It’s a thing of wonder that only two short years ago none of us had a clue what street food was. Now you wouldn’t think twice about spending a fiver on an artisan sausage covered in Dijon Ketchup. What has confounded experts is why Moseley hasn’t embraced the concept of street food in the same way that Kings Heath has. After all the people of Moseley are 17% more sophisticated than people in Kings Heath and are known to never pass up the opportunity to pay through the nose for any old shit if it has an olive on top of it.
Over the last few months many of you will have visited the Flying Flea market. It’s tried to bring us the best of a vintage market with a variety of Birmingham’s street food vendors. Whilst the Flying Flea has battled some pretty dire weather over the last few months it seems that we’ve all missed the chance to see it blossom into a Moseley event. The Flying Flea has been subject to a hostile take over and will now be replaced by the Flying Teapot; this is the brainchild of business legend Councillor Martin Mullaney who has radically overhauled the business model so in future he will bring us the best of a vintage market with a variety of Birmingham’s street food vendors.
Councillor Martin Mullaney told us* “The way they were doing it before was all wrong, people don’t want to go to a market that sells fleas. Fleas are harbingers of plague, no people want to drink tea, from a teapot, a flying teapot. I’ve turned around multi million pound corporations and I can tell you their business plan was all wrong. They were focussing on building sustainable mutually beneficial relationships with traders and the wider community. Now, that’s not going to put food on my table is it? No, my new market is all about cold hard cash, which I’m going to use to buy things.”
We look forward to our new street food and vintage market with some excitement.
*He obviously didn’t talk to us. A note for Councillor Martin Mullaney’s legal representatives, we have moved since we last engaged in correspondence, you will no doubt find our address in the normal manner.
Starts quite funny but soon turns into a personal attack on one of your favorite targets, Martin, who are you getting your ‘facts; from I wonder?
I would expect just about his only friend to jump to his defence …the facts are now common knowledge in South Birmingham.
http://www.salmayaqoob.com/2011/02/mullaney-sinks-into-sewer.html?m=1
The Ex Tory lackey should go back to pointing at things, just about all he was good, sorry, I mean mediocre at.
Make no mistake Martin Mullaney is viewed by many as a racist Islamophobic embarrassment.
People like him should have no place in the public eye.
Do your homework on him starting here
http://www.salmayaqoob.com/2011/02/mullaney-sinks-into-sewer.html?m=1
I hope the editor allows me the chance to respond to the above.
First with regards the charge that I am “racist” and an “Islamophobic” – I am sure that both Kings Heath mosque and Hamza mosque would find both these charges surprising, since I did so much to support the continued operation of their mosques. Indeed, when the tornado hit north Moseley in July 2005, I did a considerable amount of work to find a temporary home for the private and Muslim-run Woodstock Road Girls School which had been almost destroyed.
Yes, I am embarressed and ashamed by what I said about Salma Yaqoob – it wasn’t racist, but it was grossly insensitive. My only defence was that it was made in the heat of moment, after she decided to act disrespectfully towards a Birmingham-born soldier who had just been awarded the George Medal for saving the lives of his fellow soldiers by lying onto top of an exploding grenade.
With regards the Moseley Street Food and Fly Market. The idea of this market was mine and I put all the money into financing it. Unfortunately, within 4 months of operation it had managed to rack up a total loss of £3000 (money from my bank account). With the people who had made the commercial decisions to cause that insane loss, not prepared to contribute their own money, nor with a sensible plan as to make the market break even, it was time to go our separate ways.
They have decided to continue with their markets in Bewdley and Wolverhamption – and I wish them the best of success. I am focusing on Moseley, which was as I said above was my idea.
Yes, it is about hard cold cash: however, if the author of this article and the commentators are prepared to put their money where their mouths are and contribute financially, then maybe we can go back to losing lots of money.
I hope the author will provide me with another opportunity to comment on this article and the comment, including the claim that I am ‘racist’ and ‘Islamophic’ which I strongly refute.
When I was Councillor for Moseley and Kings Heath Ward from 2004 to 2012, I took a close interest in north Moseley, especially the Chachi Pathan community based around Kingswood Road and Church Road. This area suffers from high levels of deprivation and I wanted to help its residents.
I believed that the involvement of Hamza mosque and Woodstock Road Girls School is crucial to lifting this part of Moseley out of poverty. This is why I have did the following:
:
• Ensured that all Regeneration Projects in that part of Moseley contacted Hamza mosque and Woodstock Road Girls School. Projects included the ‘Integrated Gateway’ project which targeted young unemployed people, with the aim of getting them back into employment or full time education; the ‘Heathy Hearts’ project which targeted men over the age of 40, gave them free blood pressure tests and directed any with high blood pressure to the appropriate health facility.
• In 2005 I found and negotiated alternative accommodation for Woodstock Road Girls School. During the Tornado of July 2005, the Woodstock Road Girls School building was badly damaged and the Council were having problems finding alternative accommodation. I looked at several buildings and eventually found alternative accommodation for the school in the school buildings attached to Clifton Road Mosque. Woodstock Road Girls School stayed there until February 2006, while the old school buildings were being repaired, I arranged for Council Officers to get quotes for new playground fencing for the school. Funding for the new fence was then paid for out of local Community Chest funds.
• In 2006, I asked council officers to commission a project where we would purchase dual language (Urdu-English) books specifically aimed at the Woodstock Road Girls School. The books would help both children and parents whose second language is English. £20,000 worth of books were purchased and are now shelved at Balsall Heath Library. A display of sample books were put on display at Woodstock Road Girls School and Hamza Mosque so as to direct children and parents to the much larger stock at Balsall Heath Library.
• In the two weeks after the Tornado of July 2005, I spent every day helping local residents at the emergency centre located at the corner of Newport and Church Road. I asked officers to commission a project to get tornado wrecked fences in the roads around Queenswood and Sandford Road replaced with new fences. I knocked on doors getting residents to sign the forms agreeing to the new fences. I requested officers to commission a project to clean up Balsall Heath Park using money from the Moseley and Kings Heath Ward Community chest, even though the park is in Sparkbrook Ward.
Further to this I assisted Kings Heath mosque in resolving planning difficulties over an extension it wanted. They wanted to modernise their facilities.
With regards to parking problems they were having outside their mosque during Friday prayers – this was causing tensions with neighbouring residents, whose drives were being blocked. I helped them get traffic cones from the local police and when these slowly vanished, I offered to pay for more traffic cones out of my pocket.
So to claim that I am racist or Islamphobic is utter rubbish and belittles the real issues of racism where people are attacked, harassed or discriminated against, because of the colour of their skin.
We had a successful Moseley market on Sunday 4th May – 3 out of our 4 traders had completely sold out by 3.30pm.
Follow us on our facebook at https://www.facebook.com/flyingteapotevents
Many thanks for everyones support – next market is Saturday 24th May, 9am to 3pm