Action Briefing Dec 2002 - Jan 2003
	The Newsletter of Birmingham Friends of the Earth

Hagley Road Consultation Reopened

As reported in the last Action Briefing, residents of Edgbaston have been not unreasonably concerned to discover that what was billed as a “new bus showcase route” has turned out to be a road widening scheme (albeit with a bus lane) involving the loss of front gardens, 80 trees cut down and demolition of listed buildings as well as bringing more traffic into an area already divided by four lanes. The scheme had been given the nod by the Cabinet (officially the point of no return) and was due to start in the new year.

We were contacted by Stephen Hartland, local resident, about this a couple of months ago as he discovered about the plans.
Things really got dodgy when local journalists decided to take a walk down the Hagley Road and knock on the doors of a couple of houses who would be losing parts of their gardens to the compulsory purchase orders. The residents knew nothing about the scheme!

Word got around and the papers were full of letters and articles - the issue even got covered on local television. The Mott MacDonald consultation the council had commissioned was deemed pretty useless by all concerned and eventually on the 13th November, after conversations with the Regional Development Agency, the Council agreed to reopen consultation. The Council is going to involve Stephen in the drafting of the letter to ensure that consultees are made aware of the true implications of the scheme, and they will also discuss who should be consulted.

We now need to make our case during the consultation and make sure that this scheme is shelved.

Karen Leach