This BBC Radio 4 episode showcases the tree capony of the leafy Handsworth Wood. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000hghz “Birmingham is one of only fifty-nine cities around the globe to be awarded the status of ‘Tree City of the World’. This is an international framework for a healthy, sustainable urban forestry programme, an award that’s all down to the passion of Birmingham’s citizens for trees. Helen Mark meets tree planters young and old from near and far; tree wardens, who are kind of like traffic wardens, but for trees (and just as fierce: really, don’t mess with their trees); an academic who runs the Birmingham Institute of Forest Research (he really loves trees) and…

Lee Child was speaking at one of New York’s venerable institutions alongside the great and good of the literary world. “They like to have me along for a bit of rough,” he tells me. He’d probably say the same if you asked directly about his selection as a judge for this year’s highly literary Booker Prize. By Heather Martin PUBLISHED: 14:44, Mon, Oct 5, 2020 | UPDATED: 19:04, Mon, Oct 5, 2020 Lee Child né Jim Grant (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster)  Even after having sold hundreds of millions of copies of his thoroughly American Jack Reacher thrillers, the proud-to-be British author has self-deprecation built in. “If anyone from the Midlands is…

Councillors voted to defer the decision with a view to refuse By Tom Dare Local Democracy Reporter 05:30, 31 JUL 252020 Updated10:13, 20 AUG 2020 Dartmouth House care home The near doubling in size of a home for vulnerable men in Handsworth Wood has been ‘rejected’ by the council, after several objections from local residents. Dartmouth House, a privately-owned nursing care home on Handsworth Wood Road which caters for adult patients with a variety of mental health problems, had applied to add a further 13 rooms to its current 15-room facility. However in a meeting this week the council’s planning committee effectively voted to reject the proposals subject to further…