing for witnesses to come forward after a homeless man was attacked in the street in Pleck last night…
News
Wind turbine plan for Sandwell Valley revealed
Express & Star 24 Feb 11Sandwell Council is considering installing a wind turbine in Sandwell Valley near Swan Pool. Bosses say it would be screened by dense foliage and high trees, while noise would be drowned out by the nearby M5…
News blog
Minibus needed for Walsall Hospice cycle challenge
Graham Cornfield i-tms 24 Feb 11A cycle challenge on behalf of Walsall Hospice had been promised a minibus and driver but due to recent funding cuts, the minibus is no longer available which leaves the fundraiser in a bit of a spot – with only five weeks to go until the ride…
News
Bloxwich pensioner conned by ‘water board’ thieves
Express & Star 24 Feb 11Thieves raided the home of a 91-year-old woman in Bloxwich after duping her into believing they were from the water board…
News blog
Trade Walsall conference set for March
Walsall Voluntary Action 24 Feb 11Local voluntary and community organisations are invited to attend Trade Walsall’s Social Enterprise Conference, which is being held at the Forest Arts Centre between 10am and 4pm on Tuesday 22 March…
News
Potholes cause M6 traffic chaos
Express & Star 23 Feb 11Drivers were stuck in rush-hour delays of two-and-a-half hours on the M6 on Wednesday after a series of potholes opened up on the road…
News
Streetly woman dies after nurse administers ten times drug overdose
Mail 23 Feb 11A mother-of-four from Streetly died after a nurse at a trouble-hit hospital trust gave her ten times the amount of drugs she was supposed to receive…
News
Concerns raised over cuts to WM Police
Jonathan Walker B'ham Mail 23 Feb 11Police forces will need to make massive reductions in bureaucracy as they struggle to cut police numbers without letting crime go up, MPs have warned…
News
Walsall Myplace youth facility resurrected after appeal to minister
Andy Hillier Children & Young People Now 23 Feb 11A £1.3m Myplace-funded youth facility in Walsall has been given the go-ahead after initial plans for a centre in the area were scrapped…
News
Petrol may hit £1.50 a litre, warns expert
Express & Star 23 Feb 11Petrol prices could soar to £1.50 a litre by Christmas, a markets expert from the Black Country warned today…
News
Lorries seized in police operation targeting metal thieves
Express & Star 23 Feb 11Seventeen lorries were seized as part of a police operation targeting metal thieves in the Black Country. More than 50 vehicles were pulled over in Friar Park, Wednesbury, yesterday, as part of Operation Steel…
News
300 ‘devil dogs’ are seized in cop swoops
Mark Cowan B'ham Mail 23 Feb 11The number of ‘devil dogs’ being seized off the streets of the West Midlands has rocketed in the past year…
News
Do you want to help put on Caldmore Village Festival?
Caldmore Village Festival 23 Feb 11Caldmore Village Festival is looking for a volunteer to work along side our co-ordinating team to help organise this year’s Festival…
News
Willenhall couple celebrate platinum wedding
Express & Star 23 Feb 11A Willenhall man has spoken of how he dug his pregnant wife from the rubble of their home during the war, as more than 70 years later they celebrate their platinum wedding anniversary…
Comment
This is how the YamYam looked before manually created editions were replaced with aggregation from selected RSS feeds. Archived stories between March 2009 and February 2011 can be found via the menus (above), the search box (top right), the tag cloud or by clicking on section headings and working back through pages.
Comment
Rhodes: a keen advocate for recycling
BrownhillsBob 28 Feb 11I noted with some amusement on Friday last that whilst Peter Rhodes, columnist in the Express & Star, continued his tradition of shamelessly handcrafting a column out of crap jokes, recycled tidbits from the middlebrow tabloids and sub-Littlejohn shock sludge, he also chucked in a fat old urban myth…
Comment
anyone lived in a pretty how town
The Plastic Hippo 28 Feb 11The hippopotamus amphibious walsallus is not, strictly speaking, nomadic, but occasionally likes to occupy a different stretch of open water. Wishing for some respite from the noise of chainsaws butchering healthy trees in the Arboretum, the pod of hippos plodded north for the half-termly migration to anywhere but Hatherton Lake to wallow in the cool glory of Ullswater…
Comment
Mining and minors
The Mushroom 28 Feb 11The more you look at the proposed, but secret, deal to start open cast mining on the old IMI site in Darlaston, the more you get to thinking that whoever thought it up but must be on something that, if not illegal, should be…
Comment
Labour sit on the fence with Walsall Council budget amendment
Daniel Barker 28 Feb 11Liberal Democrat councillors put forward an amendment to Walsall Council’s controlling Tory group budget at the special meeting on 24th February 2010 called to decide the budget for 2011/12…
Comment
Walsall’s worst budget in 30 years
Walsall Labour Party 26 Feb 11Walsall Tories have passed a budget which only promises more pain for residents and communities…
Comment
Walsall cuts passed but Tories should take no credit
Pheasey Park Farm Labour 24 Feb 11For Walsall Tories in general to try and take credit for the council tax freeze is pure political opportunism…
Comment
New Statesman – No work for the lost generation
BrownhillsBob 24 Feb 11I’ve just spotted this article in the ‘New Satesman’, a lengthy and thoughtful piece about youth unemployment and the state of Brownhills…
Comment
Walsall Council budget
Cllr Ian Shires 24 Feb 11Given the financial mess the country has been left in after 13 years of Labour Governments, this year’s budget will probably be the most difficult that the council has had to face…
Comment
Lies, damn lies and Walsall Council
The Mushroom 23 Feb 11The secret deal Walsall Council and Advantage West Midlands (AWM) are negotiating to allow open cast mining in Darlaston is designed to deny local people an effective say in what happens in their area or plan opposition to the what could prove to be controversial plans…
Comment
Parliamentary constituency changes for Walsall and West Mids
News and views about Pheasey Park Farm 23 Feb 11With the electoral reform bill finally passed last week we now know that the parliamentary constituency boundaries for MPs will be re-drawn to accommodate new rules…
Comment
Citizen journalist or citizen?
Nick Booth BBC News 23 Feb 11Eric Pickles, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, clearly seems to understand how hyperlocal bloggers can help hold power to account. He is telling local authorities to let them into meetings and allow them to film (or record?) those meetings…
Comment
Bryntysilio: the worst kept secret is out
Wide Horizons 23 Feb 11Following an approach from the Walsall Camp Trust just before Christmas, Widehorizons has agreed to manage Bryntysilio for the Summer. The two Trusts are working to secure a longer term partnership…
Comment
Brownhills Brownhills, a wonderful town!
Andrew Hollyhead Two cultures, one mind 23 Feb 11Anyone who talks to me for more than a minute will know that I am Midlands born and bred. Friends from down south call me “the Brummie Git”, and when abroad natives have looked at me frustratingly and said “I know you’re from England, but which part?” unable to work out quite where…
Comment
Coal not oysters
The Mushroom 21 Feb 11Government-scrapped regional development agency Advantage West Midlands is seeking to sell-off land at two key regeneration sites in Walsall with the possibility of open-cast mining at one of them…
Weather
Features
Feature
Good Morning Year 6
Leamore Primary School 28 Feb 11Good morning Mrs Harris
Welcome back year 6 after a very relaxing and busy half term (for me). Just to update you on what we have planned for the week ahead…
Feature
A strange undertaking
BrownhillsBob 27 Feb 11When we discussed a couple of missing pubs in the area, The Coach & Horses and Royal Oak, an interesting observation was made by reader Caz…
Feature
Working in a coal mine…
BrownhillsBob 26 Feb 11Since covering the anniversary of The Grove Pit Disaster – the worst such event in our area’s mining history – I’ve only peripherally touched on the subject of the local mines. After some prompting by readers, I’ve decided this week to feature the Walsall Wood Colliery in the ‘Pictures from the Past’ feature…
Feature
Persistence of memory
BrownhillsBob 25 Feb 11Yesterday, whilst wandering past the former Warreners Arms pub, I stopped to look at the old inn. I started to study the terracotta brickwork on the corner between Ogley Road and the High Street…
Video feature
On two wheels
BrownhillsBob 20 Feb 11I’m currently experimenting with a bike-mounted video camera. Initial results have been better than expected…
Photo feature
I live where it’s grey
BrownhillsBob 19 Feb 11Whilst mooching around Flickr a couple of weeks ago, I came upon an absolutely stunning set of early eighties photo scans by photographer mervyn_w, that evoke a particularly formative time in my life…
Feature
Brownhills Memo website launched
BrownhillsBob 17 Feb 11This week, I had every intention of publicising a great event happening at Brownhills Memorial Hall on Friday, 19th February. Well, I was going to, but the tickets are all sold out.. which just goes to show what a popular venue The Memo is…
Feature
Leamore teacher finds a spider in her lunch
Year 6 Leamore Primary School 16 Feb 11A lesson in how to complain
Leamore Primary School teacher Mrs Harris got the surprise of her life when she sat down to eat her lunch. Watch the video to find out more and read the Year Six letters of complaint to McGregor’s burger bar in Narnia…
Sport
Football
Saddlers boss keen to play his wildcard Emmanuel Ledesma
Express & Star 28 Feb 11Walsall boss Dean Smith hopes ‘wildcard’ Argentinian signing Emmanuel Ledesma can provide the flair to steer the Saddlers to League One safety…
Football: Carling Cup final
Birmingham snatch Carling Cup glory
BBC Sport 27 Feb 11Arsenal 1 Birmingham 2
Obafemi Martins pounced on a calamitous Arsenal defensive mix-up two minutes from time as Birmingham City claimed their first major silverware since 1963 by winning the Carling Cup at Wembley…
Football
Dean Smith hails his Walsall helpers
Brian Halford Mercury 27 Feb 11Walsall manager Dean Smith has hailed the input of his closest advisors Jon Whitney and Chris Nicholl into the team’s recent revival as they battle to beat relegation from League One…
Football: League 1
Walsall 0 Rochdale 0
Michael Beardmore Express & Star 26 Feb 11Walsall picked up a point in their battle against the drop in a dour stalemate with Rochdale where both keepers were hardly troubled in an affair that had plenty of passion but very little quality…
Football: NPL 1st South
Brigg Town 4 Rushall Olympic 3
Colin Stoner Mercury 27 Feb 11Pics let slip
Rushall squandered a two-goal lead at the interval against fellow Division One South play-off hopefuls Brigg – conceding four poor second-half goals to crash to defeat…
Football
Combination Premier round-up
Colin Stoner Mercury 27 Feb 11Goalkeeper Scott Furlong equalised in time added on to complete Coventry Copsewood’s late revival in a 2-2 draw at Continental Star…
Football
WMRL round-up
Colin Stoner Mercury 27 Feb 11Top six WMRL outfit Bloxwich United were held to a draw by lowly Goodrich whose midfielder Stuart Skitt endured an eventful afternoon, scoring at both ends…
Football
Former Wolves defender Dean Richards dies
Guardian 26 Feb 1136 year-old defender dies after long illness
The former Tottenham and Wolves defender Dean Richards, whose £8.1m transfer to Spurs set a record for the highest amount paid for a player with no senior international caps, has died after a long-term illness…
Boxing
Willenhall’s Myles Holder in championship boxing at Walsall Town Hall tonight
Express & Star 26 Feb 1121-year-old takes on Waddington's Ryan Clark
Willenhall’s Myles Holder takes on Waddington’s Ryan Clark in a four-round middleweight contest at Walsall Town Hall tonight, just down the road from his home in Portobello…
Wrestling
Walsall family rumble sees brother tumble
Express & Star 26 Feb 11Mad Dog and Mr Fantastic fight it out
Walsall brothers Matt and Adam Powell were often told off for fighting as youngsters. But on Friday night, they stepped into the ring to battle it out for the first time as professional wrestlers in front of a full house home town crowd.
Football
Rushall Olympic celebrate £35k donation
Darren Stockall Rushall Olympic 25 Feb 11Dales Lane funding from the Highfield Trust
Rushall Olympic FC are celebrating a donation of £35,600 for a car park redevelopment project at their Dales Lane ground from the Highfield South Trust set up by Cory Environmental…
Business
Business
Rank Group relaunches Walsall G Casino
Insider Media 28 Feb 11The G Casino Walsall was re-launched last week after a £1.5m investment into the business…
Business
WM businesses optimistic about job creation
Duncan Tift BusinessDesk 28 Feb 11Businesses in the West Midlands are the most optimistic outside London about their job creation prospects, new research shows…
Business
Parkhill Estates breaks ground on major Darlaston regen site
Duncan Tift BusinessDesk 25 Feb 11Ground testing works are to start on a major reclamation project in Walsall that could eventually lead to the creation of thousands of new jobs…
Business
National Express set for £5m hit to bus services
Duncan Tift BusinessDesk 25 Feb 11Transport group National Express has said it expects to take a £5m hit to its bus revenue next year as a result of the Government cutting a grant to bus operators…
Business
Walsall ceramics firm prepares to wow National Gallery
Duncan Tift BusinessDesk 25 Feb 11A Walsall arts business has secured a major coup after learning its work is to be displayed at the National Gallery in London…
Business PR
Enoch Evans partner celebrates 25th year with Walsall firm
MBN 25 Feb 11The managing partner of Walsall solicitors, Enoch Evans, has marked his 25th year within the firm by cycling 160 miles for charity…
Business
AWM submits asset disposal plan to Government
Duncan Tift BusinessDesk 24 Feb 11Advantage West Midlands has submitted its proposals for the disposal of the £400m of assets under its control to the Department for Business Innovation and Skills…
Business
Record £742m profit for British Gas
Express & Star 24 Feb 11The UK’s biggest energy supplier has unveiled a record profit haul just weeks after it hiked bills amid the coldest winter in 100 years…
Business
National Express sees big improvement in profits
Duncan Tift BusinessDesk 24 Feb 11National Express made a 38% improvement in pre-tax profits last year with the transport group claiming the recovery was ahead of schedule…
Business PR
Midcounties to offer eco-friendly funerals
MBN 23 Feb 11Midcounties Co-operative is to offer a green funeral service to its customers designed to help minimise the environmental impact of their funeral…
Business
JLR parent Tata in talks with Chinese firm
Duncan Tift BusinessDesk 22 Feb 11Jaguar Land Rover parent Tata Motors is in talks with a Chinese sport utility vehicle maker regarding a possible assembly agreement, reports have claimed…
Business
Chiltern delays launch of super-fast Mainline service to London
Dunccan Tift BusinessDesk 18 Feb 11Chiltern Railways is to delay the launch of its much heralded Mainline service between Birmingham and London following fears about overrunning engineering works disrupting services…
Business
Tarmac in £2bn merger with Lafarge
Express & Star 18 Feb 11Historic concrete business Tarmac is being merged in a deal worth more than £2 billion, it was announced today…
Business
Co-op in ‘radical’ ethical drive
Express & Star 18 Feb 11The Co-op has launched its most “radical” corporate ethical plan, pledging to sell more Fairtrade products, cut carbon emissions, invest in community projects and take on thousands of apprentices..
Business
Rentokil slowed by City Link woes
Express & Star 18 Feb 11Rentokil Initial has unveiled a further restructuring of its ailing City Link operation after the delivery arm slumped to another loss…