to Cllr Peter Dobb

Dear Peter

ELECTED CLLRS TRUMP OFFICERS; TRAINS TRUMP TRAMS ON TRAIN LINES!

There was no officer presentation at our last meeting.  That was excellent, made for a pleasant change and, with the FoE contingent, meant it was absolutely right to be more informal with the public making helpful comments about the importance of all of us having carbon literacy, climate/nature crisis training, etc.

I would like to suggest Peter, that you and your colleagues maintain the importance of council members, properly and fairly elected, having the upper hand over the professional officers.  In other words, rather than the officers telling the councillors what is best and it must continue, you councillors must exercise the upper hand and, through votes after a full discussion, must tell the officers what they are to do.  And, with a majority vote, insist on it.  The Cabinet can then consider and endorse the decision.

Now, the committee is called a select committee, echoing the House of Commons select committees.  Therefore, we really must have, I think, meetings with occasional top decision makers.  In many years, I have only seen, fleetingly, our Chief Executive once, soon after he was appointed.  I would like him to attend next time to answer my questions over the Dudley Tram.  There is no other way to get him to speak to me or, to obtain the courtesy of a reply to my emails.  Would you invite him, please Peter?

Again, I would like to suggest that members of the committee should be invited to speak about their expertise.  The two observers should be allowed to talk about their climate knowledge, too.  Rob Clinton knows about the UN Sustainable Development Goals and related topics from his time as a University of Brum lecturer.  Damian Corfield knows about the more efficient use of HGV diesel fuel to cut greenhouse gas emissions.  Their expertise is so valuable and must be heard.

Cat Eccles knows about the risky and, indeed, totally unnecessary use of glyphosate when Wilko is selling a harmless, cheaper and equally effective alternative.  As I said to the committee, I saw a resident of Mount Street, Halesowen using it on roadside weeds a few weeks ago.  A full discussion and then vote amongst you members should decide the matter of glyphosate use.

Megan Wakefield did the climate change presentation at her quite brilliant, mix and match, Sunday talks in Mary Stevens Park last summer.  I would like her to do another presentation to the committee.  Other members of the public who were present have climate knowledge, too.  They need to be involved, I think, as part of carbon literacy training for us all.

Chris Barnett and Andrew Tromans also have subjects of concern they want to talk about.  Your committee member, Cathy Bayton is a senior member of the WMCA, Chair of their Overview and Scrutiny Committee who, I think, must also report back to this committee on what the CA is up to and how it can help Dudley.

There are other members of the council on your committee and members of the public who have a vital contribution to make.  Give them priority over officers, please but make sure officers attend, to be able to respond.

Have a full discussion and votes on these vital climate matters, perhaps:

1. Dangerous glyphosate or effective white vinegar, washing up liquid, salt in Wilko's red bottle?
2. Full scale mowing or margins mown to maintain sight lines?
3. More wild flowers or tarmac, concrete, brick on roundabouts?
4. More trams or commuter trains for Dudley's railway "of national strategic significance"?
5. Resurrect the Black Country Urban Forest at Merry Hill to capture carbon?
6. Housing on 100% at High Plateau or the present intention?
7. Daniels Land designated for housing or nature?
8. Council House upgrade to minimise greenhouse gas emissions and resource shortages to come?
9. Urgent retrofitting for the most badly housed or, laid back retrofitting?
10. Major Mudway forever or, cycle-walkway at long last?

MORE DETAILS on my top  issues for attention by officers are: 

1. The public open space on the Dudley No 1 Canal embankment to be formally designated.  It is still due to have a 400 metre, concrete and steel tramway viaduct for the Dudley Tram project.  Right here! :-
   
     6 glorious white trees.jpg
2. The massive 23,000 sq m of housing land at Merry Hill, called High Plateau, that is partly taken by the tram.  See the official plan
   
     WBHE plan for Merry Hill.jpeg
   Nothing has been done about it for decades yet, we are in the midst of a housing crisis.
3. The Black Country Urban Forest that was started, I believe, in the 1990s but was soon heard of no more.  I am suggesting it be resurrected for the other two grassy areas at Merry Hill, as an obvious positive measure since Dudley Council declared a climate emergency in 2020, I believe.
4. The possible SSSI is Daniels Land at Merry Hill.  It is untouched by we humans for decades, fenced off on all four sides, right next to the important Dudley No 1 Canal and, hence a paradise for nature.  The UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world, we keep on being told.  The pond and wetland area might have great crested newts that give Pensnett Nature Reserve its Triple SI status a mile north of Daniels Land.  I am trying to get a qualified person to do the ecological survey that is the first and, rather essential, first step.  No one is interested and I'm getting nowhere.  Not even the Brum and Black Country Wildlife Trust will help.
5. The UK's only urban-rural-urban cycle-walk Mudway and, it is OURS, around the W side of the W Midlands.  Neglected and forgotten for decades but, a vital business, leisure, commuter and leisure route that MUST get upgraded for fossil fuel free use to slow the runaway greenhouse effect that must now be with us.

Best wishes

to Left Unity

What I fear, Robert, is that our Cold War with Russia morphed into a non-violent war for influence in E Europe with nukes stationed, I expect, in former USSR satellite states and, I believe, NATO military exercises in them.  This, and NATO membership, was seen by the nasty, not nice, pariah Putrid as extremely provocative.  Certainly, very unwise by the American-led Western politicians and armed forces.

In Feb 2014, I can remember that I thought that nasty pariah Putrid's annexation of Crimea was an exact response to the disastrous Revolution of Dignity.  No Crimea takeover, no Separatists war ramped up/started (which is it?), perhaps if our side had not undemocratically overthrown the Ukraine President.  The American-led West, with UK's enthusiastic support, has done it once too often since 1945.

MORE WRONGDOING:

A quite superb but very troubling statement from Andrew Malkinson on Wednesday. Seventeen years in prison is extremely concerning in revealing yet more corruption and incompetence by the State.

What I've discovered over the last 70 years of Centro/TfWM idiocy and incompetence, re transport infrastructure wrecked in Brum and the Black Country, is nothing compared with this far more serious catalogue of very serious, incompetence and corruption that the magnificent charity Appeal uncovered.  Well done to James Burley (have I got the name right?)

from Stuart Richardson

Dear Tim

Good news you have left a pro-war political organisation Bham Left Unity. I enclose the recent Bham StWC email bulletin. It deals with the prospect of a military conflict between China and US and British imperialism. Will Bham Left Unity support US and British imperialism in its military conflict with China?

 

The other question deliberately avoided by Bob in his reply to you is that given he supports the Tory government arming the right wing government in Ukraine is how you pay for these arm supplies. They have spent £8 billion on these arm supplies (it would cost £1.7 billion to reinstate benefits for the 3^rd or 4^th child). What benefits or public sector pay does Bob propose to cut to pay for this £8 billion cost of Ukrainian arm supplies?

   

Similarly the pro-war left (Ukrainian solidarity campaign) are also silent on the partial suppression of the Ukrainian trade union movement, banning the Ukrainian Communist Party in 2014 and the banning of 14 Left wing organisations in March 2022 (one with 10% of the MPs and several that obviously derive from the Trotskyist tradition).

 

The logic of their position is a victory for American imperialism!!

 

Stuart

to Radio WM

Dear Kath and Adam (is that name right?) - and copied to Andy and the Brum and Black Country Wildlife Trust

It was so good of you to remember that I wanted to speak to Andy about the very important, half used, Black Country Railway "of national strategic significance", as in the letter, here:

 "of national strategic significance".pdf

I listened back to the full one hour of the time with Andy and you were very fair with every caller and with Andy.  You were excellent.  I interrupted you, Kath at one stage and now wonder if you  can remember what you were about to say?  Sorry about that!

I have never voted Conservative in all my 75 years but did so in 2017 and 2021 in order to vote for Andy.  I did so because he has always held public meetings, open to all and sundry, from soon after he was chosen as the candidate in 2016.

When you next have him on, would you allow me once more to ask him, not about the railway but about one of these matters affecting and at Merry Hill Shopping Centre, please?

1. The public open space on the Dudley No 1 Canal embankment that is still due to have a 400 metre, concrete and steel tramway viaduct for the Dudley Tram project.  Right here! :-
   
    6 glorious white trees.jpg
2. The massive 23,000 sq m of housing land at Merry Hill, called High Plateau, that is partly taken by the tram.  See the official plan
   
    WBHE plan for Merry Hill.jpeg
   Nothing has been done about it for decades yet, we are in the midst of a housing crisis.
3. The Black Country Urban Forest that was started, I believe, in the 1990s but was soon heard of no more.  I am suggesting it be resurrected for the other two grassy areas at Merry Hill, as an obvious positive measure since Dudley Council declared a climate emergency in 2020, I believe.
4. The possible SSSI that is Daniels Land at Merry Hill.  It is untouched by we humans for decades, fenced off on all four sides, right next to the important Dudley No 1 Canal and, hence a paradise for nature.  The UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world, we keep on being told.  The pond and wetland area might have great crested newts that give Pensnett Nature Reserve its Triple SI status a mile north of Daniels Land.  I am trying to get a qualified person to do the ecological survey that is the first and, rather essential, first step.  No one is interested and I'm getting nowhere, Kath.  Not even the Brum and Black Country Wildlife Trust will help

to Jonathan

Just met Andy Hancock with his children in soft play. He was on Life Central work. He mentioned meeting with you re climate action. My ideas not mentioned to Andy:-

Some car-free Sundays by cycling/walking to a Christ centred church nearer to where you live.

Church building at max 19C and ouside doors on automatic closing.

Wrap up warmer.

Teaching for young Christians NOT to go into the military or arms manufacturing. 

Solar panels on E, W, S facing roofs of every home and church. 

Triple glazing and internal/external insulation. 

5 suggestions for the Left to support

Thanks, Mike and Bob for writing.  Nice to hear from you both.  Copied to Stuart.

I bcc'd only Stuart as a leading Birmingham left politician along with Bob and yourself.  Stuart is an indefatigable campaigner for social justice and peaceful co-existence around the world whom we must work with in any new and broader left wing party.  LU and SWP and all the others, including the Communist Party must be included in a broad left coalition where we cannot all agree on everything, obviously but, my list of rather basic and obvious suggestions, as here may be included - but, I somehow doubt it!:

1. 1/2 bedroom apartments that are highly energy efficient and solar powered for the most badly housed at High Plateau, Merry Hill Shopping Centre.
2. The return of ONLY stations, commuter and regional trains to our railway lines that have not been built on or turned into two nibble sized tramlines on a total of 5.5 Kms with 50.5 Kms still remaining for TRAINS on the 120 Kms Black Country Railway between Worcester and Derby.  To cut greenhouse gas emissions from our addiction to car use.
3. The major, urban-rural-urban, 22 Kms Black Country Cycle-Walk Mudway to be transformed into a usable, finite fossil fuel FREE, business, commuter and leisure route.   To cut greenhouse gas emissions.
4. The Black Country Urban Forest to be returned to, in order to use the grass embankments and the other suitable land at Merry Hill SC.  To capture carbon dioxide and improve biodiversity.
5. WOULD THIS WORK?  A two-year trial of a bus/business lane (NOT TRAMLINE!) on the nearside lane of Hagley Road in Brum to reward car commuters who take the bus with Fare-Free Public Transport extended to ALL and, in the rush hours with some traffic light priority on Hagley Road for buses and work buses and pre-registered essential vehicle users who can all use both lanes.  So you don't need a dedicated bus lane at all, then?

Objectives: (a) to free up road space in rush hours for essential road users who must have a vehicle to be able to carry out their work.

(b) to make for a more efficient use of highly expensive city centre land, with much less given to car parking and more for solar powered, modest sized housing.

(c) a more sensible use of road space that cannot go on being widened.

(d) to make it as anti-social to car commute as smoking now is in the presence of non-smokers.

(e) to cut deadly greenhouse gas emissions.

All the best

Tim   (0791 380 4363)

Putrid was rightfully livid at the overthrow of his man in Ukraine in Feb 2014

Dear friends

I have left my Birmingham and Black Country branch of Left Unity because of their backing for our war on Russia.  I think the members are out of order for these reasons:

The men and women on all sides, of violence, war, of arms manufacturing and trading are wholly to blame for our Western-backed war in Yemen and Ukraine that is accelerating global ecocide and the slaughter of the innocents.

We could have dissolved NATO at the same time as the Warsaw Pact was dissolved in the 1990s.  It was all take and no give as we took full advantage of the Russian break up of the USSR.  We cashed in on their discomfiture and rapidly took over nearly all the former satellite states of the USSR and welcomed them with open arms into the American-led, Western fold.  This was far too good an opportunity to let slip, as we expanded eastwards.  But restraint could have been shown and membership of NATO and the EU could have been declined or, better, the invitation not made at all.

We should have been more circumspect then, as we are now over Ukraine's membership of NATO.  We are now more conscious of Russia's feelings on the matter.  But that was sadly lacking thirty years ago, twenty years and certainly ten years ago as Western firebrands overthrew a properly and fairly elected pro-Russian President in February 2014.  The straw that broke the camel's back.  These Western/American enthusiasts could not wait for the next nationwide election.  So another Western coup d'état was added to the worldwide list.

We could have taken up Putrid's offer of help in the wake of 9/11 in 2001 but, no way could we show weakness and give this Russian nationalist, our traditional enemy and wicked, nasty Communist any slight idea that we were compromising our principles and accepting his help.

So the weapons of destruction to add to our own mass destruction from burning up all the finite fossil fuels we can lay our hands on, pour into Ukraine to hasten ecocide.

OS on 5.6 Kms of Black Country Cycle-Walk Mudway

"This route is perfect for families with smaller children, or those who want a nice simple relaxing ride. Within just a few minutes into the ride you’ll be enjoying a traffic-free urban escape. This scenic 4-mile route follows a section of the Kingswinford Railway Walk which runs from Himley into Wombourne. The route is relatively flat and suitable for all riders, especially families.

"Along the route you’ll pass through Himley Plantation, here you’ll enjoy a woodland full of oak and sycamore trees. Further along, you’ll continue to discover more wildlife and flourishing flowers. Don’t forget to stop and relax away within the urban escape at one of the various picnic sites dotted throughout the route."

FROM -

https://getoutside.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/guides/traffic-free-cycling-routes-in-the-west-midlands/

3 minutes to win over Just Stop Oil!

Dear ​Helen​ and Laura, Linda and Bob

​If you wish to deter those ​kind of climate activists, you must encourage and support those like me, Sir David Attenborough, ​Lord Deben, Chris Packham and Sir Jonathon Porrit​t​ who are all respectful, establishment, obedient climate activists.​  We are upholding the Western tradition of free speech to convince and persuade.​ 

I have known ​your Deputy Leader, Bob Sleigh​ for many years and his wife for even longer​ as a former colleague.  Yet, when I turned up at his publicly advertised surgery​ in Solihull he turned me away without listening to my point of view. ​ And, I had travelled all the way from Halesowen too but, not on my 100% food-fueled powered bike.  Like you all, I have always found Bob very pleasant and, in the past, we have spoken briefly after one or two meetings.

This morning, before the meeting started I asked ​Chairman Bob if his Board might consider no longer investing in Metro​ extensions.  At the close, when he explained that the private session was about to start and I must leave, I simply explained my quiet, obedient conformity as, "I am at the opposite end of the spectrum from Just Stop Oil", said no more and Wendy escorted me out.

Please encourage my side to follow the example of Attenborough, Lord Deben, Packham and Porritt to allow us to have our three minutes of fame to explain why the correct investment to slow climate catastrophe is now really urgent.  Worcestershire CC and Dudley MBC, amongst others, have done it for years.  All setting a fine example in public participation, like Mayor Andy too.

Deben and Packham in conversation:

I would urge you to listen to Chris Packham and Lord Deben speaking for seven minutes on the 'Today' programme on Saturday 8 July at 1:39:00.  Here:  https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001np1h  Available until midnight on Fri 4 August.

Lord Deben said to each of us:

"Are you doing what is necessary to fight climate change? ... The Climate Change Committee has shown how you reach net zero."

When will you do what Lord Deben is urging and take Chris Packham seriously?  Have you watched 'Earth' on iPlayer?

Best wishes

23 Kms in 42 years for £hundreds of millions of public money is scandalous

Centro/TfWM/WMCA were to put their first tramline from Birmingham city centre to the airport in the 1980s.  The new one is 1.7 Kms and is costing £227 m - a figure from the last decade.  £71m/Km

When they hit opposition from the MP, Terry Davis and the residents incensed that their homes were to be demolished to make way for the tram, that route was abandoned and the former mainline railway from Snow Hill to Wolverhampton Low Level station was chosen.  Except it fell short of Low Level and even the Wolves bus station.  No integration, no connectivity but only idiocy and incompetence.

5 years of actual work on the ground for only 700 metres and £50 million and it is still not open in July 2023.  More details here:

https://www.expressandstar.com/news/transport/2022/07/17/the-other-west-midlands-metro-tram-extension-projects-as-new-birmingham-stops-open/

Low Level station is now a conference and events centre. 

Comment from Realfish in E&S July 2022

 JULY 17, 2022

"The Dudley / Brierley Hill extension was a wasted opportunity. It should have been built to the same specification as the Sheffield tram trains and extended to allow services to run on the disused line, from Brownhills (or even Lichfield) to Walsall and onto Wednesbury, Dudley, BH and Stourbridge.

"The reinstated line could also have been used by busy freight services to and from the North East / South West, avoiding the congested lines around Birmingham."

SELF:

All they had to do was to finish what they had already built and put commuter and regional trains, plus stations, back on the missing middle section of 56 Kms between Stourbridge Jct and Burton on Trent.  That would have completed the 120 Kms Black Country Railway "of national strategic significance" (letter from Network Rail/DfT on 18 March 2018) and brought much welcome relief to train and road users alike!

40 years of emphasis on trams over trains and buses

I remain very concerned over the competence and commitment of the councillors and the transport experts who advise them, over recent decades (since 1981) of hundreds of millions of pounds in both price and in weight of deadly greenhouse gas emissions for simply replacing perfectly good commuter trains (and duplicating buses) with highly expensive, all style over substance trams.  23 Kms of trams with 18 Kms on a former mainline railway in 42 years of hard endeavour!!  This, when bus use ALWAYS languishes in the sidelines as a third class transport after cars and trams/trains.  Perfectly depicted by the Third World, poverty stricken looking, with a trickle of users, Kidderminster slum bus station next to a popular Tesco car park.

I have succeeded and failed by going into the citadels of power

Dear Fran  (Fran Wilde of XR)

First by writing letters, then emails and texts.  But, above all, by visiting the decision makers in their surgeries and offices and their important Board meetings.  By going into the citadels of power when their meetings have been opened to the public and engaging with them in conversation and asking for this, that and the other.

A wonderful Labour councillor and Chair of a Brum CC committee saw me and quickly got Graham Lennard to turn the Harborne Line into a decent and usable cycle-walkway.

After 30 years of asking, off and on, the same was done in Woodgate Valley CP and I now have a six mile traffic-free cycle route into the centre of Power at HQ of everything - 16 Summer Lane!

I've succeeded in turning Merry Hill SC into merry heaven

by my guerrilla garden antics and my own landscape enhancement scheme;

by asking for housing there and getting the homes in the grounds of Merry Hill, on Pedmore Road;

by asking for the corroded metal sheet piling to be covered by nature and getting 16 trees, officially planted round the corner from where I have my vertical guerrilla garden;

for 40 years keeping the 400 metre canal embankment free of the massive 400 m concrete and steel tramway viaduct for the Dudley Tram.  It would have destroyed my guerrilla garden.

I failed to keep the monorail at Merry Hill.  Perhaps, because it was never connected across the final 400 m to the principal mainline railway "of national strategic significance" that should have been re-opened in the 1990s.

Less than ten years ago, HQ of the lot decided to no longer turn the important mainline railway into a tramway through Kings Heath, Moseley and Stirchley.  Instead, by the end of the century, they may have succeeded in getting their now wanted diesel, half hour commuter service twice every working day - with three railway stations, too.  SUCCESS!

I have succeeded in keeping the 106 Kms of wasted or only half-used railway lines at the forefront of their minds.

What do you think of these two fun quizzes - funny peculiar, funny humour or what, Fran?  Tongue in cheek with a serious purpose?  My attempt at poking fun at the mighty powers that be?  Improvements, please.

Your article, 'Seven Principles of Public Life – how do you match up?' 19 Nov 2021

Dear Emily

I have read most of your article that was, indeed is, so necessary and, indeed essential.  My concerns surround the WMCA and the auditing by Grant Thornton's Grant Patterson, if I have the name right.  He reported back to the Audit, Risk and Assurance Committee of the WMCA on Monday of this week.

On Monday, WMCA's Helen Edwards was unable to be present but she wrote this to me, today:

"My role is to ensure good governance and safe decision making processes."  Helen Edwards, Director of Law and Governance, 25 January 2023

Is what I am about to write, here good governance and safe decision making, Emily?

May I ask you:

Are auditors meant to check, challenge, question?

Do auditors promote wise spending by their clients?

Is prudence and sensible, careful spending at the heart of all that you do?  Obviously so!

Is audit meant to flag up concerns and certainly irresponsible, wasteful spending of taxpayers' money?  For example, 40 years of converting two mainline railways to trams and two and a quarter mainline stations destroyed.  Is this good governance and safe decision making?  No one in Overview and Scrutiny Committee or in Audit, Risk and Assurance Committee ever expresses any concern over this state of affairs.  It is always business as usual.  What has always been done must continue to be done.

MORE DETAIL

The scandal I have exposed is the obvious destruction of two mainline railways and two and a quarter mainline stations for unnecessary "bus on rails" Metro trams.  I think this is wrong, foolish and incompetent.  Especially, when 106 Kms of double track mainline railways in our region are still without passenger trains and stations!  Is this wrong doing, negligence and the most weird and wonderful, truly eccentric priorities that simply accelerate the climate emergency and failing life support systems?

This has gone on since 1981, too.  Actually, it is 70 years of tram and train destruction in the W Midlands.  And, it continues to this day with the Dudley Tram (Wednesbury, Brierley Hill, Extension (WBHE Phase 2) wrecking Nature, the only public open space at Merry Hill, wasted housing land and my guerrilla garden, also at the shopping centre.  WBHE Phase 1 opens at the end of 2024 from Wednesbury to Dudley bus station.  This really is a totally unnecessary spending of billions of pounds to speed climate breakdown and the exhaustion of finite resources.

But what do you think, Emily?  Have I got something wrong here?

25 January 2023

A cause for concern to Grant Thornton

Dear Andy Smith

From my attendance at CA public meetings there seems to be a far too cosy relationship between yourselves, internal audit and the Audit, Risk and Assurance Committee of the WMCA.  The WMCA spending appears to be out of control.  Should auditors not be checking, challenging and questioning?

THE SCANDAL - idiocy, incompetence and ignorance:

• Not one railway line has reopened since the WMCA formed in 2016 and only one tram line of 2 Kms since Andy became Mayor in 2017 (from Grand Central to Edgbaston Village).  And that started before his 2017 election, anyway.
• 3 transport projects were suspended or curtailed 12 mths ago because they went or, were going, over budget.
• One of them is the 700 metre extension that is taking seven years to complete.  STILL NOT OPENED.
• Another is a replacement station at Brum University to befit the equally prestigious buildings of both the university and hospital on either side.  It sees 95% use by the university and hospital only but, still, rush hour traffic jams on the roads!  Will the bigger, grander station make any difference?
• The third, the Dudley Tram, broke up the UK's very last principal mainline  railway "of national strategic significance".
• It is expected to be half completed by the end of next year.  Phase 2 has insufficient money.
3 Kms of new tramline opened in 24 years!
Very premature track replacement in Corporation Street.  A second in Bilston.
5 railway stations planned for years are still not finished.  One mainline railway was going to be a tramline but will, eventually, have a 30 mins diesel shuttle service into Grand Central.  This is the important Camp Hill line.
The 1986 Dudley bus station gets replaced when work on the ground starts next year.
But the 1886 (not quite!) Kidderminster bus station is like something out of a poverty-stricken Third World country.
Nearby, is supposedly a bus shelter but it looks like a Victorian coffin rest shelter.

Worcestershire County Council is a neighbour of the WMCA.  Important because transport has easily the largest slice of the financial pie in the CA budget.  What is more, it is not a meagre proportion!  Out of the enormous amount, since 1981, hundreds of millions of pounds has been spent on the staff working on achieving one Metro line of 23 Kms of which 19 Kms is on the first mainline railway destroyed by Metro trams!  This was because it ran between (the now wasted for years platform 4) at Snow Hill station and St Georges Sq in Wolverhampton - not even to the bus station, mind you, let alone the railway station to which Snow Hill was connected so successfully for 100 years!

The vast expenditure was supposed to have brought us ten tram lines over 200 Kms by the year of our Lord, 2000 CE.  By then, 23 years ago, we had 20 Kms.  In 23 years it has stretched to the mighty length of 23 Kms in total.  Wonders will never cease!  By Christmas, it will be extended even further - all of 700 metres to the bus station and and railway station in Wolverhampton.

Yet, we have my nearby town of Kiddi having the most dreadful, disgraceful, slum of a bus station I have ever seen!  Broken roof panels, no seating, but a lovely graceful curve of a sort of very long bus shelter with two roof panels missing to shower the passengers with rain and, with the drivers on their rest break standing and smoking at one end and the poor passenger (ME!) at the other end!!  Poor signs and information, too.

When there is so much money swishing around for highly prestigious and stunning-looking trams at £4 million each, is there any way you might like to use your power and influence to get a few funds for Worcestershire County Council?  To repair or, God forbid, even replace the slum to get a proper, modern bus station like we have in Stourbridge and Halesowen.

Below, in bold, is why we have to have the bulk of the money spent on the Black Country and Brum for "bus on rails" trams to take over from buses directly on roads without the rails but mainly taking over mainline trains.  Do we really need to support the Metro trams replacing buses and trains when the money could be used to get a Kidderminster bus station that is not a slum and a disgrace but up to date and attractive?

Dear Andy

From my attendance at public meetings there seems to be a far too cosy relationship between yourselves, internal audit and the WMCA Audit, Risk and Assurance Committee of the WMCA.  The WMCA spending appears to be out of control.  Should auditors not be checking, challenging and questioning?

THE SCANDAL - idiocy, incompetence and ignorance:

• Not one railway line has reopened since the WMCA formed in 2016 and only one tram line of 2 Kms since Andy became Mayor in 2017 (from Grand Central to Edgbaston Village).  And that started before his 2017 election, anyway.
• 3 transport projects were suspended or curtailed 12 mths ago because they went or, were going, over budget.
• One of them is the 700 metre extension that is taking seven years to complete.  STILL NOT OPENED.
• Another is a replacement station at Brum University to befit the equally prestigious buildings of both the university and hospital on either side.  It sees 95% use by the university and hospital only but, still, rush hour traffic jams!  Will the bigger, grander station make any difference?
• The third, the Dudley Tram, broke up the UK's very last principal mainline  railway "of national strategic significance".
• It is expected to be half completed by the end of next year.  Phase 2 has insufficient money.
3 Kms of new tramline opened in 24 years!
Very premature track replacement in Corporation Street.  A second in Bilston.
5 railway stations planned for years are still not finished.  One mainline railway was going to be a tramline but will, eventually, have a 30 mins diesel shuttle service into Grand Central.  This is the important Camp Hill line.
The 1986 Dudley bus station gets replaced when work on the ground starts next year.
But the 1886 (not quite!) Kidderminster bus station is like something out of a poverty stricken Third World country.
Nearby, is supposedly a bus shelter but it looks like a Victorian coffin rest shelter.

Worcestershire County Council is a neighbour of the WMCA.  Important because transport has easily the largest slice of the financial pie in the CA budget.  What is more, it is not a meagre proportion!  Out of the enormous amount, since 1981, hundreds of millions of pounds has been spent on the staff working on achieving one Metro line of 23 Kms of which 19 Kms is on the first mainline railway destroyed by Metro trams!  This was because it ran between (the now wasted for years platform 4) at Snow Hill station and St Georges Sq in Wolverhampton - not even to the bus station, mind you, let alone the railway station to which Snow Hill was connected so successfully for 100 years!

The vast expenditure was supposed to have brought us ten tram lines over 200 Kms by the year of our Lord, 2000 CE.  By then, 23 years ago, we had 20 Kms.  In 23 years it has stretched to the mighty length of 23 Kms in total.  Wonders will never cease!  By Christmas, it will be extended even further - all of 700 metres to the bus station and and railway station in Wolverhampton.

Yet, we have my nearby town of Kiddi having the most dreadful, disgraceful, slum of a bus station I have ever seen!  Broken roof panels, no seating, but a lovely graceful curve of a sort of very long bus shelter with two roof panels missing to shower the passengers with rain and, with the drivers on their rest break standing and smoking at one end and the poor passenger (ME!) at the other end!!  Poor signs and information, too.

When there is so much money swishing around for highly prestigious and stunning looking trams at £4 million each, is there any way you might like to use your power and influence to get a few funds for Worcestershire County Council?  To repair or, God forbid, even replace the slum to get a proper, modern bus station like we have in Stourbridge and Halesowen.

Below, in bold, is why we have to have the bulk of the money spent on the Black Country and Brum for "bus on rails" trams to take over from buses directly on roads without the rails and mainline trains.  Do we really need to support the Metro trams replacing buses and trains instead of a Kidderminster bus station that is something other than a slum and a disgrace?:

Wednesday, 21 June 2023 blog post

4 reasons why we all love trams

The trams are attracting people out of their cars and onto public transport.

For the last 70 years of tram and train destruction, there is only evidence that it is that policy that has made public transport worse, less attractive, caused road congestion, crammed trains and worsened the climate emergency.

They also make public transport users feel like they are not second-class citizens. 

First class citizens like lawyers and other VIPs all use public transport.  It was 10th rate work by our councillors and transport planners who are responsible for the complete wipe out of the trams in the 1950s followed by the double tragedy of urban commuter railway lines being turned into trading/housing estates, roads, innovation centres and test tracks that is STILL going on in this decade in Dudley.

They beat buses for speed and comfort.

In fact, 95% of bus stops are request stops but the tram MUST STOP at every tram stop.

Trams beat buses for speed only when you have the former mainline railway turned into a tramline running parallel to the traffic choked A41 between Wolverhampton and Brum.  Even then, the average speed is only 15.5 mph for the trams and 12 mph for the vehicles.

Comfort is also a misnomer when my posterior comes to a sudden juddering halt as I sit on a tram seat with only a thin piece of cotton between my bum and the very hard plastic seat!

I think it is a good investment in local infrastructure.

Such a good investment that in over 40 years of rebuilding the tram network on the railway network, we still have only ONE tramline between Brum and Wolverhampton St Georges Sq, not even to the bus station, let alone the railway station.  200 Kms was promised by 23 years ago. What a truly pathetic performance for the hundreds of millions spent and £15 BILLION MORE by 2040!

Such a good investment that the 2nd Brum mainline, after 40 years, is no longer to get trams but is still awaiting its commuter trains and the 3 stations (Kings Heath, Moseley and Stirchley) - now delayed 12 months!!

Such a good investment that all work on current Metro extensions (£1.3 billion) have had to be suspended or curtailed, since 12 mths ago.

FROM Nick V:

The original trams ran in the roads. SELF: Yes. The new trams mostly reuse disused railway lines, keeping them apart from the buses, cars and bikes. In the W Mids, very nearly all railway lines are used for trams. A lot in Manchester, too. Hence, the very poor railways in northern England.  They chose trams over trains that we are copying. Far better to put the trains back on the urban railway lines at a fraction of the cost in both  price and in weight of greenhouse gas emissions. If they had maintained the old tram network then the roads would have had to be changed. Nonsense. 100 year old successful railway lines were turned into roads. Complete idiocy. Buses were a better alternative at the time.  They were most certainly not! All other European nations modernised their tram networks over the years.  Eccentric England, once again.  England always has to be the odd one out in Europe.

The train network was cut as it was uneconomic. Yes. Beeching was right in closing railways seeing very few passengers as we all went out and bought cars.  He did not expect his closed railway lines to be wiped off the face of the earth.  English folly!  What idiocy! If it had not been cut then the rail network would probably not exist at all today. No! Beeching only cut the loss-making services. Our transport experts and train spotters, ever since did and still do, the real destruction.

Best wishes

Tim    (Weller  0791 380 4363)

PS bonus in the best tradition of British satire/humour - my pathetic attempt:

 Multi-choice answers for this fun quiz

continued on

to Cllr Nicky Gale re Kiddi Slum Bus Station

Dear Cllr Nicky

Your County Council is a non-constituent member of the WMCA.  Important because transport has easily the largest slice of the financial pie in the CA budget.  What is more, it is not a meagre proportion!  Out of the enormous amount, since 1981, hundreds of millions of pounds has been spent on the staff working on achieving one Metro line of 23 Kms of which 19 Kms is on the first mainline railway destroyed by Metro trams!  This was because it ran between (the now wasted for years) platform 4 at Snow Hill station and St Georges Sq in Wolverhampton - not even to the bus station, mind you, let alone the railway station to which Snow Hill was connected so successfully for 100 years!

The vast expenditure was supposed to have brought us ten tram lines over 200 Kms by the year of our Lord, 2000 CE.  By then, 23 years ago, we had 20 Kms.  In 23 years it has stretched to the mighty length of 23 Kms.  Wonders will never cease!  This year, it will be extended even further - all of 700 metres to the bus station and and railway station in Wolverhampton.  This is taking seven years and is sill not opened.

Yet, we have my nearby town of Kiddi having the most dreadful, disgraceful, slum of a bus station I have ever seen!  Broken roof panels, no seating, but a lovely graceful curve of a sort of very long bus shelter with two roof panels missing to shower the passengers with rain and, with the drivers on their rest break standing and smoking at one end and the poor passenger (ME!) at the other end!!

When there is so much money swishing around for highly prestigious and stunning looking trams at £4 million each, is there any way you might like to use your power and influence to get a few funds for Worcestershire County Council?  To repair or, God forbid, even replace the slum to get a proper, modern bus station like we have in Stourbridge and Halesowen.

Below, in bold, is why we have to have the bulk of the money spent on the Black Country and Brum for "bus on rails" trams to take over from buses directly on roads without the rails and mainline trains.  Why does Worcs CC enthusiastically support the Metro trams instead of a Kidderminster bus station that is something other than a slum and a disgrace?:

Wednesday, 21 June 2023 blog post

4 reasons why we all love trams - especially Worcestershire County Council

The trams are attracting people out of their cars and onto public transport.

For the last 70 years of tram and train destruction, there is only evidence that it is that policy that has made public transport worse, less attractive, caused road congestion, crammed trains and worsened the climate emergency.

They also make public transport users feel like they are not second-class citizens. 

First class citizens like lawyers and other VIPs all use public transport.  It was 10th rate work by our councillors and transport planners who are responsible for the complete wipe out of the trams in the 1950s followed by the double tragedy of urban commuter railway lines being turned into trading/housing estates, roads, innovation centres and test tracks that is STILL going on in this decade in Dudley.

They beat buses for speed and comfort.

In fact, 95% of bus stops are request stops but the tram MUST STOP at every tram stop.

Trams beat buses for speed only when you have the former mainline railway turned into a tramline running parallel to the traffic choked A41 between Wolverhampton and Brum.  Even then, the average speed is only 15.5 mph for the trams and 12 mph for the vehicles.

Comfort is also a misnomer when my posterior comes to a sudden juddering halt as I sit on a tram seat with only a thin piece of cotton between my bum and the very hard plastic seat!

I think it is a good investment in local infrastructure.

Such a good investment that in over 40 years of rebuilding the tram network on the railway network, we still have only ONE tramline between Brum and Wolverhampton St Georges Sq, not even to the bus station, let alone the railway station.  200 Kms was promised by 23 years ago. What a truly pathetic performance for the hundreds of millions spent and £15 BILLION MORE by 2040!

Such a good investment that the 2nd Brum mainline, after 40 years, is no longer to get trams but is still awaiting its commuter trains and the 3 stations (Kings Heath, Moseley and Stirchley) - now delayed 12 months!!

Such a good investment that all work on current Metro extensions (£1.3 billion) have had to be suspended or curtailed, since 12 mths ago.

​FROM Nick​ V​:

The original trams ran on the roads. ​SELF: Yes. The new trams mostly reuse disused railway lines, keeping them apart from the buses, cars and bikes. ​In the W Mids, very nearly all railway lines are used for trams. A lot in Manchester, too. Hence, the very poor railways in northern England.  They chose trams over trains, which we are copying. Far better to put the trains back on the urban railway lines at a fraction of the cost in both price and in weight of greenhouse gas emissions. ​If they had maintained the old tram network then the roads would have had to be changed. ​Nonsense. ​100-year-old successful railway lines were turned into roads. Complete idiocy. Buses were a better alternative at the time.  ​They were most certainly not! All other European nations modernised their tram networks over the years.  Eccentric England, once again.  England always has to be the odd one out in Europe.

The train network was cut as it was uneconomic. ​​Yes. Beeching was right in closing railways seeing very few passengers as we all went out and bought cars.  He did not expect his closed railway lines to be wiped off the face of the earth.  ​English folly!  What idiocy!​ ​​If it had not been cut then the rail network would probably not exist at all today. ​No! He only cut the loss-making services. Our transport experts and train spotters, ever since did and still do, the real destruction.​

Best wishes for some action, please Nicky - and a decent, professional explanation over your weird and wonderful priorities.  Many thanks.

Always cars and trams loved but never buses

Dear Fran and Norman

Do you recall that you were the UK government, nationally with the Conservatives, from 2010 to 2015?  Your very own LibDem member and MP, Norman Baker was the Transport Minister who gave the rather large funding for the tram in Brum centre that was supposed to have linked Snow Hill station with Grand Central station.  In fact, from the outset, we all knew it was bound to bypass Snow Hill station, a terminal, hit the buffers, station. The Bull Street tram stop is now the official tram stop for Snow Hill station - a walk of 300 metres back to platform 4 that the tram was using from 1999, at the station instead of boring trains to Wolverhampton.  We were all lied to and your LibDem Norman was deceived into authorising it.  Fran, Did you approach him to stop that misspending and for it to go, instead for a proper, magnificent Kidderminster Bus Station worthy of the town and for Fare-Free Public Transport for Everyone to justify a fine new bus shelter of a station?  Your Norman certainly had the money then.

It does seem that you top quality Kiddi politicians love cars (and trams) more than buses and have fully supported the many billions going for a High Speed railway network in the UK since 2010 with your LibDem Coalition Agreement with the Conservatives.

"In pursuit of the (LibDem) parties' policies on creation of "a low carbon and eco-friendly economy", a range of measures would be adopted.  In transport, a high speed rail network would be established."  Wikipedia

This, on top of fully supporting the totally unnecessary 200 Kms of Metro trams in the West Mids that was to be built by 2000 - 23 years ago but nowhere near achieved, even now.  It is now to be 150 miles by 2040, 8 lines, 380 tram stops all for £15 BILLION.  Again, fully supported by our LibDem friends.  £1.3 BILLION going into tram extensions, right now.

Therefore, dear Fran, how do you justify all that massive expenditure over the decades when your very own Kiddi bus shelter of a bus station, quite apart from bus use, have all been in a shameful state over all that time?

Do you think you might need to address your weird and wonderful priorities in order to get bus use and train travel as excellent as at least the average on the mainland of Europe?  Or, are you LibDems no longer good Europeans?

Best wishes

Tim    (Weller - from heavenly Halesowen with our very high tech bus station with its automatic sliding doors)