Birmingham Friends of the Earth Action Briefing Feb/Mar 99

Bypass In Selly Oak

Long-term residents in Selly Oak have been aware of plan after plan to improve the area, to regulate traffic, to widen Bristol Road, not to widen the road, to rebuild shops, and plans for various other alterations. One by one, these plans have been discarded. Conditions in Selly Oak continue to deteriorate, the odd building is demolished, but nothing much is done. In the last ten years, the major suggestion has been a new road - but what sort of road? A bypass through to Harborne Lane, or an access road for new development? But what kind of developments are proposed? Some kind of industrial development? A so-called 'Medipark'? Additions to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, even a new hospital?

Just where would this road go? Through University land? Through one of the few remaining green sites, which conservationists have been struggling to preserve for years? Under the canal and railway viaduct? Through the large area of allotments, or through part of a well-established nursery? Most of these suggestions arouse a large number of residents to protest, and local surveys have shown that both the plans for a mega hospital and those for a bypass/access road are unacceptable.

The council seems to be able to expedite plans for piecemeal development, and we have recently seen the building of one large and one small supermarket with substantial car parks, and the resiting of a notorious massage parlour to an equally unsuitable site. What we need to see is a total plan for the area, and this - it seems - is due. At the Selly Oak Ward Subcommittee on January 20th, a Planning Officer gave a detailed presentation of the plans they intended to submit to the Strategy Committee the following week. If the Strategy Committee passes them, these plans will come to us [i.e. the residents/the Ward Subcommittee] for consultation.

At the same meeting, Dr Michael from the U.H.N.H.S.T. gave a highly sophisticated presentation to show the options for the building of a single high-tech hospital to replace the existing Selly Oak and Queen Elizabeth hospitals, which he described as being out of date and unsatisfactory. He seems to have forgotten that in the last ten years the trust has acquired a series of nice little extra units, such as the new Woman's Hospital, the Oncology Unit, the Early Diagnostic Unit, and the new Psychiatric Hospital, not to mention a brand-new Accident Hospital at Selly Oak. Certainly one of his 'options' is to retain some of this, even if that means using a split site. However, he was not prepared to declare his own preferred option and to say which site(s) should be used.

Meanwhile we are acutely aware that the crucial issue is finance. Dr Michael is confident that an outstanding project can make a credible bid for money through the Government's P.F.I. (Private Finance Initiative) scheme. Critics are aware that although such spending might produce the kind of hospital Dr Michael dreams of, the cost of using the hospital's services in the future would cripple the NHS.

How do local residents see the situation now that at last the two issues are seen clearly in tandem? Who will join us in dialogue and possible protest now?

Pat Knowles

BRAG: Bristol Road Action Group - Michael Double (471 2588)
BBVCG: Bournebrook Valley Conservation Group - Barry Walker
PFI Investigation Group - Pat Knowles (476 5457)