Lorely Listens w/e 16th Sept

Written by Lorely Burt on Fri 16th Sep 2005

Red Routes: they're a bit like red rags to a bull for some people, myself included.

You may consider this unfair: after all, Shirley High Street won an award for its red route didn't it? Hasn't it reduced the time it takes to drive through Shirley?

Let me tell you a secret. Shirley won its award because it was, at one time, the ONLY red route outside London! Yes the powers that be decided to experiment on us, and gave us a pat on the head for complying!

Now it's true to say that it is marginally quicker to get through Shirley on average than it used to be. Is this because we have two ugly red lines painted down the side of the road?

I think it's more to do with the closing of several gaps where one could once turn right than red lines. After all, Shirley already has service roads running virtually its length, so there's no point in parking on the main road itself.

Now we're being threatened with another red route on the B4102 in Blossomfield/Marshall Lake Roads. This, in my view, is more serious than the Shirley situation because people live directly on these roads without the benefit of service roads.

So what happens when a resident or their visitor needs to park outside their house? I put this to West Midlands Passenger Transport Association. 'Ah', they said, 'you could have a time varied red route. This is where the red route would only apply at certain times of the day, when the road is busy'.

Funny; I thought this was the purpose of time varied 'no waiting' signs.

Let the Red Route Ronnies have a go at installing a red route in Sparkhill, and see how they get on there. Congestion into Birmingham would certainly warrant it, but I bet the people of Sparkhill would kick up one heck of a fuss.

Should we stand and fight this new red route?

You tell me. Write to me at the House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA or email burtl@parliament.uk.