Birmingham city council knows how to waste public money. The Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN) scheme installed in Kings Heath is supposed to reduce the number of cars on the road, although in reality all it has done is funnel them onto fewer roads, increasing congestion and raising the emissions levels on those roads.
The council says the project will make roads safer, quieter and better for neighbours “to stop and have a chat in”.
Somehow Kings Heath and York Road are going to be transformed into Venice Beach for Councillor Trickett and co to hang about and share stories from their cycling holidays over a venti soy quadruple shot latte with no foam.
This scheme is an unmitigated disaster for working-class people:
- Congestion will increase on main roads.
- Emissions will increase on main roads.
- Working-class people who rely on the bus will be sat in more traffic for longer.
- Emergency services will take longer to get to you.
Lisa Trickett likes spending your money
Asked by the Birmingham Mail about the LTN, Councillor Trickett said: “It’s not a cheap way of making policy.” [i]
Lisa Trickett knows how to waste public money. In 2017 she was responsible for a war waged on binmen. For a saving of £300,000 a year Lisa Trickett and the Labour party spent more than £6 million in an attack on binmen causing a strike that lasted months.
Now Trickett and Birmingham’s Labour council are chasing cash being offered by the government to those who introduce these ludicrous measures. To get their hands on the cash they had to act fast, which is why they dumped their giant wooden boxes in Kings Heath:
“Birmingham city council said it would have to implement them before the end of August to secure government funds having been allocated £1 million from the first tranche of the Department of Transport’s (DfT) Emergency Active Travel Fund, with match-funding bringing the total to £1.6 million. [ii]
That’s Labour party consultation for you. Not a cheap way of working for the taxpayer, but pretty lucrative for the council.
What is the solution?
If the problem is congestion then the solution is better public transport. Instead of making bus travel for all children FREE in the city, as it is for children in London, Labour pushed for changes to the law to make it a criminal offence if children jump the bus and skip the fare.
And this despite the fact that our city is gripped by poverty, we have high levels of child poverty and we bury more paupers than any other British city! [iii]
For just £7 million (out of a budget exceeding £300 million) we could have had free bus travel for all children in the West Midlands. Instead, millions are to be pocketed by the council for its overpaid executives and councillors once a trifle is spent dumping wooden boxes in our streets.
What can you do?
Three simple steps:
- Join the campaign and fight back against the venti soy quadruple shot latte with no foam so-called Labour party.
- Sack Lisa Trickett.
- Join the Workers Party of Britain (Birmingham branch).
Sign the petition: https://www.change.org/p/birmingham-city-council-abolish-the-low-traffic-neighbourhoods-ltn-street-barriers-in-kings-heath
[i] Kings Heath Low Traffic Neighbourhood plan – the new changes announced already, Birmingham Mail, 6 October 2020
[ii] Kings Heath High Street road plans ‘a great idea’ says former bins chief, Birmingham Mail, 31 July 2020
[iii] Birmingham spends more burying the poor than any other city, Birmingham Worker, 11 January 2019