Backlash over £1,100 Birmingham City Council consultant

Birmingham's Tory opposition leader hit out at the decision by Labour council chiefs to spend £1,100 per day on a consultant at a time when the council was making brutal cuts to services.

Conservative leader Robert Alden also accused his Labour counterpart Sir Albert Bore of bypassing normal recruitment processes to hire the troubleshooter Sarah Homer.

Ms Homer was hired by the cash-strapped council to oversee cultural transformation of the authority in the wake of the damning Kerslake review, published at the end of 2014, which concluded the council's leadership needed extra help to drive through necessary changes.

The £1,100 a day charge for her services was paid to her employer Green Park, a London-based agency which specialises in finding candidates for top jobs.

Hunt for memories of Brindleyplace to mark 20th birthday

It's hard to believe it but Brindleyplace celebrated its 20th anniversary during 2015 and a project was launched to collect the public's memories of the estate.

The team that runs the mixed-use scheme off Broad Street went on the hunt for the best memories and stories from over the past two decades.

The regeneration of the estate was led by property company Argent, which still has an office in the award-winning Eleven Brindleyplace, and now employs around 10,000 people across its mix of bars, restaurants, offices and leisure facilities.

Formerly a site of factories at the height of Birmingham's industrial past, the site lay derelict for many years following the decline of Britain's manufacturing industry.

In July 1992, planning permission was granted for a new business and leisure destination on the site and the first phase was opened to the public in 1995.

£600m Snow Hill Masterplan to transform Birmingham business district

Arguably the biggest story of the month - if not the whole year - was the news that an ambitious mastplan worth £600 million was being considered for Snow Hill.

Branded as "Birmingham's Canary Wharf", the area around Snow Hill station is set to be transformed over the next 20 years in a bid to make Birmingham a global finance hub.

Birmingham is already the UK's largest base of professional and financial services firms outside London but business leaders said the plan would help to create 10,000 high-paying jobs and boost the city's economy by £600 million a year.

City leaders said the Snow Hill Masterplan showed an ambition to take on the likes of London, Frankfurt and Zurich and attract more professional services jobs with 2.2 million sq ft - the size of 28 football pitches - of new office space.

Artwork owned by Andy Warhol becomes Barber Institute's first nude

An early 20th century painting which was once owned by Andy Warhol becAme the first nude ever purchased by the Barber Institute.

Miss Bentham, by American realist George Bellows, went on display in the gallery at the University of Birmingham during February.

The painting represented a return to major purchases for the Barber and director Nicola Kalinsky said it became only the second UK public collection to own a work by this key modern artist.

Miss Bentham was owned by pop artist Andy Warhol from 1985 until his death in 1987.

Ms Kalinsky said: "It fits in extremely well with the strengths of our gallery as a historical collection but it takes us into new areas too."

Driverless vehicles made in the Midlands go on show

An automotive revolution was in the offing in February as driverless vehicles designed by engineers from the Midlands were showcased.

The groundbreaking pods were set to be tested on public roads later in 2015, having been developed by Coventry-based RDM Group.

Electric powered, the vehicle can seat two people, will travel at a maximum speed of 15mph and boasts a range of 40 miles.

It uses sensor and navigation technology provided by the University of Oxford’s Mobile Robotics Group.

Experts said the intelligent transport systems, called Lutz Pathfinder pods, had the potential of reducing accidents and making traffic flow more smoothly.

Apps Uber and GetTaxi to battle for Birmingham

A battle of the taxi apps hit Birmingham during February as both Uber and GetTaxi launched in the city.

Minicab app Uber faced competition from GetTaxi which works exclusively with black cab drivers - both allow customers to book a lift at the touch of a button on their smartphones.

Uber caused a row when it arrived in London with traditional cabbies arguing the way the app calculated fares was tantamount to a taxi meter which only black cabs are legally allowed to use in the capital.

But in Birmingham Uber has been licensed as a private hire operator.

Birmingham City's parent company goes into receivership

There was so much going on with Birmingham City FC this year that it was hard to keep track.

Its parent company Birmingham International Holdings Limited went into voluntary receivership during February and appointed Ernst and Young Transactions, the receivership arm of financial services firm EY, as the receivers.

Birmingham City said in a statement they wished to reassure supporters and staff "most emphatically" that no winding up petition had been filed against BIHL and therefore they were not in liquidation.

"Birmingham City FC can fulfil its obligations as a member club of the Football League and shall continue to maintain a strong dialogue with the board of the Football League on this matter," the statement said.

Queen Elizabeth Hospital 'must try harder' to solve parking crisis

Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham was told by city planners it must try harder to solve the parking chaos which blighted nearby streets.

The city council's planning committee was scathing of an official 'Hospital Travel Plan' which it said failed to offer solutions to parking problems and asked for it to be redrawn.

The plan was ordered in December 2013 after the hospital in Selly Oak was told to satisfy the committee it was taking action to deal with the problems before it could fully occupy the translational medicine facility.

At the time residents, complained the area was becoming a giant car park with some even resorting to direct action by scrawling messages on badly parked cars.

Review of Year 2015 - January