Crime author visits library

CRIME author Stephen Booth visited Solihull Library recently. Read about it here.

Free newspapers for library users

LIBRARY card holders can now read newspapers and journals online.

Solihull Library has announced that card holders can use the News UK website, providing access to local and national newspapers.

Journals such as The Economist, New Statesman, Lancet, Newsweek, Spectator, and trade journals such as Travel Trades Gazette, The Grocer, Farmers Weekly are available.

Click here to visit the website.

Space adventure is kids' book choice

YOUNG bookworms have awarded this year’s Solihull Children’s Book Award to space adventure Cosmic.

More than 280 children voted for their favourite of three shortlisted books, Ctrl-Z by Andrew Norriss, Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce, and Sisters of the Sword: The Warriors Path by Maya Snow.

The finalists attended an awards event at Solihull Arts Complex. Cosmic tells the story of an unusually tall boy who boards a mission to the moon.

Email your news and events to news@thesilhillian.co.uk.

Library DVD costs to rise

THE cost of renting a DVD from Solihull libraries is to go up by 20p.

The price will rise from £2.10 to £2.30 from April 1, Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council has agreed.

This will be £1.15 from £1.05 for children. CD hire will rise 5p to 55p.

A raft of price increase have been approve, including a 47.6 per cent increase in colour photocopy costs, from £1.05 to £1.55.

See the figures here.

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Review: 'noughties' exhibition

A NEW exhibition charts life in Solihull during the last decade. The Silhillian takes a tour.

Development is the common theme at the Farewell To The Noughties! exhibition at Solihull Library.

The fascinating collection of photographs, newspaper cuttings and artefacts shows how the face of the borough is changing through housing and retail schemes.

At the forefront, of course, is the completion and opening of the Touchwood shopping centre in September 2001.

Many might not know it takes its name from Touchwood Hall in Drury Lane – itself flattened after 250 years amid controversy in 1963 to make way for Mell Square.

A similar row hit headlines over the planned demolition of Fowgay Hall in Dingle Lane for flats – it again bit the dust in 2005.

Then there’s the proposed re-development of Shirley – said to be imminent in 2006, still stuck in the stalls in 2010.

Yet a successful re-birth is highlighted at the exhibition – on the second floor – with the opening of the Renewal Christian Centre in 2008 on the site of the former factory of Wilsdon and Co, closed in 1994.

Soden’s butchers in Knowle, meanwhile, was replaced with a dress shop while Woolworths, closed after the firm went under in late 2008, is now New Look.

Developments don’t come much bigger than starting a new neighbourhood from scratch but that is what happened when homes at Dickens Heath were finished in 2001. An aerial photograph shows the affect on the area.

The exhibition – which runs to April 17 – is well worth a look. Click here for more details.

Email your reviews and events to mailto:mnews@thesilhillian.co.uk

Solar panels for library

SOLAR panels were officially unveiled at Solihull Library yesterday.

Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council hopes the panels, on the roof, will save it £800 a year, three tonnes of carbon.

A grant from The Carbon Trust paid towards the panels. It is part of a council pledge to reduce emissions by 33 per cent by 2012.

A digital information board in the reception will tell visitors how much solar power the panels are creating.

Councillor Ken Hawkins, cabinet member for resources, said: “We are committed to taking a lead on tackling the effects of climate change in the borough.”

Cllr Hawkins, right, with Mayor of Solihull Councillor Norman Davies, added: “This project is one of many that is helping us to achieve just that, and also has the added benefit of saving the council money on its energy bills too.”

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