TRADERS SLAM RED ROUTE "DOUBLE STANDARDS"

20-10-2007

Inner city traders whose livelihoods have been damaged by Birmingham's congestion-busting Red Route have accused the city's transport boss of "double standards" for breaking a promise to go and see them. Len Gregory scrapped a recent visit because he was ill - but has since been spotted enjoying a photo-opportunity in another part of town.

The Red Route, which spans the busy A34 corridor from Solihull through Birmingham city centre and onto Walsall improves traffic flows by banning parking.

Nowhere has it been more controversial than in Sparkbrook, where the Stratford Road Traders Association has bitterly opposed the scheme since its inception, claiming it would destroy their businesses.

For the last two years they've regularly invited Gregory, the Council's Cabinet member for Transport, to come and see for himself how they'd be affected.

They thought their wish had finally been fulfilled when he agreed to visit on the October 9th - but Chief Highways Officer Neil Dancer wrote to say that his boss would have to call off the engagement.

Dancer said that Gregory "was experiencing slow progress in recovering from a major operation" and was "not fully engaged" in Council duties.

It wasn't the first time this had happened. Gregory's planned trip in June to the Stratford Road was hastily re-scheduled, at his insistence, for Lancaster Circus.

Now traders are starting to smell a rat. They say that Gregory isn't well enough to see them, but has been snapped in the most recent edition of the Birmingham News glad-handing residents in Wheelers Lane, Kings Heath. He has also been featured in the most recent edition of the Council's "Forward" magazine looking fit and well.

Abdul Vanat, who runs a lighting shop on Stratford Road, said, "It's quite shocking that Len Gregory can visit the affluent areas of Birmingham, yet he cant be bothered to come to the deprived ethnic minority area, to help the business community who are suffering.

"This is a clear sign of double standards".

As Gregory hasn't once visited the traders on their home turf they claim this means he can't understand the harm he has done.

Although 200 off-road parking spaces have been created to compensate for the Red Route Abdul says they are in scattered and unsuitable locations.

"One is almost half a mile away behind a church, where there is vandalism and drug dealing. No one in their right mind would park there. He needs to come and see it for himself what he's created.

He's created a monster, and the shopkeepers here are crying."

While businesses are feeling the pinch, the Council is already turning a tidy profit from the scheme. In the first six months of the Red Route, they've issued 4,500 parking tickets, yielding £270,000.