The huge police operation for City of Culture year

ALL eyes were on Coventry as the City of Culture revealed more of the vibrant programme of events for the year ahead.

Unveiling how the next 12 months are going to look as the city gears up for celebrations to start in May, the Trust reassured Coventry that “the City of Culture is happening.”

Flexibility was the message of the day, with the team unveiling a jam-packed programme of events that could accommodate a changing public health situation.

Coventry has been told to “put the date in your diary and prepared to be surprised” for their huge opening ceremony - Coventry Moves - on May 15.

And as restrictions ease we are likely to see a large number of visitors descend on Coventry to get involved with City of Culture events.

But as we reported there were three stabbings in Coventry last week, two in the city centre. So what is being done to reassure potential visitors that Coventry is a safe place to visit?

The City of Culture year is going to be a huge operation for West Midlands Police.

So far they have revealed they are going to invest an extra £100,000 of police support for the City of Culture, on top of having a dedicated policing team and City of Culture policing lead, Chief and the rapper JAY1 (August Inspector Helen Kirkman. 2021). This will be one of the

Starting on May 15 and run- first music festivals presented ning for 12 months,the force in the UK under the government’s say they will be working roadmap out of lockdown. alongside the City of Culture team to use arts and culture to They have said they want to tackle issues which matter to link in with some of the big local people help prevent names involved with these crime. events so they can use their

This will involve strategy influence and position to be around policing some of the good role models. specific outdoor events taking After the 2021 programme place this summer, including announcement, Dave a music festival called CVX, Thompson, Chief Constable and a street art festival. of West Midlands Police wrote

CVX is a three-day arts on Twitter: “This is brilliant. activism festival curated by Using art to connect with young people in the city with young people to help us tackle Positive Youth Foundation violence. Coventry 2021 is going to transform our city.”

All events are being planned in a flexible and responsive way, to allow them to be presented throughout 2021-22 in line with the Covid-19 guidelines at the time they take place.

City of Culture Policing Lead, Chief Inspector Helen Kirkman said: “With so many exciting and innovative events taking place, it was important that our planning team was in place early. We are continually learning what an important role the arts and cultural sector can play in reducing crime, connecting with communities, better understanding the issues that face them, and protecting people.”

West Midlands Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner Waheed Saleem said: “The Coventry City of Culture is a truly remarkable and exciting project and one that makes me immensely proud. It will offer the people of Coventry, and beyond, new experiences and opportunities.”

Adding: “It will of course be a big operation for West Midlands Police. That’s why I’m investing an extra £100,000 in the event to ensure the safety and security of local people and visitors alike.”

Another event, ‘In Paint We Trust,’ will be a street art festival that will feature local, regional and national street artists, with 20 extraordinary new artworks transforming vertical and horizontal spaces across the city.

The first commission for ‘In Paint We Trust’ is being delivered in partnership with St Michael’s Neighbourhood Team in Hillfields.

Funded by the Home Office’s Safer Streets initiative, local PCSO Adam Bettison recently ran a competition with primary schools in the area to design artwork that was based on tackling the topics of bullying, internet safety, road safety and knife crime.

The winning artwork is being recreated by the street art specialists in collaboration with the Watch Centre in Hillfields.

Coventry’s City Centre Inspector Simon Finney said: “We hope this will be the start of many future collaborations and that we can continue to work with local residents to support public artwork that reflects communities as a whole and through these collaborations tackle community safety issues that matter to the residents of Coventry.”

JAGUAR Land Rover is looking to slash the number of vehicles it produces by as much as a quarter as part of a radical plan to transform the company.

In his first press conference since taking over the reins from Ralf Speth, new CEO Thierry Bollore recently revealed a bold vision for the Coventry car maker’s future.

As part of his Reimagine programme, Mr Bollore revealed that Jaguar will become an all-electric brand going forward and the company is working towards a zero carbon future.

He also said a planned new version of Jaguar’s flagship saloon, the XJ, would not be produced and that Jaguar production would be centred in Solihull.

That means that the future of Jaguar’s Castle Bromwich plant in Birmingham is uncertain, though Mr Bollore said production of existing models would continue there for the time being and the lines would be “re-purposed”.

Following the recent press conference Mr Bollore and senior management at the firm gave a briefing to investors.

That briefing featured much more detail about how the Reimagine plan will unfold - including a scaling back of production.

It will see the firm focus more on profitability than volume with the number of vehicles it needs to sell to break even reduced from somewhere in the region of 450,000 a cars a year to a figure around 400,000.

That represents a move away from the desire to continually grow and a one-time aim of selling more than a million vehicles a year.

Instead Jaguar Land Rover will aim to make more money out of high-end vehicles like the Range Rover, which are more profitable, and move the Jaguar brand upmarket with higher-priced cars but less of them produced.

In the short term the reorganisation will lead to investment to the tune of £1.5 billion being written off this year, but it is being seen as a painful part of the return to profitability.

We spoke to Warwickshire automotive expert Dr Charles Tennant about the plans revealed to investors and cutting volume.

Mr Tennant, who is a former chief engineer of Land Rover and sat on the board of Tata Technologies, said: “Jaguar

Land Rover is planning to slash production by 25 per cent over the next five years as it right-sizes itself to a lower breakeven point and unfortunately it is the UK which is taking the hit, as the Castle Bromwich factory - employing 2,500 - will no longer manufacture cars when the current line-up of Jaguar saloon and sports cars ceases in 2025.”

Mr Tennant said the new CEO was ditching a ‘dash for growth’ strategy which had been a key focus of the car maker in recent years but the change in focus came with an investment write-off.

Looking at its recent sales figures Jaguar Land Rover sold 614,309 vehicles in the financial year to 2018.

In the year to 2019 it sold 578,915 and in the year to 2020 it sold 508,659.

The 2021 year is still running but sales for the 2020 calendar year were 425,974.

“A ‘dash for growth’ strategy saw total Jaguar Land Rover production rise to 614,309 in the 2017/18 year when the previous management were targeting - with much hubris stratospheric annual sales of one million,” said Mr Tennant.

“But that is all in ashes now as plunging sales have now forced the company to reevaluate and right-size itself for profitable sales at much lower volumes.

“While the demise of diesel has caused some lost sales, Mr Bollore has admitted that ‘the dissatisfaction of customers was really detrimental to our natural volume’ - or put another way poor quality has cost Jaguar Land Rover 100,000 annual sales.”

Mr Tennant added: “Jaguar Land Rover is also ignominiously having to write off prior investment to the tune of £1.5 billion in this financial year following cancelled projects including £300m already spent on the shelved electric XJ saloon - and reorganisation costs.

“While this helps with lower depreciation charges on the balance sheet - probably in the order of £150m per year it means that 2020/21 is going to be another year of big losses, the third in a row.

“While the new CEO Thierry Bollore - is magnanimously throwing everything but the kitchen sink to cleanse the balance sheet, so his bold ambitious Reimagine strategy can start with a clean slate, these write-offs are the result of previous product plans that have not delivered.

“Jaguar Land Rover will now prioritise profitability over market share and add to the billions of cost savings already achieved to significantly lower the breakeven point from 450,000 to 400,000 cars per year.”

On the company’s plans to return to profitability, Mr Tennant said: “The company now expects to return to profitability by 2023 and aims to eliminate its debt pile of £6.9 billion by 2025.

“This stellar performance will be delivered by increasing the earnings before interest and tax (known as EBIT) from four per cent to 10 per cent by pushing a stronger product mix of their most profitable cars such as Range Rover from 12 per cent to 18 per cent global market share.

“Jaguar Land Rover’s own market research has shown while total industry volumes are only expected to grow by 0.5 per cent - the high-end luxury segments they are targeting will grow by 2.8 per cent with China remaining as the profitable growth engine.”

The scaling back of production will see a reduction in Jaguar numbers chiefly, with plans to move the brand more upmarket.

Mr Tennant said: “Jaguar sales boomed driven by popular SUV cars - production tripled to 174,100 - but a sales slump has since seen Jaguar sales fall to 102,494 last year (down 36.6 per cent) where Land Rover also suffered a fall of 18.3 per cent but still managed to notch up 323,480 sales.

“A completely new range of Jaguar battery electric vehicles (BEVS) are to be designed and whilst we do not know what type or size, they will not include SUVS leaving them exclusively to Land Rover.

“This future Jaguar range will be lifted upmarket to compete with Bentley and Aston Martin, so will need to be more opulent and expensive, so we can probably expect a price range of £100,000 plus at annual sales of around 30,000 vehicles.”

LIFE-SAVING bleed control kits have been placed around Coventry to help the victims of knife crime.

More than 200 of the specially-created packs designed to control bleeding after someone is stabbed or cut have been placed across the West Midlands.

The kits include bandages, tourniquets and gloves that can be used to help someone after a stabbing has occurred. The region’s Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC), David Jamieson, has provided funding for them.

They are designed to be easy to use and to keep an injured person alive until they can receive treatment from a paramedic or doctor.

The PCC hopes the 227 kits across the region - including in Wolverhampton, Sandwell, Dudley, Birmingham, Walsall, and Solihull - will rise to 400.

In Coventry kits will be put at 16 locations, including at pubs The Oak, The Phoenix and Quids Inn on Gosford Street, as well as other city centre pubs such as The Yard, Slug and Lettuce, and The Botanist.

The roll-out of the kits follows passionate campaigning from Lynne Baird who tragically lost her son Daniel in July 2017 after he was stabbed to death in Birmingham.

She has since set up the Daniel Baird Foundation which campaigns for bleed control kits to be placed in locations that are easily accessible to the public.

Knife crime has doubled in the West

Midlands since 2012 and the Police and Crime Commissioner has been keen to ensure these kits are distributed across the region to give victims the best chance of survival.

On average it takes an ambulance seven minutes to reach a patient, but bleeding from serious injuries can prove fatal in as little as three minutes.

Speaking of the kits, Mr Jamieson said: “The bleed control kits are a simple, yet smart idea that have been designed to save a life.

“That is why I took little convincing that we should roll them out across our region.

“Sadly, knife crime has been rising across the country in the last decade, and so too has the number of fatalities.

“These new kits are good value for money and if they save just one life then they will have been worth the investment.

“I’d also like to praise Lynne Baird for her excellent tireless work on this issue. Without her none of this would have been possible.”

Lynne said: “Sadly in 2017, when my boy was attacked, there wasn’t a first aid kit to hand in the area. Had there been, then Daniel might still be with us today.

“I would love it if these kits could be placed in every busy area of the West Midlands.

“We know how important it is that when someone is stabbed, cut or injured that they receive first aid treatment straight away. These kits are designed to save lives and I’m delighted so many are now in areas near to where they are needed most.”