Car-sharing lane flop just what the council ordered
Oct 4 2008 By Paul Dale, Public Affairs Editor
Birmingham’s car sharing scheme on the A47 Heartlands Spine Road has been a disaster.
Routinely ignored by motorists who knew police were not interested in enforcement, the year-long experiment is about to come to an end.
The last fine was issued in March, for heaven’s sake.
It’s certain that transportation cabinet member Len Gregory will use the shambles as an excuse not to introduce car sharing in other parts of the city.
But isn’t this exactly the outcome Gregory and his pro-car colleagues expected and wanted?
Why else would they have chosen one of the least used arterial routes into the city centre?
The whole idea is to provide a fast lane reserved for motorists willing to share their cars with other commuters, leaving selfish single drivers fuming in lengthy queues while the car-sharers speed serenely on by.
But there are rarely queues on the Spine Road, as Coun Gregory must have known when he chose the A47.
The council’s aim was to show that car sharing wouldn’t work.
Wild horses would not drag from me the name of the councillor who, when asked at the Tory conference why the least congested road in the city had been selected, replied: “We’re not stupid, you know.”
Really? I wouldn’t go that far.
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Regeneration-lite cabinet member Neville Summerfield continues to keep up the pretence that the leadership of Birmingham City Council has no strong feelings one way or another about the number of new homes to be built up to 2026.
Three options are being considered by the Government, ranging from 50,600 at the bottom end to a maximum 65,000.
The council, which has a duty to consult the public, has been putting it about that the green belt remains sacrosanct.
If that’s the case, there’s little point consulting about the 65,000 figure since it would involve extensive building on green belt land.
In his introduction to the new core strategy planning document, Neville says: “The council is not seeking to promote any particular option. I want to emphasise that we remain committed to the protection of the green belt within and beyond our boundary.”
Strong words, but is he being a little economic with the truth?
The same document talks about 65,000 dwellings being “a higher aspirational target” which would increase the likelihood of the council achieving its aim to increase the population of Birmingham by 100,000.
In other words, if the council is to achieve one of its most important strategic aims – growing the size of the city – parts of the green belt will have to be sacrificed.
The truth is that the cabinet would rather not let backbenchers know that promises to save the green belt are not worth the paper they are written on.
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The secret behind David Cameron’s lonely dawn jogging along canal towpaths during the Tory conference in Birmingham can now be told.
He was attempting to escape from city council leader Mike Whitby.
In fact, Cameron will be eternally grateful to the doctors who were given the task of surgically removing Whitby from his hip.
Only joking, Mike, but there were times when you were a little too close to Dave for comfort.
Almost as close, actually, as Sutton Coldfield MP Andrew Mitchell.
Wherever Cameron went, Whitby and Mitchell were sure to follow.
Bet Dave can’t wait to return to Brum in 2010.
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It is difficult to see how Hodge Hill Labour MP Liam Byrne – Immigration Minister, West Midlands Minister and family man – can find the time for anything else in his busy schedule.
But I can reveal that Mr Byrne is going into the wonderful world of television.
He’s launched something he calls, appropriately, Rubbish TV – a collection of video film depicting “filthy streets” in his constituency.
Everywhere he goes, apparently, residents tell him they’re sick of being treated like second class citizens.
Byrne has a 5,449-vote majority to defend in Hodge Hill at the next election. If he loses, he could end up sweeping the streets rather than complaining about them.
