FROM VAIN PROJECTS TO MUNDANE GREEN ONES!

Hi Chris - please reply

It was brilliant that four of you got to see four of them - last Wednesday, was it?  The problem is that I spoke to Ed Cox on Friday after the Board meeting and he told me that the four of you gave him the impression that you no longer wanted transport as the topic for the Green Forum on the 21 Nov.  Is that true?  What exactly was agreed last week?

Are you on my side that transport expenditure and the workload that Metro and Sprint are generating means that funds and staff are not available to work on retrofitting urgently or, on all the other measures that can help those at the bottom of the pile to survive more comfortably this winter?

Are you on my side that we all need to be united, if at all possible?  Are we, however agreed over these basics:

1. ​Like ​lowering the importance of getting international and national companies moving into state of the art, brand new, prestigious buildings in the centre of Brum?
2. Like, spending £15 billion (Feb 2020 figure) to 2040 on mainly 150 miles of underground and overground trams to replace buses and trains?
3. Like weaning them off vanity, over indulgent, extravagant projects like Metro and Sprint and into the mundane and vital work that you are doing so well ​with FoE ​to cut GHG emissions and to slow climate catastrophe?
4. Like reopening/finishing the 120 Kms Black Country Railway to ease the congestion and air pollution on the parallel in places or, nearby, M5/M6?  They were and, still are, using trams as the catalyst to get the freight and passenger trains back​ on that railway "of national strategic significance"​.
5. Like putting small, highly energy efficient, low cost apartments at High Plateau and Daniels Land at Merry Hill to relieve the housing/migrant crisis?  Over 10,000 sq metres are STILL lying wasted, unused because of Metro having priority at Merry Hill instead of housing for the badly housed.

Do you agree with me that although Metro and Sprint look green, they are not, in fact, because of the very heavy price in both finance and GHG emissions and, they are the wrong priority, anyway when first ​and foremost, ​buses and trains must be made as least as good as the average on the mainland of Europe?

It would be great to hear from you, ​Chris.

Tim

PS bonus