Things have gone seriously wrong at 16 Summer Lane for many years - since the 1950s!

I have serious concerns, even though no-one else seems bothered

I expect I am the only one who writes to the TfWM/WMCA about these matters.

1. Only Albert Thomas, Richard Worrall and I use our right to attend your committee meetings as members of the public.
2. However, we are not allowed to say a dicky bird.  And, Albert and Richard are allowed to go straight up on arrival, I believe but I have to wait until just before the meeting before I am escorted up from reception by your good self.  This is to minimise my chances of approaching an officer or member to spill the beans!
3. At the end of the meeting, I am then quickly ushered out and away from the VIP top brass on the Committee - by your good self, Dan once again!  Officers and members must NOT be tainted by my (Trump) garbage.
4. Yet, Albert Thomas told me to "Fuck off" when I asked him to remind me of his name last Monday 4 November.
5. Before Covid, when he was Council Leader of Wolverhampton City Council and the Transport Lead, (name forgotten!) told me to "Stick it up your arse" when I invited him to take a leaflet from me.  Ignorance and intolerance are rife.
6. Many or, certainly, too many of your councillor members on all the WMCA committees and boards change once a year.  This means that no sooner do they get up to speed with their brief, than they are moved off altogether or, go on to a different committee or board.  Or, get voted off in a yearly election.
7. The members are meant to check, challenge and question.  However, many also hold down jobs or, are old geezers like me who are well past our prime.
8. Therefore, how do you expect us to read the most voluminous reports of great erudition, witten in professional jargon and in much detail?
9. In the summer, the seven leaders were presented with a 500 page report on bus franchising, I believe.  The Coventry leader, I think it was, said he would take a look at it in his summer holiday - by then too late.  The decision to continue the expensive process was agreed by the Seven (or, is it Eight with Richard Parker?) at that same full Board meeting!
10. Had the seven leaders actually agreed for the 500 pages to be written and the long, expensive process to franchising be started?
11. Or, was it an initiative started by your top officer(s) to make sure the W Midlands was not left behind by go-ahead Greater Manchester, with no approach to even a single Council Leader?
12. After 43 years of very well-intentioned endeavour started by your continuing and respected member, Cllr Phil Bateman, how is it we are still fragmenting two regional mainline railways into part tramways in a densely populated conurbation that needs important railway lines used for railway trains?
13. Understandably, I think, I am very angry that my 1990s vertical guerrilla garden, with the passive permission from all the owners of Merry Hill since the 90s, is soon to be wiped out, buried by your £100 million, 400 metre tramway viaduct.  It also destroys the rest of nature, public open space and housing land at Merry Hill.
14. The sensible, cheaper and less Climate damaging alternative is to keep the tram, from Flood Street, Dudley town centre, on the former principal mainline railway to connect with the national railway network at Stourbridge Jct.
15. Your Top Director, Anne Shaw is saying that work on the ground (planning started in the 1980s!) will finally start in January 2025, to take the Dudley Tram off the railway line into the Waterfront.  Or, is this a euphemism for bringing the tram into Merry Hill, at even greater expense of taxpayers' money and even more tragic, unnecessary destruction?  As in these PHOTOS.  These trees, and much else on either side of the photo, get wiped off the face of the earth by the 400 metre, Climate worsening concrete and steel tramway viaduct:
    
     6 glorious white trees.jpg
    Most of the trees, below are my planting and tender care over the decades.  Nearly all will be lost:
    
     Overview contrast.jpg
16. I am now approaching Leigh Day, the solicitors with expertise in these matters, to seek an injunction from a Court of Law to put a stop to the Dudley Tram wreaking havoc on the land between the main car park at Merry Hill and the Dudley No 1 Canal.
17. The beautifully landscaped Level Street roundabout is also obliterated by the Dudley/Merry Hill tram because a further double track tram viaduct has to be built over the top of it.  See top right hand corner in their PLAN, here
    
     WBHE plan for Merry Hill.jpeg
18. I am prepared to spend a maximum of £10,000 of my lifetime savings for judges to put a stop to the idiocy that trained, professional transport planners have been intent on since the 1980s.
19. About 1980 was when BBC 1's 'Tomorrow's World' first alerted me to what Climate scientists had been reporting since the 1820s.  Yes, the 1820s!  Do your research, as I have, if you don't believe me.
20. On Monday, 4 November, Anne reported to the meeting that she was "moduly agnostic" over the public transport mode that is chosen to be used to take over from buses.  In other words it could be any mode out of heavy rail (HR), light rail (LR), Very Light Rail or Ultra Light Rail (eg, Stourbridge Shuttle).
21. Why does a "bus on rails" (UK Tram Promotion Group at your own  HQ!) have to be used at all when we already have TRAINS for railway tracks and BUSES for roads?  USE THEM!  And, remember, Anne is "moduly agnostic", ie, she doesn't mind which transport mode is used - anywhere.
22. NO!  I think she should get it right - regular buses and trains, from now on, at least as good as the average on the mainland of Europe.
23. Don't spend £15 BILLION by 2040 (Jan 2020 figure) on 150 miles, 8 lines and 380 tram stops in the West Midlands when your accelerating Climate Breakdown has just been seen in Valentia, Spain.  And, fast melting glaciers in the high mountains of the planet!

Best wishes