Dear Cathy
Please could you ask Andy why yet more money is being wasted on the alternative, existing but wasted HS2 route
to Derby and northwards, for a tram extension and cycle-walkway when that existing but wasted principal mainline railway, already built and, for a fraction of the price, might be finished with freight, passenger trains and stations?
Could you please ask that there be work on what the cost, at today's prices might be, for finishing this nationally important railway between London, the Black Country and Manchester?
Could you ask if I am right in thinking that this north-south, principal mainline is one of only two between Brum and the Irish Sea?
Could you ask if this nationally important mainline might be included in the DfT's excellent 'Restoring Your Railways' initiative? See Railfuture's map, here
Thanks, Cathy for passing it on. And you are really good at replying, too. Could you tell me what subjects you are allowed to cover in your own questions to Andy, please? Presumably, as you have in your 'signature', "Climate Change & Environment, Waste and Recycling"
CA MATTERS THAT NEED ADDRESSING:
Andy, do you ever listen to the climate podcasts on BBC radio or, from elsewhere?
Radio 4 reported this morning that worldwide coal and oil burning are still increasing. Yet, we have known, since the 1850s, with Foote and Tyndall's work, that CO2 is released in their burning and that it heats more than air, as we have seen with our twin or sister planet, venus that is uninhabitable from its own runaway greenhouse effect.
In any emergency, how do you act?
In the climate emergency that you, personally, decided to declare as Head of the CA, what should you be doing to lessen the emergency rather than worsen it?
As a man of compassion, what should you be doing to deal with private and social housing that suffers from mould that brings such unhealthy air that babies, children and the elderly all suffer serious health consequences?
Have you, as yet, initiated action on High Plateau that has, I believe, been made available for housing since the 1990s when Dudley No 1 Canal was straightened? MAP here
Are you in a position to instruct further work on the Black Country Urban Forest to get it finished? Particularly, in making use of the large open spaces at Merry Hill SC? This is land owned by Sovereign Centros and managed by Savills Property Management.
Would you be so good as to enquire within 16 Summer Lane as to why, in the 1990s, Centro failed to back the Don and Roy Richardson monorail to ensure its connection with a reopened railway line down to London in one direction and up to Edinburgh in the other?
What was the real reason for this Swiss engineered, Von Roll Co monorail, after three years in service, being sold to Queensland, Australia, in the 1990s, where it remains in use, I understand.
Could you please instruct that my over 20 year old, vertical guerrilla garden must be protected by the final phase of WBHE? It is on the north side of the high north wall that holds up High Plateau housing land.
Perhaps, Cathy you might be so good as to forward these questions to the Mayor's Office and to Laura?
Very many thanks
