{"id":105416,"date":"2025-05-16T05:13:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-16T05:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/105416\/"},"modified":"2025-05-16T05:13:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-16T05:13:09","slug":"fountains-in-birmingham-city-centre-square-to-be-switched-on-after-18-months-insists-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/105416\/","title":{"rendered":"Fountains in Birmingham city centre square to be switched on after 18 months insists council"},"content":{"rendered":"

The fountains are a popular feature of Centenary Square in the city centre, which is home to iconic sights such as the Library of Birmingham<\/a>, the Hall of Memory and Birmingham Repertory Theatre<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"BirminghamBirmingham City Council House<\/p>\n

The square\u2019s new look was unveiled in 2019, with one councillor describing it as a \u201cworld-class public space where people can stop and take in the incredible things around them\u201d.<\/p>\n

The chair of the Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership added at the time that it would \u201creinforce Birmingham\u2019s status as a global city\u201d.<\/p>\n

Despite the square serving as a symbol of Birmingham\u2019s recent transformation and ambition, the fountains in the \u201cworld-class\u201d space have now been switched off for around a year-and-a-half.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the city council said last September the fountains had not been operational since they were turned off to facilitate the Ice Skate Birmingham event in October 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince then, scheduled annual maintenance was carried out, which found additional remedial work was required which is currently ongoing,\u201d they continued at the time.<\/p>\n

Asked for an update on the fountains this week, around eight months later, the council said an approvals process regarding spending was taking place and it was \u201cexpected\u201d the fountains would be serviced and switched back on afterwards.<\/p>\n

It did not say when this could happen despite being asked by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) if they had a rough date.<\/p>\n

\u201cCurrently there is Section 151 [finance] spend approvals process in progress,\u201d a council spokesperson said. \u201cAfter which, it is expected the fountain will be serviced and brought back into operation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018This is not a trivial thing\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

One Birmingham resident spoke to the LDRS recently about his growing frustration as the wait over the square\u2019s fountains drags on.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do a lot of filming around Birmingham city and I have spoken to many families who are very upset about this fountain not being on,\u201d Bernard Carroll said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey would meet up with other people and their children would have the most wonderful time there.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey would tell me it is so important to them in these very difficult times because it doesn\u2019t cost anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cI just want to see the families back in Centenary Square during this exceptional weather we have been having.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember coming back two years ago \u2013 it was about 6pm on a glorious, sunny evening and there were about 600 people.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were having the most wonderful time because of the weather and they were all mothers with their children.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a trivial thing,\u201d he added. \u201cI honestly believe this is very important for the beautiful people of Birmingham in this beautiful city.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt certainly helps one\u2019s mental health.\u201d<\/p>\n

Around six years ago, as the new-look square opened to the public, the council said the regeneration works were majority-funded by the Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership, which awarded a \u00a310.55m Enterprise Zone grant.<\/p>\n

Additional funds were secured through Section 106 planning infrastructure levy (\u00a31.2m) and city council funding (\u00a33.8m).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The fountains are a popular feature of Centenary Square in the city centre, which is home to iconic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,748,393,4884,8823,379,12,285,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-105416","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-ldrs","13":"tag-local-hubs","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-politics","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114515804435877427","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}