I agree that at times it has been very frustrating. We had a long lull when nothing was happening. Now it looks as though something is starting to happen. Yes, it is always possible that we may have another setback. Meantime, however, I think the job of people who care about Acocks Green, and I presume you do, is to keep on campaigning for those changes that we are told are in the pipeline. What we need is more people to help us campaign, to keep the plans in the public eye. Watch this space. The new plans for Acocks Green were displayed at a public ‘Acocks Green Village Partnership Meeting’ therefore it would seem that they are now in the public domain. They will be published here fairly shortly. (When the editors have time to be exact, because it is a bit time consuming and we are all just residents and volunteers.) We are also promised that the plans will be on public display in Acocks Green around September. We do not yet know where, but be sure that the venue will be advertised here.

As to councillors, I think that the short answer, from our experience, is that there are councillors and councillors. Some Birmingham City councillors have been supportive and sympathetic about the long term needs of Acocks Green. Others have been less so. We find it is best to work with those councillors who we can work with, and who want to work with us, rather than to take an ‘they are all the same’ approach.

Above all I think it is important to go on campaigning. Nothing much has happened in Acocks Green for over thirty years. (I know because I have lived here since 1974.) Now I think that door towards change is starting to slowly creak open. We need to join together and push, not sign and sit on our hands …

Well, after a long lull, it finally looks as though things might be moving forward. Birmingham City Council Planning and Regeneration have engaged a designer for the centre of Acocks Green Plans have been viewed by a few and, we are promised, will be publicly available soon. Those who have viewed the plans think that they look good. Watch this space for more information, which we have been promised very soon.

I agree that things are not satisfactory as they are, and that we need action. The Focus Group have been saying that for years now. I think the action requires to be thought through very carefully though. I don’t agree that ALL that is needed is double yellows and enforcement of parking restrictions though – see Mick’s comments on your other posting about Oxford Road and the Bus Lanes for expansion on that.

In regard to Shared Space – this is not really about pavements. This is a slight misreading of Shared Space – you might like to browse some of our street design links and Shared Space videos for more info on this. It is true that a proper redesign is going to cost money, and, yes, it would involve a complete reconsideration of the way that the space in the centre is used and not just in the lower half Wilkinson’s to Post Office area, but all the way up the Warwick Road as well. This is what we are asking for. However, Acocks Green has not really had any serious money spent on its centre since the nineteen-seventies. We have become a Cinderella suburb in many ways. Other areas of our general broad type and vintage, eg Erdington, Northfield and Kings Heath, have had, or are about to have, a lot of money spent on them. We find this very worrying, and we think we need to stop being so accepting.

Fair question. I have made a new post on this topic.

Glad you like the blog.

The meeting on 20 March went very well. The Council are prepared to invest some money into carrying out a feasibility study into regenerating the centre of Acocks Green. They will look at our Shared Space style suggestion, amongst others.

You are very welcome to join us on Monday 21 May when our speakers, leading Shared Space advocate Ben Hamilton-Baillie, Phil Jones (Traffic Consultant) and Will Thornton (for Birmingham Focus on Blindness) will be explaining how Shared Space works, and we will debate how it could work for Acocks Green.

Best wishes

Julia