'Warm banks' for Acocks Green
Liberal Democrat Councillor working for Acocks Green Learn more
by Roger Harmer on 18 July, 2013
Birmingham City Council is currently (until 30th July) consulting on potential changes along the A41 Warwick Road and Acocks Green Local Centre. The schemes are part of a larger programme called Smart Network, Smarter Choices which is being delivered across the West Midlands.
The scheme, on the A41 Warwick Road, includes improvements for pedestrians, cyclists and bus users, such as the provision of pedestrian crossing points, shared use footways and cycle lanes.
In Acocks Green Village the scheme includes improvements for pedestrians, cyclists and bus users, such as the reduction of carriageway lanes from 2 to 1 in each direction, widening of existing footway, provision of high quality stone footways and street furniture, formalising of parking restrictions and installation of 20mph zone/speed limit.
These proposals build on work I initially championed back in 2008, when I secured development funding to look at options for Acocks Green Centre. At the time funding for implementing the project was not available but I was determined that we should develop plans so that when money did become available – as it then did with the Smart Network, Smarter Choices scheme – we would be in pole position to have Acocks Green Centre improved. My view was that this was the best way to ensure the plans had maximum community input and that by having plans in the file would be an advantage when funding appeared. So it has proved. There was significant community involvement in the development of the plans, with individual residents and groups such as the Acocks Green Focus Group having their say at events in locations such as Acocks Green Library.
The consultation can be accessed here. It affects the full length of the Warwick Road through Acocks Green. On the site the final two attachments are those that affect Acocks Green Village and documents 6-11 impact on other sections of the Warwick Road in Acocks Green Ward. The proposals have not been finalised yet, so your comments are definitely worth making!
4 Comments
What a catastrophic way to present a consultation! 11 different documents to download and wade through, instead of one document for each proposal.
The A41 through Acocks Green high street is relatively safe for cyclists, it is wide with relatively few parkes cars. This scheme removes the safe inside lane for cyclists altogether, narrows the road, introduces pinch points and adds short-stay parking bays along the road. Cars will be far less able to overtake safely, cars will be pulling on and off the road more frequently at angles that make it more difficult for them to check for cyclists, and car doors will be opened in cyclists paths. This plan turns a relatively safe route for cyclists into a dangerous one. Please please please, rethink this plan. It can be made better.
Hi Hannah – I fully agree that the scheme must be a cyclist friendly as possible. Cycling is healthier and better for the environment and should be encouraged and made safer. If you can make it, do go to the consultation event at Acocks Green Library next Thursday or Saturday and discuss your points with the Council Officers there.
The people hosting the event on Thursday told me they were aware of the problems for cyclists, and were aware there were no improvements for public transport use but that the plans would basically stay as they were because this was a scheme to economically rejuvinate Acocks Green. They told me the main objective of the scheme is to increase roadside parking to encourage people driving through to stop and shop. They told me that this scheme was being advertised as a scheme for cycling and bus use only because the funding was coming from the Local Sustainable Transport Fund. It is absolutely shocking that Birmingham City Council is consciously taking money allocated to improving sustainable transport and spending it on a parking scheme that makes sustainable transport less attractive and less safe.