A day out over the holiday?

Would you like a day out over the Christmas holiday? Here are some offers you may not have heard about.

You can get a £5 day return ticket to London from Snow Hill or Moor Street. You have to book in advance using London Midlands' "rapid advance purchase" system.

You can also get a £10 day rover ticket which allows you to travel anywhere on the London Midland service.

These are special ticket offers the company has agreed following its failure to run Sunday services earlier this year. This emerged at the meeting of the West Midlands Integrated Transport Authority yesterday. There are 400,000 of the London tickets and just 50,000 day rover tickets so expect to have to hunt around to find the offers. This is the London Midland site.

* In a second development at the ITA, Jon Hunt was pleased to put through a ground-breaking deal to ensure the future of the Ring and Ride service. Centro has agreed to fund Ring and Ride for at least three years, enabling Ring and Ride to invest in new services and equipment with a view to carrying more passengers more efficiently.

If you have special transport needs and are eligible to use Ring and Ride, look out for special day-time trips such as shopping expeditions.

* And there's more good news on public transport because for the first time in donkey's years, bus fares on National Express West Midlands - that's the old TWM - will not be going up in the New Year.

Queslett Road lights hold up

Today Jon Hunt raised the deadlock on the Queslett Road/Nova Court junction at the West Midlands Integrated Transport Authority.

As a result Centro is to talk to Sandwell and Birmingham Councils to try to get joint working resumed on this junction.

Queslett Road, as has been well reported, has had a tragically high accident rate in recent years with several unpleasant crashes near this particular junction.

Speaking to the authority Jon stressed that quite a lot has been done. New traffic light junctions have been installed at Netherhall, close to Nova Court, and at Asda a little further on. In addition there are speed cameras on this stretch of road.

However access to Nova Court and the estate around it remains hazardous.

At last month's ward committee, the Perry Barr councillors were told that Sandwell Council had withdrawn its support for lights at this junction, claiming they are not necessary any more. Birmingham officers said they are now looking at other ways to spend their share of the cash to improve safety here. However, without lights, this junction is always going to be hazardous.

The Transport Authority received a report on progress in the region which stated that:
1/ road casualty rates are still too high'
2/ the local authorities do not think there are many more major engineering schemes that can be put in place to deal with the problem.

Jon took his opportunity, asking who could "bang heads together" and gained backing from officers and members for taking up the problem.

Ward committee in Witton

Perry Barr ward committee meets on Monday at 7pm at the Methodist Church, Wyrley Road, Witton.

The main topic is the proposed Aston and Lozells Action plan. It proposes a new zoning arrangement for Witton, between industrial and domestic housing. We had some concerns about the plans we saw as they did not include Deykin Avenue School. We have been assured this will be corrected.

A second major issue is the fate of the Serpentine Site, which used to be a supermarket and is now a parking area for Villa and includes the Villa Leisure Centre. It was previously intended it would be for housing and leisure - it is now being zoned for industry and commerce.

Whatever happens, it needs cleaning up. However we are concerned it will leave the Yew Tree estate isolated and also that earlier plans to replace or develop the Villa Leisure Centre should not be abandoned.

Art exhibition

A terrific art exhibition by the Perry Beeches Art Group at St Paul's Church Hall, Great Barr, today, demonstrating some hidden talent in Perry Barr and Great Barr.

This group started just six years ago in the Trehurst Community Centre. They have had a little bit of community chest to help them along.

There were pictures to see - but the group has also produced its own calendar for next year.

Many of the artists had never believed they could paint before they joined the group. Yet all produced a range of excellent and interesting pictures in a range of styles. We understand that one of our Christmas cards inspired an intriguing painting of the old Perry Mill Farm, which stood roughly where One-Stop is at Perry Barr.

The photos here show secretary Jill Barnard with proofs of the calendar. It costs just £5 and can be obtained by calling Jill on 358 0781.

There's another opportunity to take up art on Wednesday nights, we hear. Classes are held at Great Barr School at 6.30pm. The contact is Mrs H Davies at the school.

Speedway Hopes and Trees

Two developments on Wednesday which offer hope of a rapid solution to keeping Speedway at Perry Barr.

Firstly during the evening the Speedway tested out the new reduced noise exhaust systems on Wednesday night. The aim is to reduce noise levels by about 10 decibels.

Jon and Karen listened at various locations and were pleased to note the way it reduced the volume of noise across Perry Barr. If you live in the area of the track we'd value your feedback (please email with your address ) on the success of this.

Earlier in the day Karen, Ray and Jon visited the track and met promoter Graham Drury to discuss further environmental measures.

This was an exciting and productive meeting. Graham is suggesting planting about 100 metres of fast-growing high conifer trees along the line of the bank of the River Tame. We've expressed concerns that the river is acting as an echo chamber - you can see in the picture behind Ray Hassall, there's a chain-link fence and then the river, which is flanked by factory walls. Once fully grown, this line of trees would help prevent sound reaching the river and screen the track from both the Nash Square and Cliveden/Teddington neighbourhoods of Perry Barr.

It would also have a big environmental impact. It would hugely improve the appearance of Perry Barr as you approach it from the Birchfield flyover and would provide a green, leafy backdrop to the stadium.

Ray said: "As everybody knows, I've made it my mission in recent years to get trees back into Birmingham. This proposal from the Speedway would make a big contribution as well as helping to ensure the noise from racing does not give residents cause to complain in future years.

"I shall be doing what I can to provide advice and support to Speedway to make this happen and have begun talks with our experts in the parks department."

He added: "During the three years I was cabinet member for the leisure department we increased the rate of tree planting from 1,000 trees a year to 3,000 trees."

Speedway result

Planning committee today deferred a decision on speedway at Perry Barr for one year "minded to approve" and with a request to the officers to come up with appropriate conditions.

This is a wise decision very much in line with the submissions from the local councillors and many local residents, who wanted to see noise problems resolved before permanent permission is given.

The committee made it clear they want to ensure that the reduced noise exhaust systems are being introduced into speedway. Members were also supportive of our suggestion that other measures need to be taken.

The issue has generated a lot of heat and misrepresentation in the last few days as emotions have run high in some quarters.

Here is the text of what Jon Hunt said the planning committee this morning:

"Mr chairman, committee members,

Most residents are happy to live with speedway and let fans enjoy it. They just want something done about the noise. I am here to advocate solutions.

Unlike the old Perry Barr speedway, which was banked, this track is open in several directions. In addition the River Tame is flanked by factories and acts as an echo chamber creating some weird acoustic effects.

Reduced noise from the bikes would be welcome and I hope very much would work - but we also need specific measures to close boundaries of the track.

Tall fencing would be good and what about some tall, leafy trees?

Speedway says it wants to be good neighbours and many of its fans tell me it’s a community activity. We need to see it invest in good neighbourliness, not run down the residents affected by the problem as NIMBYs. Please don’t denigrate the genuine concerns of residents who have been to see me about this on a regular basis over the last three years."

Park-life

Volunteers spent Saturday planting new flower beds in the moat area of Perry Hall Park and working on clearing and tidying up the stream through the "Chinese garden".

Volunteers, police, park staff and local councillors all worked together in the latest stage of the enhancement of this park.

Second picture shows Cllr Jon Hunt planting a bed all on his own and the third picture shows some of the thousands of goldfish that now inhabit the moat.

Sadly work on enhancing another of our parks, Turnberry Park, is being blighted by the vandals who are flytipping large amounts of rubbish in its woodland. Details to follow.

Speedway decision on Thursday

The application for permanent planning permission for the Speedway at Perry Barr is to go to the planning committee on Thursday.

The current recommendation to the committee, from the city's planning officers, is to refuse the application.

That is because the council's environmental protection department have advised there is no way of guaranteeing that the noise can be controlled. They argue that the reduction of 10db promised through new exhaust systems cannot be enforced if it does not go ahead and concur with local residents and businesses that the current level of noise is not tolerable.They also confirm what we have been saying - that the planning decision is the best point to settle problems of noise.

In addition there have been heavyweight submissisions from Birmingham City University as well as many from local residents.

Speedway have apparently collected more than 500 signatures of support, including some from residents around the track.

When the return of Speedway was given temporary permission three years ago, the planning committee overruled the advice of officers to refuse it.

We have proposed that a sound proofed high fence be erected on the west side of the site, which adjoins the River Tame. We believe if sound-proofed fences can be used on the motorway they can also be used by the Speedway. The Speedway have told us that this would cost them at least £40,000.

Both Speedway and the environmental protection department agree that they don't think a fence will work.

We say it is a shame it was not tried, when we suggested it a couple of years ago. We've walked the site and note the noise is hitting the south-west corner of Nash Square most, where it is coming up the line of the river, past the factory buildings that lie between Nash Square and the stadium. On the west side of the track there are no buildings to block the noise and that may explain why there are so many complaints from roads lying the other side of the Walsall Road. As this is an industrial site, a high barrier would not be obtrusive.

Directly north of Nash Square a new FE college is to be built. That will almost certainly have evening sessions and could experience the same problems as BCU complains of.

Otherwise, if the decision goes to a straight reject or approve on Thursday, without any attempt at finding a workable solution, there will be a great many people upset.

Cricket review

Review of community cricket in Birmingham announced.

Here is the Birmingham Post report - a useful update on the controversies over the summer over Perry Hall Park.


"Council to review grass roots cricket

Sep 10 2009 by John Marsden, Birmingham Post

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