Category Archives: Coventry

Chinese EV battery maker in talks to invest £1bn in new UK gigafactory

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Plant on outskirts of Coventry could create up to 6,000 jobs and will be part of planned Centre for Electrification

A Chinese manufacturer of electric vehicle batteries is in talks to invest more than £1bn to build a giant new factory on the outskirts of Coventry.

EVE Energy, which says it employs 28,000 staff worldwide, is understood to be in talks to construct a 5.7m sq ft gigafactory, which will form one of the main parts of the planned UK Centre for Electrification, an investment zone in the West Midlands.

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Coventry council used Airbnbs to house ‘vulnerable’ teenage boy accused of rape

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Judge accuses local authority of a ‘lackadaisical’ attitude to the 16-year-old’s care after regulated providers refused to give him a place

A teenage boy who has been accused of multiple rapes was housed in Airbnbs by a local authority after regulated accommodation providers said it would be too risky for them to house him.

Airbnbs and other temporary accommodation have been deployed because no secure placement can be found anywhere in England that is prepared to accommodate the child, who self-harms, makes weapons, assaults staff members, damages property and has been taken to hospital after expressing suicidal thoughts. He has been arrested on numerous occasions.

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Birmingham PhD student guilty of using 3D printer to build ‘kamikaze’ drone

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Mohamad al-Bared used technology at Coventry home to make drone designed to deliver a warhead or chemical weapon for IS

A Birmingham University PhD student has been found guilty of using a 3D printer at home to build a “kamikaze” drone designed to deliver an explosive warhead or chemical weapon for Islamic State (IS) terrorists.

Mechanical engineering graduate Mohamad al-Bared, 27, was found guilty of using a 3D printer to make the drone at his Coventry home while sending weekly updates to IS.

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Sinkhole swallows car after water pipe bursts under Coventry street

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Seven Trent Water technicians working to repair ‘one of our larger pipes’ after car retrieved

A parked car was partially swallowed by a sinkhole that opened up on a Coventry road in the early hours of Monday morning.

The hole opened underneath the vehicle on Sewall Highway after an underground water pipe burst at about 4am, West Midlands police said. The street was closed for most of the day, a cordon was erected around the affected area and cars and buses were diverted.

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Amazon workers in Coventry to request union recognition after membership doubles

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It would be first time a UK union wins formal negotiation rights and comes after GMB-organised strikes at warehouse

Amazon workers at the delivery firm’s Coventry depot are demanding formal union recognition, after membership more than doubled during strike action.

If granted, it would be the first time a union in the UK has won the right to negotiate with the American tech firm.

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Amazon workers in Coventry begin first of two three-day strikes

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Workers gather at picket line on Sunday in ongoing demand for pay increase from £11 to £15 an hour

Workers at Amazon’s Coventry warehouse have begun a fresh round of strike action in a dispute about pay during the cost of living crisis.

GMB union members are planning three days of strikes at the huge Coventry centre, known as BHX4, from Sunday 16 to Tuesday 18 April, to be followed by three further days, from 21 to 23 April.

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First UK industrial action against Amazon is ‘making an impact’, says GMB

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Managers said to be covering for striking staff, though firm insists action has not disrupted activity

Workers at Amazon’s huge Coventry depot described the “stressful” conditions inside as they staged a historic strike to demand pay of £15 an hour – the first time the corporation has faced industrial action in the UK.

The local GMB organiser Amanda Gearing said the action on Wednesday was “making an impact”, despite Amazon’s insistence that work was proceeding as usual inside the high-walled warehouse.

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Terry Hall: lead singer of the Specials dies aged 63

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Having survived a tough childhood in Coventry, Hall became one of pop’s defining voices at the turn of the 80s, chronicling British decline and disfranchised youth with the 2 Tone band

• Alexis Petridis: ‘Terry Hall was the self-assured eye of the Specials storm’
• Terry Hall: a life in a pictures

Terry Hall, the lead singer of the Specials and a former member of Fun Boy Three and the Colourfield, has died aged 63, his bandmates in the Specials have confirmed.

“It is with great sadness that we announce the passing, following a brief illness, of Terry, our beautiful friend, brother and one of the most brilliant singers, songwriters and lyricists this country has ever produced,” the band tweeted.

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‘A gift from God’: Binley Mega Chippy owner basks in TikTok fame

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Kamal Gandhi, 70, and his Coventry chip shop became a sensation after its name was turned into a catchy song

It has been two weeks since his Coventry chip shop became a TikTok sensation drawing in crowds from around the country, and 70-year-old Kamal Gandhi is exhausted.

He has had to take on and train four new staff members, ensure a continuous supply of stock to deal with hundreds of new customers and help manage the long queues snaking down the road outside the now world famous Binley Mega Chippy.

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UK city of culture 2025: Southampton and Bradford among those on shortlist

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Contenders hope to use the status as a springboard for social and economic recovery

Bradford, County Durham, Southampton and Wrexham county borough have been shortlisted to become the UK next city of culture, it has been announced.

The finalists were whittled down from a record 20 bids to eight longlisted regions, which also included Cornwall, Derby, Stirling, and the district of Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon.

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Coventry family wins legal battle for Irish wording on gravestone

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Church court had objected to loving tribute to Margaret Keane for fear of arousing political ‘passions’

A grieving family has won its battle to erect a gravestone with an inscription in Irish after overturning a church court ban issued on the grounds that it might arouse political “passions”.

The family of Margaret Keane, a Coventry dinner lady who died aged 73 in 2018, now hope a Celtic cross bearing the words “In ár gcroíthe go deo” – “in our hearts forever” – will be in place on her grave in the grounds of St Giles church in Exhall, near Nuneaton, in time for St Patrick’s Day on 17 March.

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Couple marry on Covid ward 46 years after first meeting

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Ceremony at Coventry university hospital follows urgent Twitter appeal for registrar

A couple have been married in a hospital’s coronavirus ward after an urgent appeal for a registrar, more than 46 years after they first met on the set of a pantomime.

Philip, 78, and Patricia, 88, were married at Coventry university hospital, where Patricia is being treated for Covid-19, on Friday.

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No true ‘city of culture’ should dishonour the bold ideals of its postwar rebirth

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Plans for the centre of Coventry claim to offer a sense of place, but ignore its pioneering mid-century reconstruction

Coventry is UK City of Culture 2021, a title that focuses attention on its contribution to the cultural life of the nation: 1980s two-tone music, the legend of Lady Godiva, and its role in the development of the bicycle and car industries. And, high on this list, the fact that it was the pre-eminent example of reconstruction after wartime bombing.

Among the most devastated cities, Coventry was also one of the most determined and thoughtful in its reconstruction. This was partly expressed by its new cathedral, which brought together leading art and architecture, and connected movingly with the ruins of its predecessor. It was also expressed by the city centre, rebuilt as a series of human-scaled, pedestrian-friendly precincts. Here, too, the idea was for art and architecture to work together.

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