One of Birmingham's leading foodies has criticised Birmingham City Council for driving through its "anti-car transport policy without consultation."
Access to 18 streets is being affected by the Birmingham Emergency Transport Plan – City Centre Segments (Phase One).
The council's own policy document states: "The emergency nature of this situation does mean there has been limited consultation prior to delivery."
Click on our Photo Story below to see how the changes are not just affecting the way motorists drive in Birmingham, but are giving the environment a radical new look, too.
Leading restaurateur outraged
Lasan restaurant founder Jabbar Khan said the council should be "held to account" for its lack of consultation with local businesses.
The Jewellery Quarter restaurant won Gordon Ramsay's F Word contest in 2010.
After drawing inspiration from the grand bars and restaurants in Delhi, Jaipur and Mumbai that are used by India's upper classes, Jabbar spent £500,000 refurbishing Lasan just three years ago.
"The road changes are unbelievable," said Jabbar. "(This plan) is the final nail in the coffin for city centre.
"It’s as if someone either lacks basic understanding or has profound contempt for businesses.
"I really don’t understand why the lack of consultation with businesses that would be impacted."
Jabbar has also founded steak specialists Fiesta del Asado (Edgbaston / Shirley) and the Indian streetfood restaurant Raja Monkey (Hall Green) - which recently doubled in size and is run by brother Munayam Khan.
The brothers were young children when the entrepreneurial family moved from Bangladesh to Birmingham, a city their father saw as the driving force behind the Industrial Revolution.
Jabbar added: "Today it's almost like a health and safety obsessed, tree-hugging lunatic is in charge of Birmingham!
"The council is required to provide evidence for its proposed measures and should be held accountable."
Courier firm 'tries to avoid Birmingham'
Almost 40 years after it was founded in 1982, long-established courier firm Bonds Worldwide Express said it now tried to avoid going into Birmingham if it could - which explains why its distinctive vans are now seen much less on the city's streets.
As well as specialising in global deliveries, it offers GPS tracking as standard and even covert surveillance of individual parcels and pallets.
Boss Karen Waters told BirminghamLive: "I used the Covid-19 lockdown to completely reinvent the way we are working.
"We are based at the cargo centre of Birmingham Airport.
"Our drivers were getting fed up with all of the mounting closures and confusion caused with one way, no vans systems and buses-only changes.
"Everything was changing from one day to the next so we now don't go into Birmingham as much as we used to do."
Latest changes
New policies include two 'bus gates' in Colmore Circus outside of Lloyd House which have been designed to prevent drivers from accessing Colmore Row or Snow Hill Queensway from Weaman Street.
Another has been created on St Chad's Queensway, effectively sending motorists back towards Aston Fire Station instead of being able to either drive up Snow Hill Queensway or across the junction towards Colmore Business District.
A Birmingham City Council spokesperson said: "These (bus gate) schemes have been delivered using Experimental Traffic Regulation Orders which allow us to monitor and make changes before a decision on making them permanent.
"No cameras are being installed at this stage but compliance is one of the things we will be looking at."
What is happening?
Many roads like Great Charles Queensway and Summer Row had already had their capacities reduced.
Others have had key junctions closed off (Newhall Hill) as part of the city's "Emergency Transport Plan."
When it was launched earlier this year, Birmingham City Council's Cabinet Member for Transport and the Environment Cllr Waseem Zaffar said the city "could not go back" to its pre-Covid levels of pollution.
The council is now implementing a raft of measures to divide the city centre into 'segments'.
Areas including Lozells and Kings Heath have been earmarked to become 'low traffic neighbourhoods'.
Each of these areas is being divided up into cells that you cannot drive through, only around.
Traffic signs were initially installed, but roads are now being blocked off with giant planters.
A Birmingham City Council spokesperson said: "The Kings Heath signs are being accompanied by a combination of large planters and lockable bollards so it will thereafter be impossible to drive through (unless you are an emergency or refuse collection vehicle with the key).
"Installing the signs first was part of the phased strategy so that motorists know the changes were coming."
Birmingham City Council is also looking to implement its long-delayed Clean Air Zone policy from June 1, 2021 - older vehicles will be charged £8 per day to cross the Middle Ring Road.
The city centre experience
Many key routes have either been modified or removed altogether over the years.
The ulgy Masshouse inner ring road has long since been demolished as have free-flowing islands including Colmore Circus, St Chad's Circus, Paradise Circus and Ashted Circus
Paradise Queensway has been closed for more than two years and the Five Ways island underpass shut down was 16 months ago.
Earlier this year, Park Street was also closed because of work to build HS2.
The road used to take drivers coming round Masshouse Apartments towards the Bullring and Digbeth but even the city's largest group of mature trees has been cut down.
More citywide changes are coming into effect in a bid to encourage wider use of public transport as well as a switch to brand new VOI e-scooters, launched by Transport for West Midlands and backed by Birmingham City Council on September 10.
Phase One of the City Centre Segments plan is affecting 18 roads alone.
Some have been completely blocked off including Newhall Hill at its junction with Sand Pits on the edge of the Jewellery Quarter.
Motorists driving down Bristol Street can no longer turn left into Bromsgrove Street or Wrentham Street to access Southside.
They now have to go to Belgrave Middleway Junction, turn left and then left again to go up Sherlock Street.
BirminghamLive asked Birmingham City Council what would happen if there was another major crash at the junction - could motorists remove the blockades to turn off?
At first, we were told that was a 'hypothetical question', even though there is now no turning off point for any southbound driver who does not use Suffolk Street Queensway next to the Alexandra Theatre but instead starts to do down the sloping A38 southbound towards the tunnel below Pagoda Island (Holloway Circus).
Once on that route you now have to go all the way to the Middle Ring Road at Belgrave Junction before choosing whether to turn left or right or go straight ahead towards Selly Oak.
Birmingham City Council later replied: "As with any serious road traffic collision, we would monitor the network closely and work with the police to re-direct traffic as appropriate."
On the afternoon of Saturday, September 26 we hardly saw any vehicles using Sand Pits / Summer Row.
Whether that was because of Covid or the fact that people can't be bothered to drive into Birmingham any more is one thing.
The lack of traditional hustle and bustle also begs the question as to whether the city that once made British Leyland, Rover and MG cars can survive without people driving to and from it en masse ready to spend money there.
The city council is hoping that changing habits will boost the city's green credentials - without damaging the economy.
Birmingham Transport 2020
Sample of the comments on the Birmingham City Council website
Details of all 18 affected roads can be found on this council list here
There is also an online comments page for people to have their say about how the changes are affecting life in the city.
Correspondents don't have to leave their names, but comments include the following
- Welcome the changes in the JQ! Especially the stopping of motor traffic entering the roundabout at the bottom of Newhall Hill. I think this will help stop a lot of the rat racing and encourage people to cycle and walk more!
- I strongly object to the closing of access to Wrentham Street and Bromsgrove Street. The closures have resulted in a huge amount of misery, inconvenience, danger and pollution for local residents and businesses.
- I believe that implementation should be delayed until 2021 to allow city centre retailers and restaurants time to recover after the devastation financially the effects of COVID-19.
Great scheme.... it is a shame that the barriers on Wrentham Street and Bromsgrove Street keep being moved by motorists/ taxis and are regularly driven around - these need to be replaced with planters to stop misuse.
I turn down (Bromsgrove Street and Wrentham Street) to find parking so I can go to Quarter Horse. Not being able to use the side streets will impact whether I use the restaurant or not.
- I'm a fan of a few businesses on Bristol Street. I used to pop along in the car and use the layby outside when driving. Cycling and walking from town however was always grim. Quieter streets with less traffic would really improve Southside and make it a nicer place to be, thus increasing footfall. And because your businesses are good enough, you will retain custom.
- Stop closing roads for absolutely no reasoning without thinking about more pollution that this will be causing to surrounding areas. Have you thought about people with disabilities that may rely on a car, their journeys have now just been made longer which can make them feel like they are not welcome in the City as they are unable to walk or cycle.
- I just watched six cars and one motorcycle pass through the no entry on Wrentham Street in the course of about 30 seconds.
- Why are trying to push people out from visiting the city centre? Do you not want businesses to survive? You’re just spending money unnecessarily to say you’ve done something. It’s absolutely ridiculous.
