Football pitches owned by Solihull Council have risen by 18% in three years, according to data obtained by Birmingham Eastside.

The figures, from a Freedom of Information request, show the cost of booking a pitch for a full season of 36 games has risen from £655 to £770 since 2022/23.

Booking a pitch for every other weekend or for one-off games has also risen by 18%, with clubs now paying £437 for 18 games, or £54 for a single game — up from from £46 in 2022/23.

The post Solihull pitch fees rise 18% appeared first on Birmingham Eastside.

An Iranian migrant living in Birmingham was sentenced for a ‘vicious’ attack on Soho Road.

Sharhad Rahmani, 40, of Rood End Road, Oldbury, pleaded guilty to inflicting unlawful wounding on Mr Shamal Abdullah and was sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court on the 26th May 2026.

The assault occured on the 14th of April 2024 on Soho Road in Birmingham shortly after 9pm.

Mr Rahmani and two others started a confrontation and chased Mr Abdullah, who sought refuge in Spices Takeaway.

One of the attackers, not Rahmani, carried a bottle which he threatened the victim with.

The court was shown CCTV of how he tried to barricade the door of the fast-food restaurant but the three men pushed through.

The three attackers then kicked and punched Mr Abdullah to the floor and Mr Rahmani bit the ear of the victim.

On the same night Mr Abdullah was taken to the hospital to treat his wounds, especially the left ear which had become deformed.

The three men, including Rahmani, fled the scene in a grey VW golf which was used to identify the attackers.

Four months later Rahmani was arrested, at which point he said to police that Abdullah was a ‘troublemaker’.

The court heard Rahmani grew up in Iran and since moving to the UK had previous court appearances and convictions for a variety of crimes.

He lived in Home Office accommodation up until his arrest and was not in employment.

Abdullah went to a police station in September 2024 and identified Rahmani as the person who had bit his ear during the assault.

In a victim statement, Mr Abdullah said: “I am very scared. I am very worried for my safety. I don’t dare to go out. I’m scared of Soho Road.”

He was left with a permanently disfigured ear from the attack but otherwise his injuries were not considered grave.

During the sentencing hearing Mr Abdullah was described as someone of good character, which Rahmani, from the dock, sneered at and was reprimanded by Judge Peter Cooke, who said:

“I don’t accept that the late expression of remorse is genuine. I saw your face, it was not that of a remorseful man.”

Sentencing, Judge Cooke said: “This was a persistent assault and directed against someone who was vulnerable. Three onto one, he was hopelessly outnumbered. He fled from you. He barricaded himself in a shop.”

“It takes a particularly feral level of viciousness to sink your teeth into another person and bite their ear.”

Sharhad Rahmani was sentenced to 3 years and 7 months for inflicting unlawful wounding, handed a 15 year restraining order from contacting the victim and will be ordered to pay a victim surcharge.

Judge Cooke said that due to Rahmani’s extensive criminality, immigration authorities may review his right to live in the UK.

“If your days in this country are numbered, I expect few tears will be shed on your departure”, he said. “That is a matter for [the Immigration Services] not me.”

The post Man sentenced for ‘vicious’ attack on Soho Road which left victim with a disfigured ear appeared first on Birmingham Eastside.

In a video explainer for Birmingham Eastside, James Hickman explains how England’s local elections work and how the May 7 local elections have affected Birmingham City Council.

To learn more about local elections, visit the Birmingham City Council Webpage

The post Birmingham’s local council elections — explained appeared first on Birmingham Eastside.

The chairman of the Disabled Photographers Society, Paul Hinchcliffe, says that there is a deficit in opportunities for disabled photographers in the creative community.

“I think the creative community is that big that it is hard for someone disabled to make an impact,” he says.

The society that he chairs, founded in 1968, aims to make photography more accessible for the disabled community through support and equipment modification.

“The aim of the group is to provide people with any disability with the equipment to go out into the world and take pictures.”

Modifications include an extendable arm allowing someone to use a camera and wheelchair simultaneously without stumbling or dropping their equipment, and a tongue- or mouth-operated switch which uses a remote to trigger the shutter.

Hinchcliffe lost his sight 10 years ago, and says this has impacted his experience of the creative community in two ways:

“Photography was a therapy for me because I could do it on my own without having to worry about other people or what’s around me.

“The downside is I’ve got a guide dog. So I’m very conscious that somebody might assume that means you can’t see anything, and they will think ‘why has he got a camera and a guide dog?’

“It’s a lot of my personal anxiety that stops me and would potentially stop a lot of disabled people who are in a similar position,” he says.

Research by the Advertising Association in 2021 found that only 9% of those in media and advertising had a disability compared to 20% of the general population.

“One of the aims of the Disabled Photographers Society is removing the obvious barrier of people assuming that disabled people can’t do something,” Paul says.

According to one survey, 88% of disabled people felt the most prominent barriers stopping them from progressing in their creative career was a lack of understanding of reasonable adjustments and a lack of awareness of disabilities.

“When given the skill, encouragement and adaptations it is quite possible. That shouldn’t be a barrier,” he adds.

Hinchcliffe says he wants to reach more people and provide more independence.

“Because it does give you independence that you may not normally have had.

“It’s empowering to give that person the ability to go out and do it. Whether it’s a wheelchair adjustment or a talk about how to use a camera if you are visually impaired. It’s encouraging them to try new things.”

The post “We’ve come a long way but we’ve a long way to go” Are there enough opportunities for disabled people in photography? appeared first on Birmingham Eastside.

Ian Francis, Director of Flatpack Film Festival in Birmingham, says the opening week of the festival has ‘been amazing with constant running from one event to another’.  

Flatpack Film Festival is an annual Birmingham based festival which showcases short films, animations and documentaries in various locations across the city such as Mockingbird Cinema, Pan Pan and the Botanical Gardens.  

One event held on May 10^th at Mockingbird Cinema was a showing of The Magic City, Birmingham according to the Ra with an accompanying Q&A and a subsequent jazz performance at Pan Pan.  

The Magic City is a documentary by Guillaume Maupin and Pablo Guarise which discusses the early years of the jazz musician Herman Poole Blount when growing up in Birmingham Alabama.  

“In some ways it’s just a bit of a coincidence,” Ian said. “You’ve got Birmingham Alabama and Birmingham, West Midlands. In the film they describe it as a city of a thousand churches and we’re the city of a thousand trades.  

“You could say our Birmingham is magic in some ways. It’s got a lot of hidden magic, it’s not obvious on the surface but if you dig deep there’s some really good stuff.”

The film festival is celebrating its 20^th anniversary since beginning in 2006 as an extension of 7 Inch Cinema, which was held at The Rainbow pub in Digbeth.

The team this year comprises six people and a collection of freelancers and volunteers.

In 2024 the festival presented 310 events in Birmingham and 84% of people left feeling inspired, according to Flatpack’s latest annual report.  

“It’s been amazing with constant running from one event to another,” said Francis. “But there’s been really good crowds. The weather’s been kind to us.”

“We’ve had a bus tour, some intense Q&As. We’ve had a showing of Handsworth Songs this afternoon, which was made in Birmingham in ’86 and the Q&A was a reflection on how some things have changed since then.”

The post Flatpack Film Festival celebrates opening week on 20th anniversary appeared first on Birmingham Eastside.

Traders at the Vintage Football Fair in Birmingham say vintage shirts are now an investment “because the longer people hold onto the shirt the more valuable it can be.” 

The Vintage Football Fair, held at Secret Space in Digbeth, offered shirt collectors an opportunity to discover unique, retro and sought-after kits sold by a number of traders. Around 800 people attended the event on its opening day.

Data from AceOdds, based on analysis of sales on the ‘Classic Football Shirts’ site, suggests that 1970s football shirts are worth 149% more than any other decade.

The average price of a 1970s shirt is £557 compared to £320 for 1990s shirts and £94 for kits from the 2010s.  

Traders at the fair confirmed a similar demand for older kits. A seller from The Shirt Collectors stall said: “It’s been a steady rise in interest. We see peaks when celebs or artists at festivals wear them.

“There were always collectors and we started collecting ourselves originally, but it’s now easier to showcase it. The spectrum of buyers is broader for sure, I think due to the internet opening it up to all.”

A trader from Coppa Kits said:

“The prices of modern shirts and the generic template has made people more nostalgic for older kits.”

He said that demand has “skyrocketed” in recent years, particularly during and after the Covid-19 lockdowns.  

“I first started noticing the increased demand around lock down when people like [podcaster] Ellis Platten were making content all about shirts. In my day job I work next to a university and I’m seeing more students walk around in shirts, especially vintage ones. 

“There’s also a growing interest from women getting into shirt collecting, in tandem with the growth of the women’s game which is great to see.

“The accessibility now is massive. We have so many ways to access these shirts like the vintage football fairs.”

Replica kits also fetch high prices with the highest priced replica kit — Ireland’s 1988 Euro shirt — listed for £1,999. The average price for 1980s replicas is £519.  

For keen collectors the appeal goes past the data and price. One football fan at the fair said:  

“In the last few years there’s been quite a rise in the collectability and value in football shirts, especially ones going back over the years. I think a lot of fans are nostalgic for better times when they stood on the terraces, or when their club might have been doing well and winning things.  

“Shirts made of polyester that probably didn’t cost a great deal of money to make at the time are now highly collectable — and some are worth hundreds.”  

The post Birmingham vintage football fair reflects growing demand for classic kits across the UK appeared first on Birmingham Eastside.

Voters will be choosing from more candidates than ever in Birmingham’s 2026 local elections. Birmingham Eastside dug into the data to find out where the hottest seats are, why there are so many candidates, and how many are ‘paper candidates’ without any presence online.

The post Why this election is different to any other: interactive story appeared first on Birmingham Eastside.

A NEW section of a viaduct which will carry high speed trains over the M6 in Birmingham is set to be put in place.

The first 107 metre deck will be slid over the junction 4 slip road on 11th April.

An engineering team is expected to take two days to manoeuvre the 1,250-tonne structure into place.

The slip road will close at 5am for work to begin with a planned reopening at 10pm on 12th April.

It will be positioned parallel to the east deck, which was installed in 2025.

Ian Clarke, HS2 Ltd’s project manager for the M6 works, said: “After safely completing the first viaduct on time, our engineers have wasted no time in forging ahead with the second installation.

“Thanks to the world-class engineering techniques we’re adopting on HS2, we’ve once again been able to reduce the number of temporary closures on the motorway while we carry out these essential works.”

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A Birmingham man has been sentenced to 40 weeks in prison for assaulting police officers who were responding to an emergency call at his address.

Kieran Wilson, 32, of Oval Road, Erdington, was sentenced on March 24th at Birmingham Crown Court.

On the 28th of December 2025, police responded to a domestic call at the Oval Road address to arrest Wilson, who then had an hour-long standoff with officers from inside the residence.

The court heard Wilson threatened to set his dogs on the officers, said he would stab them with a glass bottle and warned he was a trained martial artist.

Wilson eventually came out of the address and agreed to go with the officers. He asked if he could go back into the house to retrieve some of his belongings.

When this request was refused, Wilson “forcibly headbutted” PC Harper, and also assaulted a PC Gill, who he “kicked to the chest”.

The court also heard he tried to put another one of the officers in a headlock.

Wilson had pleaded guilty to breach of a suspended sentence order, possession of an offensive weapon (pava spray he had stolen from an officer during the altercation), and the assault by beating on an emergency worker.

The defendant has been remanded in custody at HMP Birmingham since the incident in late December and joined the court via video link.

The defence said Wilson found the incident “deeply unfair due to facing false allegations of assault against his partner” and when he was taken to the police van “he spiralled”.

Recorder Paul McGrath, sentencing, said: “There’s a batch of offences here and it seems to me the assault of PC Harper is the most serious one”, referring to the headbutt.

Recorder McGrath sentenced Wilson to a total of 40 weeks for the three offences.

The post Birmingham man who ‘attempted to put officer in a headlock’ sentenced for assault appeared first on Birmingham Eastside.

A dangerous driver has been handed a 14-month suspended sentence after a high-speed chase in Birmingham.

Bheki Mutisi, 26, failed to stop for police on the 15th of October 2025 on Nechells Parkway. 

Mutisi, of Castle Vale, was sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court on Friday, February 20.

The court was shown police dashcam footage of the incident and told the chase included a near miss with two cyclists and red light contraventions as the reckless driver reached speeds of 70-80mph in 30mph areas. 

The pursuit ended when Mutisi crashed on Moor End Lane with another vehicle and a garden wall. 

The defendant fled the scene and was detained by police in a nearby garden. 

Four small bags of cannabis were found in the car and and a zombie knife was found at his home.

Sharon Bailey, defending, told the court how Mutisi had been studying finance at Birmingham City University until his arrest and was in his third year. 

She said the defendant had a “long-standing fear of police” which, combined with his mental health issues, explains why he didn’t stop. 

Mutisi had two prior driving offences dating to February and December 2023 which resulted in his license being revoked. 

At the time of the incident, he was driving without a license and without insurance.  

Recorder Lewis Wigoder, sentencing, said: “You’re of previous good character, you’ve lost that now.”

“It was virtually a miracle no one got hurt. If anybody had been hurt or damaged, no insurance company would have come to their defence.”

Talking to the defendant, he said: “You must get a grip on your drug taking.”

However, he added: “In your case, there is a realistic prospect of rehabilitation in the community.”

The defendant had pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, possession of cannabis, possession of an offensive weapon, driving without a license and driving without insurance.

Mutisi was given a 14-month suspended sentence, a three-month drug rehabilitation requirement and he was disqualified from driving for two years.

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