Birmingham uni, council cuts?

[Watermelon999]

Hi, does anyone know if the council being bankrupt in Birmingham will affect anything related to the university?

I am thinking things like bus services, street lighting etc which could be a safety issue?

I know the university used to operate a bus service between the campus and selly oak but now relies on the normal bus service. I wonder if this could be a problem for reliability, especially at night?

I live in Birmingham, I have not heard bus services are being reduced.

Birmingham is a huge city - parking is at a premium and I can’t see the bus services being cut.

DD is at UoB. No problems as far as I see. The Uni is great. The guild of students running runs the selly express and it runs hourly. Still running according to the website. To be fair there are so many students around UoB that it always feels very safe.
plus most councils are broke and cutting services.😢

To be honest, living somewhere that is lit up all night to the extent that we can probably be seen from space, I'm all for street light dimming/switch offs.

I don't think council cuts will affect privately run universities. Students living in Selly might get their bins emptied less frequently.

I am more concerned about the impact on the good , ordinary people of Birmingham, especially the most vulnerable. Council run services will be cut to the bone.

Sorry to mislead you, I haven’t heard this either, but I was wondering if it might have an impact

We live in a unitary authority next to an area where street l lights are switched off at night (or at least they were, last time I had reason to be travelling through at the relevant time) and although as far as I can recall, all-night street lighting wasn't a thing anywhere I lived before I moved to London at 18, I would vote for this not being done as part of a cost-cutting exercise, if at all avoidable. It does have an impact on the feeling of personal safety, or rather otherwise.

A few years ago, a lot of the street lights in our own area were replaced with shorter, 'lower light pollution' ones, though, which took a bit of getting used to, but we have done, eventually.

There are a couple of letters in today's Observer on the subject of the reaction (or perceived lack of it) to the news of the city's financial situation.

Out of interest, why would the average student need a uni bus service from the campus to Selly Oak?

I asked my son this, because it's easily walkable, and he said some of the girls he knows feel safer getting a bus at night if they are on their own, but he has never got a bus.

Ah, OK. I used to cycle everywhere - lived out in Bearwood and Kings Heath and only ever took the bus if the weather made cycling impossible. On nights out we we were always in a good sized group.

Do students at Birmingham not take advantage of the campus having its own station?

I had kind of assumed, ever since I first viewed Birmingham, that living a stop or two down the train line was a thing. Sounds like maybe not?

Yes, they do but that won't get you from campus to Selly Oak. My DS uses the train to get into Birmingham city centre/New Street.

DS1's second year house was on Heeley Road, practically opposite Selly Oak station, so I suppose that at least when working in the Biosciences building he might have thought of going one stop on the train (but never did).

DD (who lived on Dawlish Road and Exeter Road in second and fourth year, Aix-en-Provence in between) says she only knows one person from her social circle who ever used the bus. I have to say that I had no idea that there was one. Tbh, I'd be tempted to worry more about the trek up to the further reaches of The Vale than walking home through the streets of Selly Oak.

Same. But it's never bothered DS. It's a pretty safe campus walk too.

Buses in Birmingham are run by private companies so they aren't affected by the cuts. This is also the same for electricity, water, gas etc.

The only thing that has been affected so far is bin collection which is now every other week, and local services like community centres, Libraries etc. The universities won't be affected and as people have mentioned there is also a train station at University of Birmingham. The trains are also run by private companies.