Tower Hill safety campaign updates

Karen Hamilton and Jon Hunt with petition outside Co-op

Karen Hamilton asked transport cabinet member Cllr Tahir Ali about progress on the Tower Hill safety petition at the monthly city council meeting yesterday.

Cllr Ali replied:  "I can confirm that following the recent fatal collision at the junction of Walsall Road and Tower Hill, Highway officers have met with West Midlands Police to assist in the course of the investigation. As is the procedure in these cases, the Police will submit a report to the Coroner’s Court, with their recommendations as to potential road improvements that should be considered in light of the circumstances of the incident.

"Whilst we will need to wait until the outcome of the Coroner’s Inquiry, to understand what recommendations will be brought forward, please be assured that Highways officers are in close contact with both the Police and the Coroner’s Office, to ensure that they have our full assistance in reaching those recommendations."

* Other related developments: The city council yesterday backed a Lib Dem initiative to introduce more 20mph zones in residential areas. Ray Hassall got to speak in the debate.

* We're consulting residents about the 952 bus route. Our suggestion is to reverse the direction around the Beeches and Booths Farm estates so it does not have to stop at the top of Beeches Road. This would also help deal with some of the bottle-neck issues around the route. We've put forward the idea as Centro have announced a review of bus routes in north Birmingham. We understand that operator National Express agrees there are problems. At the moment bus drivers have to pull out from the left hand bus lane on the Walsall Road to get into the right filter for Beeches Road. They are then stuck at a bus stop preventing other right turning traffic getting down Beeches Road.

* Karen also presented more signatures from the petition to the council meeting.

Victory!

We were pleased to hear this week we've been successful in blocking the ludicrous idea that tolls could be levied on many of the roads leading out of Perry Barr ward.

That would have been the impact of the congestion zone charging proposal in the £2 million Gridlock or Growth document, sponsored by the government and the West Midlands local councils.

The original draft, which I saw, put this forward as the best idea. This was altered in the published document - but the reality is that scrapping zone charging leaves Gridlock or Growth without any feasible road pricing option.

I distributed a number of petition forms in the autumn and these cascaded across north Birmingham - meaning that ultimately I presented well over a thousand signatures to the city council and to West Midlands Passenger Transport Authority.

You can read the letter confirming the ditching of zone charging by clicking on the image.

The zone charging proposals would have seen the region divided along the lines of the motorways. Drivers would have paid £2.50 a day to cross under the M6 on very local roads such as Thornbridge Avenue, Hassop Road, Beeches Road and Brookvale Road. Somebody had forgotten that the motorway was built on pillars in a pretence that it would not divide the communities.

People such as Thornbridge Avenue allotments were particularly alarmed as they sit on the line of the motorway and their members come from both sides. It was an idea that needed to be firmly nipped in the bud and that is what we have done.

This has been a good example of where councillors can take part in local action whilst raising matters in "higher forums". So I've been able to speak on these issues repeatedly in the city council and at West Midlands Passenger Transport Authority.

Road pricing is controversial so there is a great deal of buck passing going on. London politicians want the West Midlands or Greater Manchester to run pilot schemes. We think parliament should make up its mind - local schemes could merely disadvantage the local economy.

Undoubtedly one of the main sources of congestion in north Birmingham is the M6 and the M6/M5 interchange. Transport planners think rush hour congestion could also be reduced by persuading more people to use public transport.

The problem is we are sitting on three decades of muddle thinking about the A34 corridor through north Birmingham.

Bus users are already noting that bus times are quicker than cars in rush hour thanks to bus lanes and traffic light priority. But many people won't switch because buses are also smelly and crowded in rush hour. I spoke on this in the city council on Tuesday but, according to the Evening Mail, TWM is still setting its face against putting conductors/wardens on buses. Local people have complained to me there is precious little evidence of the Safe Travel Team doing much work on the 51/16/33 routes. However following the Mail report, they were out in force in Newtown yesterday!

The proposed solution for the last 20 years has been the Metro. But there's a problem there - at Birchfield commuter traffic disperses in at least three directions. The Metro would go in just one direction, up the Walsall Road. I've now seen the latest figures suggesting something like 10 million passengers a year on the so-called Varsity North metro. That means something like 40,000 a day on the A34. There are barely that number of people living along the route. It's totally unrealistic and would simply mean another white elephant of a scheme.

These are points I've made repeatedly at Passenger Transport Authority meetings over the last few weeks following the publication of the latest Metro development plan. I don't think it's too late to develop a major public transport interchange in the Birchfield area - but time is running out. When the Varsity North plans were belatedly made public in 2003, I and others of all parties argued it could stop at Perry Barr/ Birchfield. I think it could be an effective city centre shuttle service - but it needs to pick up commuters from the Kingstanding Road, College Road and Brookvale Road routes. That means fast interlinking bus rapid transit services alongside good park and ride facilities. Surely a better use of the tens of millions they want to spend.

I hope to continue to be involved in further discussions over the summer as a further report on congestion is to be prepared with a view to making a bid to the government for so-called Transport Innovation Fund cash.

Jon