Fears shopping area will be plunged into darkness

Soho Road would be plunged into darkness by council cuts, business leaders fear

Traders on one of Birmingham's busiest stretches fear business will be impacted if the area is plunged into darkness by council cuts.

Birmingham City Council, which has declared itself effectively bankrupt, is expected to vote though a 10% reduction in street lighting across the city as part of wide-ranging budget cuts.

Business leaders on Soho Road in Handsworth say the district is already too dark by 18:30 in winter months due to out-of-date lighting.

Bob Balu, chairman of Soho Road's business district, said the council might as well not bother putting the lights on if they were dimmed even more.

Bob Balu is concerned about lighting levels

"We'll only have daylight hours," he added. "We won't have a night-time economy. A lot of business will suffer."

Inderjit Sangha, who has run a news agent on the strip since 1987, said he feared shops would have to shut sooner.

"With no lights businesses are losing," he said. "The problems are growing."

Inderjit Sangha has run a news agents on the strip since 1987

Another store owner Amjad Farooq added: "When you see all these cuts coming through you do get very disappointed.

"At the end of the day I'm paying for someone else's faults. We're still working with a 25 year old lighting system here which is ridiculous."

Store owner Amjad Farooq

Financial crisis

The council, which needs to tackle a £300m budget shortfall over the next two years, said the reduction in street lighting would save about £900,000 a year.

No part of the local authority has been left untouched by cuts, with bin collections becoming fortnightly from 2025, 11 community centres being sold off and all arts funding being scrapped.

Bosses have also been hit by a £867m bill for equal pay claims and overspent on an IT system by about £130m.

After the publication of a draft budget, upon which local representatives will vote on Tuesday, council leader John Cotton said he had taken difficult decisions.

"What we've sought to do in framing this budget is ensuring that we've mitigated the impact on the most vulnerable," he said.