Acocks Green Prontaprint - with its fascia board now missing - closed for good, it seems - Did the guard rails play a part?

We are told that the new plans for the Warwick Road/A41 currently being drawn up in conjunction with Birmingham City Council, Solihull Council, Centro and Atkins Global, will be available for viewing on the Warwick Road website from around Friday 4 December.   These plans are the result of consultations with local groups so far.  There is a link to the Warwick Road Project Team website here These plans will be for the full length of the Warwick Road from Stratford Road to Lode Lane, Solihull.   The earlier plans, however, looked promising for Acocks Green, and, hopefully, local suggestions are now being taken on board.  There will be a second phase of consultation at the end of January when details like the precise locations  of items like  trees and traffic lights will be added in.

Meantime, we are sad to note that Acocks Green Prontaprint closed recently.  The franchise print and business admin services shop has served the local business community and local organisations, including The Focus Group, for many years.

We  hope that the new plans will continue to take  account of issues like the poorly planned layout of the Warwick Road as it enters Acocks Green village from town, with its present chaos of notorious and unloved  bus lanes which cause hold-ups for all (including buses),  three crossing stages between Wilkinson’s and Barclays,  central paved section, guard rails and generally wasted space.  Shops caught behind guard rails in the section between Barclays and Pizza Express  have long complained of difficulties of access for both deliveries and customers.  Stephen Andrews of Prontaprint was reported in the local press as far back as 2005 noting that he was tired of seeing 60 year old delivery men having to vault the railings in front of his shop.  Stephen repeatedly warned us that he was not sure how much longer he could carry on, given that getting supplies delivered on time was becoming a worry because of the guard rails.  The Vitamin Shop owners complained of similar difficulties at an Acocks Green Village Partnership meeting in June this year.  We witnessed this for ourselves, with staff having to leave the Vitamin Shop to collect deliveries passed to them over the rails; something very difficult with larger items.   The Focus Group has also had discussions with the management of Pizza Express on problems caused by the railings.

This is just one of many issues which urgently requires redress.  We eagerly await the new plans.

There is also some further information on immediate plans for this part of Acocks Green Centre, on Cll Roger Harmer’s site here.

Acocks Green Neighbourhood Forum have started a debate on their blog.  Should we protect our rights to use our alleyways in Acocks Green.  What do you think?  Read their posting,  and leave your comments, on their blog, which you can link to  here

The E. H. Smith plan for 42-44 Flint Green Road has been withdrawn.  See below.  This may be connected with the unpopularity of the plan which was quickly condemned by Acocks Green organisations and by the Council’s own Conservation Department. We know that developers sometimes chose to withdraw an application which looks likely to be rejected at Planning Committee stage.  They then go back to the drawing board …

Watch this website for further developements.

We are aware that a lot of people have been anxiously logging onto our site to see what is happening to the  old Swan centre at Yardley – nothing is the answer it seems, lately.  It’s been knocked down, and … ?  We are not really the experts on Yardley matters.  Being an Acocks Green orientated website our angle on things has, in the main, to be a bit selfish: ‘How does this affect Acocks Green’?  (A big nearby shopping centre could damage our local centre.)  However, we have been puzzled too – and of course we do realise that things have looked worrying for Yardley lately as well.  Some of the answers about what is happening seem to be in this helpful report by Birmingham Friends of the Earth: Birmingham FOE report on the Swan Site, Yardley. This also leads to a recent Birmingham Mail update.

Warwick Road Route Enhancements Leaflet

Do you live in Acocks Green, Tyseley,  Olton or Solihull Warwick Road area?  Was this leaflet dropped through your door in the last few weeks?  The project team promised that 50,000 leaflets would be delivered to households around the Warwick Road/A41 area between Stratford Road, Sparkhill and Solihull town centre.  The leaflets mentioned exhibitions taking place in local libraries on 12 and 19 September 09, where residents of Birmingham and Solihull living around the Warwick Road could study the ideas and give their point of view.

We would very much like to know whether you got a leaflet or NOT?  So far we have heard that Douglas Road, Alexander Road, Oxford Road and Francis Road Acocks  Green did not NOT receive leaflets.

If you received a leaflet could you say which road you live in, in any of the areas mentioned.  Likewise, if you did NOT receive a leaflet, could you indicate which road you live in? For more details on this story scroll down to see more postings.

There is another version of the Warwick Road/A41 plans, here called a ‘Smart Route’ from Network West Midlands (‘A partnership between Centro and bus and rail and tram operating companies’) here.  See postings below for more detailed info.  The main posting on this is the report on the meeting on August 6 in Acocks Green.