In the same week the Birmingham Post revealed this city is the UK’s start-up hotspot with more new companies setting-up here than anywhere else outside London we launched a campaign to keep one of the UK’s oldest motoring names in Birmingham.

The Start Up Britain report drew on last year’s Companies House data to assess where new companies were launched across the UK and revealed Birmingham led the table outside the capital with 16,281 companies registered.

Meanwhile, in Castle Bromwich, the fight is on to keep the famous tyre manufacturer Dunlop Motorsport in the city and in doing so saving 300 skilled jobs.

This is a true heritage brand playing its part in Birmingham’s burgeoning reputation as a centre of automotive research and development and its exit would be a massive blow for the city.

The irony here is that Dunlop Motorsport is being forced to find a new home because of the unstoppable growth of next-door neighbours Jaguar Land Rover which needs more space to expand its own operations.

Here’s hoping Dunlop Motorsport considers the options being put forward by Birmingham City Council and they stick around for the next 125 years.

Continuing with the heritage theme, a new city council strategy group is recommending Birmingham should do much more to celebrate its industrial roots and lay claim to being at the heart of the Industrial Revolution.

There is a feeling that as a city we don’t do enough to honour our great forefathers who built the modern world from furnaces and factories in and around Birmingham.

The group is urging better planning for the 200th anniversary of the death of James Watt in 2019 and with five years to go that should give plenty of time to get it right.

Public works of art made the headlines this week as a multi-million pound project to commission a world-famous artwork got off the ground.

While I’m extremely proud to be a member of the steering group for this five-year Birmingham Civic Society project I’m also under no illusion it will divide opinion and spark debate – that’s what bold, thought-provoking art does.

I hope residents and businesses will support the scheme and take ownership and pride in the final commission.

Stacey Barnfield, Editor