8 Feb 24 meeting with Laura Shoaf

Dear Laura

Thanks so much for seeing me yesterday.  My thoughts for your correction/amendment, please.

I mentioned that only today, 8 February, it was announced on Radio 4 News, that according to Copernicus, the earth's temperature had met or, exceeded, the 1.5 C rise above pre-industrial levels for the whole of last year, for the first time.  Not good news!

I read out, with copies for yourself, three pieces written in recent weeks, with copies for yourself.  We discussed,

• Merry Hill SC - for me, Centro/TfWM's history is unsettling when the authorities knew about Don and Roy Richardson's monorail not being connected to the railway​
   "of national strategic significance".pdf
  ​at that time when the important freight line from Port Talbot could have been reopened then, in the 1990s, for passenger and freight trains over the missing 56 Kms between Worcester and Derby to complete the full 120 Kms with trains.
• YOU MADE the very good point that Merry Hill has free car parking and, they are due to get Metro trams, too - for free!
• I SAID that will be a great inducement for Dudley town shoppers to desert their shops for Merry Hill, just when they are spending £1 billion to regenerate the town centre.
• You mentioned the study that your staff are working on over the important transport corridor Stourbridge, Brierley Hill, Dudley town and the options available.  I suggested keeping the tram on the railway to connect with the national railway network.
• I mentioned the 22,000 sq m of land, called High Plateau at Merry Hill.  Down for residential since the canal was straightened in the 1990s, I believe.  I suggested apartments for the most badly housed that was highly energy efficient, solar powered and low cost.
• YOU SAID, you would ask the appropriate officer to find out about what was being planned for the site with Dudley Council.
• I reminded you of the decades old housing crisis and that part of High Plateau was to be taken by the Metro tram.  Along with all of the 400 m canal embankment that is the only public open space used by the public.
• YOU SAID there is an ongoing Hagley Road study for my suggestion of inducements to discourage car commuting in favour of bus, train, tram use.
• YOU REMARKED that Tallinn, the largest city with FFPT, had seen less success, in fact, and that the right level of fares were essential to make passengers feel that they valued the service.
• I COMMENTED that a charge for motorists wedded and welded to their cars was necessary to discourage thoughtless, unnecessary car commuting and to raise money for FFPT or the lowest possible fares.
• YOU REMARKED that bus franchising was being studied by your staff and a report would go, in due course, to the WMCA Board for members to consider and make a decision.  Was that in the summer?
• I SUGGESTED: Use the money to keep fares as low as possible and continue with the present policy of talking to bus operators to give them the money to run unsocial hours buses.  Don't empire build with owning all the buses.  Changing the system is costly and the bus passenger may not see any improvement or lower fares or free fares.
• I ASKED for the public, like me, to be allowed to say something at CA Committee/Board meetings as is the practice with Dudley Council in their public forum item on the agenda of certain committees.
• YOUR RESPONSE - I think, you noted the request.
• I commented on the sometimes yearly turnover of councillors on the different committees.  That they were talking shops between members and officers that did have value but decisions were never made.  I think I have seen no voting.  Not the case with Edinburgh City Council over their two tram projects that saw discussion groups, debate and vote in full council.  The Conservatives opposed.  See​

 The Conservative Group on Edinburgh City Council OPPOSED both of their tram schemes on grounds of...

• ​I mentioned £ spent = lb weight of greenhouse gas emissions as a rough rule of thumb with Jonathon Porritt's rider:  “The more we spend, the more we burn fossil fuels, it seems to me.  Have I got this right?” SELF, 16 February 2019  “More or less right! … Just one caveat: as we decarbonise our grid, we’ll obviously be burning rather less of the reserves of remaining fossil fuels, and relying more on green electrons. But the rule of thumb still holds for the time being!"  SIR JONATHON PORRITT, 17 Feb 2019
• YOU TOLD ME of the Wolverhampton to Walsall railway scheme with two stations being built for a second re-opening. I omitted to say that there is a good bus service for car commuters to use and, I think I said that there were more urgent priorities for the money!
• YOU SAID the Camp Hill line - Kings Norton, Kings Heath, Moseley line - is having its commuter trains back. Excellent but, it was down in the original Metro plan of 200 Kms of tram lines by the year 2000, dating from the 80s!
• YOU SAID that we had to do something about the Black Country Railway because Network Rail/DfT were refusing to put the trains back on it.
• I COMMENTED: Better to have held out, to insist on having the trains back and then national government would have paid for the upgrading of the bridges and Parkhead Viaduct to heavy rail.

Thanks again for seeing me and very best wishes. And I would value a further meeting in 12 months.