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news
Our Future City: Central Birmingham Framework 2040 (Birmingham City Council)Green spaces and 120 miles of cycling and walking routes pledged in "most ambitious plan in a century"... but Mail claims "now Birmingham wages war on motorists"
On Friday, Birmingham City Council unveiled its plan to make the city a "leading international location", with active travel networks "on the same level" as Copenhagen and spaces "as green as Vienna".
The plan, today described as "probably the most ambitious plan in a century for the city" by council leader Ian Ward on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, will see 200km (124 miles) of active travel routes built and parts of Birmingham's ring road turned into parks.
Cllr Ward was also quick to insist it is not "a war on motorists", something the MailOnline was keen to suggest in its coverage of the news, publishing a story titled: 'Now Birmingham wages war on motorists as Labour-run council plans to turn ring road into a "park that circles the city" and build 124 miles of walking and cycling routes in bid to mimic the "cycle-friendliness" of Copenhagen'.
In a quite timely addition to the website yesterday, road.cc contributor Simon MacMichael penned the second of his 'The War on the Motorist' features, deconstructing certain sections of the media's penchant for using the phrase.
The route map for the plans will be revealed tomorrow, with the Labour-run council hoping it can double green space in a bid to "tackle the climate emergency on the city's route to net zero carbon emissions".
"The same level for cycle friendliness as Copenhagen"
"The plan we are going to be launching tomorrow is a route map to a greener Birmingham, creating more jobs, better transport options and having higher quality, more energy efficient new homes," Cllr Ward said.
"We are already a city on the up and we're looking to use the investments coming in to double the amount of green space in the city, making us as green as Vienna, and to double active travel routes to some 200km which will put us at the same level for cycle friendliness as Copenhagen.
"This is probably the most ambitious plan in a century for the city and it's going to map out how we'll become carbon zero and how we will green our city in the future. We're also working to create a new park in Birmingham, right in the heart of the city centre, creating a green space – in order to ensure the city is more liveable."
Stating that the future city will be less reliant on the ring road, he added that it will be "a very different concept in the future" and said there is an "opportunity to turn some of that ring road into green space".
"This is a 20-year plan – so we'll be working with investors and developers and as we grow the city we'll be looking to attract in that investment that will allow us to not only increase identity and create more homes and more jobs but also to increase the amount of green space," he said.
"The plan has been very well received when we've consulted on it and we expect it to be very well received when we launch it tomorrow."
The council estimates the work has potential to create 74,000 new jobs as well as 35,000 new homes, "creating vibrant new neighbourhoods" and "doubling in population density [...] but not at the expense of green open space".
"There's a real buzz about Birmingham at the moment, a growing city of enormous potential and – as we showed to great effect last summer when hosting the Commonwealth Games – we're ready to fulfil that potential," Cllr Ward continued.
"Now this framework, the most important strategy for Birmingham this century, is set to supercharge our quest to be a leading international city."
Dan is the road.cc news editor and joined in 2020 having previously written about nearly every other sport under the sun for the Express, and the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for The Non-League Paper. Dan has been at road.cc for four years and mainly writes news and tech articles as well as the occasional feature. He has hopefully kept you entertained on the live blog too.
Never fast enough to take things on the bike too seriously, when he's not working you'll find him exploring the south of England by two wheels at a leisurely weekend pace, or enjoying his favourite Scottish roads when visiting family. Sometimes he'll even load up the bags and ride up the whole way, he's a bit strange like that.
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27 comments
Ah - is this a LABOUR run council by any chance?
How are things in Thurrock or Northampton?
Is that Tory Thurrock that ran up a £500M debt for a population of 173,000, or £2890 a head, through stupid investments, as opposed to Birmingham's £760M for a population of 1.2M, £633 a head mainly as a result of having to settle historic equal pay claims?
(ETA I'm sure someone will be along with a graph shortly)
Were you the chap who was complaining that I followed them around?
Seems he is replying to Steve K, not to you mate.
The historic pay claims which might have stemmed from when the council was under NOC (Con-LD Coalition). Labour took overall control at the same time the Supreme Court decided that claims can made 6 years later rather then 6 months later which meant they were then in the several hundred mil bracket, just as central government was in its austerity phase and cutting local funding.
The IT system overhaul which is costing loads was also initiated in that NOC time as well
Hello Flintshire Lad!
Lol - just filling a gap
Then
.
you really need a
.
Stop
.
A stop gap
Anyway, something for Mr Loser to answer: In 2010, the National Debt was around £900 billion.
Now much is it now?
Is it 2.5 trillion?
Why, yes, yes it is.
Another question for "A Loser:" which party have been in power since 2010 and thus, are totally responsible for the mess the UK is in?
Will these plans survive Birmingham's bankruptcy?
Lack of joined up thinking? The council have just spent £170k ripping out a cycle lane in Nechells. The small city centre will be more cycle friendly but noone will be able to get their bike there as the rest of the infrastructure is pants. Effectively they're just going to gentrify the Centre and the rest of the city will still have dangerous potholed roads. This council has a history of building things and then ripping them up repeatedly (metro lines anyone) and can't be trusted to manage big projects.
Isn't the metro down to the Combined Authority and not the Council?
Hmmm....
On a par with Copenhagen?
Even if Birmingham City Council doubled up on their proposals they'd still be falling short of Copenhagens current dedicated cycling infrastructure, approximately 400km presently.
I'm currently working everyday in Birmingham on the latest extension to the city's tram network in Digbeth and the paucity of cycling infrastructure in and around the city centre is noticeable considering it's such a populous place.
Perhaps trying to have as much good quality cycling infrastructure comparable to anywhere in the UK would be a better aim, rather than coming out with guff comparing themselves to our Danish neighbours.
EDIT ARGH thread resurrection, sorry!
Probably the answer about Birmingham and cycling is "no change now for the foreseeable" sadly. Still, probably the few existing cyclists gonna keep cycling so there is that...
Perhaps they're simply copying Copenhagen's world-beating self-publicising on the subject?
https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2018/11/27/is-copenhagen-a-city-of-cy...
Now the Danes are doing good work and are way better than anywhere in the UK but it's still distinctly 2nd class quality compared to the Dutch. They haven't done so much to tame the car either.
Into the city, there is the A34 and A38 cycle lanes which have good/ bad design bits on both routes. Unfortunately I think too much was relied on shared paths and the canal network, with large swathes of the surrounding roads still 60's built and car centric.
The idea of decentralised small government is a hard wired conservative policy except when they don't like the outcomes.
If the people of Birmingham have had enough of polution and other problems created by those not living in the city and decide to democratically elect people that will improve their living environment then that's a direct result of the decentrailisation of power.
Gotta say I don't know Birmingham's layout but a key part of Dutch traffic control is modal separation so cars are routed around densely populated areas via ring roads to keep them away from pedestrians, cyclists and potentially public transport
Hopefully it won't be like North Devon where it is unsafe to use cycle routes due to loose dogs and some of the most useless owners anywhere. Votes you see..
I think we now know that an attack on a traffic/ climate change mitigation policy by this paragon of the hyper-junk press is a confirmation that the policy is likely to be sensible, responsible and intelligent
We've got to the stage where any improvement that doesn't make it easier to drive is an attack on our fundamental rights. This ambitious, forward-thinking plan was always going to get criticism from the petrolheads, but the DM has to go over the top. It isn't a "war on motorists" it's the rest of us getting some space back that they have stolen from us over the past hundred years.
I hope that most people will realise what BS it is, but there are still plenty of people who will believe it because they want to.
Clean air, wide open spaces, safe spaces for people to walk, relax, play in? Nah we don't want any of that here, thank you very much!!
When loons make strident, nay hysterical, claims that those in groups that are the object of their hate are making war, one reasonable response might be to live up to their accusations. This is, after all, a common enough human inclination, as any teenager can explain.
Despite being one myself (a motor car driver, not a teenager) albeit a very cautious, considerate and kind example (oh yes I am!) I often feel a rising yen to make war on various ilks of motorists.When attacked by a car-wielding loon, one feels the need to make a defense.
What, though, is an appropriate defense? Voting for nice politicians (is that an oxymoron, though) who will clean the streets of motorised loon is one sort of defense. But sometimes a more vigorous and immediate resistance seems appropriate. If It wasn't a nuisance to carry one, I would perhaps cart a large lump hammer about when on me bike, to fend-orf the tin boxes thrusting at my vitals as a cycle along ..... .
But this is bad thinking, as in any ensuing escalation my lump hammer would be inadequate in the face of a two ton car missile. And even if the missile missed, there's the possibility of a psychopathic pilot emerging with ill-intents and a tyre iron all too obvious.
Happily I abide and ride in West Wales, where folk (even in motor cars or on tractors) are still civilised, apart from the odd incomer from that Ingurland, of which I am one but now gone native.
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