I spent the morning talking to the businesses of Montgomery Street Business Centre in Sparkbrook.
This is a fabulous iconic site of diverse small units which is shockingly being auctioned off by Birmingham City Council.
As I was there they were being interviewed by ITV Central news.
The businesses who learned about the auction by reading it in an advert have formed the ‘Montgomery Street Cooperative’ & have applied for the site to become an asset of community value. They want to secure the site and run it as a not for profit cooperative to secure its future as a start-up hub.
This is the last surviving enterprise site for start up businesses owned by Birmingham City Council. Years ago the council was a pioneer in this field. It is a site of huge historic importance, located next to the Grand Union canal in Peaky Blinder land. The Moseley Lanchester brothers Lanchester Motor Company was based here once. But this place has been sadly neglected over the years by the council landlords.
I will be writing to Ian Ward Leader of Birmingham City Council to urge him to remove this important site from the auction list and to work with the businesses instead to unlock the potential of this site as the local community asset it should be. Save jobs, encourage entrepreneurs and support local business.
I made a video about my visit.
Moseley Liberal Democrats 