{"id":191000,"date":"2025-06-17T06:40:12","date_gmt":"2025-06-17T06:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/191000\/"},"modified":"2025-06-17T06:40:12","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T06:40:12","slug":"bm-defends-plans-for-birmingham-store-amid-concern-for-high-street","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/191000\/","title":{"rendered":"B&#038;M defends plans for Birmingham store amid concern for high street"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Erdington high street in Birmingham has been &#8216;transformed&#8217; recently due to an initiative launched this year, police say<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/0_JS335735723-1.jpg\" alt=\"A generic picture of a sign for Erdington town centre\" loading=\"eager\"  \/>A generic picture of a sign for Erdington town centre(Image: Nick Wilkinson\/Birmingham Live)<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">A popular retail chain has defended its plans for a new store as a <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.birminghammail.co.uk\/\" target=\"\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">Birmingham<\/a> high street cracks down on anti-social behaviour.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">A B&amp;M store in <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.birminghammail.co.uk\/all-about\/erdington\" target=\"\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">Erdington<\/a> \u2019s high street closed this month, with a new one set to open at the site of the old Co-op on the same street in just a few days time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Ahead of the new store opening, the chain applied to extend its hours for the sale of alcohol, for consumption off the premises, from 7am until 11pm daily.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \"><strong class=\"Strong_strong__e2x35\">READ MORE:<\/strong> <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.birminghammail.co.uk\/news\/midlands-news\/residents-fears-venue-bids-serve-31865795\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong class=\"Strong_strong__e2x35\">Residents&#8217; fears as venue bids to serve booze 18 hours a day<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">But one objector said he was against the plans, saying the high street has a \u201cdrinking issue we are trying to get under control\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">A separate objection had been withdrawn by the time of a licensing meeting on Monday, June 16.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Efforts have been made recently to improve the Erdington area through a <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.birminghammail.co.uk\/all-about\/west-midlands-police\" target=\"\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">West Midlands Police<\/a> initiative named Operation Fearless, which was launched by the force earlier this year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Police have said funding, sourced from money seized from criminals, had been instrumental in transforming the area, adding residents reported feeling much safer due to increased police presence and enforcement activity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">At this week\u2019s virtual licensing meeting, a solicitor representing B&amp;M said the new store would not routinely be open for the proposed hours in the application.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/0_JS356137890.jpg\" alt=\"Operation Fearless, a major initiative by West Midlands Police, launched in Erdington earlier this year\" loading=\"lazy\"  \/>Operation Fearless, a major initiative by West Midlands Police, launched in Erdington earlier this year(Image: Nick Wilkinson\/Birmingham Live)<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">\u201cThe store will only be open generally from 8am in the morning until 7pm in the evening,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">\u201cBut B&amp;M always apply for these hours purely because at peak trading times, such as <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.birminghammail.co.uk\/all-about\/christmas\" target=\"\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">Christmas<\/a>, they may want to open later than the hours they would normally trade.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">He also stressed there would not be two B&amp;Ms in Erdington\u2019s high street, telling the meeting that the closed store had been there for 10 years \u201cwithout incident\u201d and had held an alcohol license.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">He went on to describe the B&amp;M operation as \u201cvery finely tuned\u201d and said it includes measures such as Challenge 25.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">\u201cWe already have the store in Erdington anyway so no issues there and no evidence there is going to be anything that would undermine the licensing objectives,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">The parties involved will be notified of the licensing sub-committee\u2019s decision within five working days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Erdington high street in Birmingham has been &#8216;transformed&#8217; recently due to an initiative launched this year, police sayA&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191001,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,984,748,393,22048,4884,285,39178,16,15,7830],"class_list":{"0":"post-191000","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-birmingham-city-council","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-erdington","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-politics","15":"tag-the-co-operative","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-west-midlands-police"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114697340937207383","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191000","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=191000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}