A new consultation has launched on the Druids Heath Masterplan. Still insufficiently dense. A new local centre should face the Maypole shops supported by a new bus station providing interchange between the No.50 and buses towards Shirley and Bromsgrove www.druidsheathtogether.co.uk/vision

Druids Heath Regeneration Vision – Masterplan, Design Code & Community Priorities

Explore the long‑term vision for Druids Heath’s regeneration, including the masterplan, Design Code, new homes, green spaces and community‑shaped priorities guiding the future of the estate.

druidsheathtogether.co.uk

Right wingers will claim that installing bollards to stop people being killed is a global WEF conspiracy to undermine your freedom but maintain that there is nothing nefarious about tax-avoiding billionaires gifting political parties more money than they’ll make in a lifetime.

Farrukh@implausibleblog.bsky.social · last mo.

Two crypto billionaires donated £36 million each to Reform UK, how does that compare to donations in European countries?

The Midlands Rail Hub is a long-touted project of vital importance to the future of rail travel in the city and wider region. 🧵

More affordable buses means more people using them means fewer people driving means idiots who don’t understand second and third order consequences like Mark experience less congestion.

Consultation on Midlands Rail Hub: Key for me: - What happened to the vision for Moor Street? - how does this interchange with HS2? - how will it be coordinated with Adderley Street tram works? - the viaduct is visually prominent and the symbol of Digbeth, will the widening respect the existing?

Interesting public consultation on safety principles for automated vehicles. (I suspect some people on here will have strong views on it) www.gov.uk/government/c...

Automated vehicles: statement of safety principles consultation

gov.uk

Went to pick up some stuff I had framed in Stirchley and walked through this. No trees, no sense of place, too much tarmac, *plastic* cladding. This should have been 5 storey courtyard blocks with terraces overlooking the park & 5 mins from the station. A wasted opportunity.

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... Hyper- local bluesky if you know this junction you’ll know how bad it is. Please sign and share @localnotail.bsky.social @sundersays.bsky.social @birminghamdispatch.bsky.social @jordanbhx.bsky.social

Pershore Road Safety Survey

We are petitioning Councillor Kamel Hawwash and Birmingham City Council to use some of the Stirchley ward road safety funding to make the junctions of Pershore Road and Lifford Lane and Pershore Road ...

docs.google.com

Today I wrote to Birmingham's Cabinet Member for Transport as well as the WMCA urging them to use their new powers to take action on pavement parking. Groups like @livingstreets.bsky.social and @betterstreetsforbirmingham.org have been campaigning for this for years. The time to act is now.

Make Edgbaston Reservoir suitable for swimming. The Tower Ballroom redevelopment needs to provide not only commercial spaces for activation but also public toilets, changing rooms and safe access points for swimming that are open when the weather’s like this. I miss the sea.

Complaining about nightlife when you *checks notes* choose to live in Soho is like living in South Kensington and complaining about the museums. Or moving to Hackney and grumbling about creatives. Living in Richmond and hating green space. It's all getting a bit silly, isn't it?

Some of the assessment scoring and weighting in the Longbridge Corridor Mass Rapid Transit study is crap. This routes needs a tram, not a bendy bus that experience tells us takes just as long, if not longer, to deliver anyway.

What I like about Rotterdam is that there is the talent, civic confidence and political will to take buildings that are typical of the place but that many would consider ugly and reimagine them as places full of colour, fun, learning and culture. It feels authentic and unique.

100,000 people in Delft. A 4 platform through station with local heritage design details, bus and tram interchange, several thousand space cycle parking garage with subtly integrated entrance/exit and car parking somewhere but I can’t find where. The UK is a third world country.

Presumably Rosewell will remember her current experience of divvying up our £2.4bn multi-year settlement and found out that you can buy just a micron more than piss all mass transit projects considering the other competing priorities.

New mass transit taskforce to reshape the future of transport in towns and cities

The new taskforce will make recommendations to improve transit systems so they can be delivered more efficiently across the UK.

gov.uk

Prison. Life sentence.

Friends of Bradford Street@bradford-street.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Simply heartbroken… Just found out that earlier this week, two men chainsawed down some of the beautiful trees on Digbeth High Street Sometimes there are no words 😢

With the price of fuel going up by the week, change lanes to avoid the impact. Bus tickets are capped at £20 a week. Walking and cycling short trips is free. Fewer short car trips also means less congestion, more reliable public transport, safer and better roads, cleaner air, and healthier people.

Waterloo Street is a lovely demonstration that paint isn’t infrastructure. Blue badges and the rich now occupy this new (yes, despite the state of the tarmac it is new) contraflow cycle lane.

Incredible swing to the Greens. I remain optimistic that a Coalition of Hope will come forward but I’m worried that bringing three parties together with a few independents will result in so many councillors wanting paid positions it risks collapse and we’ll get a worst of all worlds coalition.

We have got to tackle Birmingham’s pavement parking problem

A coalition of hope can make this a reality

Martin Price-Phillips@mpricephillips.bsky.social · 7mo ago

I let @jordanbhx.bsky.social post this to the other place, so I’ll post them here! Here are some healthy streets transformations from Birmingham using Google Gemini.

“Vote Reform to get Starmer out” is complete nonsense in a local election. But Reform have laid a trap that the egos in the Labour Party are falling into. Launching a leadership challenge straight after the local elections will make it look like Faridge has delivered.

Hardly any of Birmingham’s newly elected councillors are on twitter - are they here?

The media’s determination to crown a mediocre former health secretary and twice failed leadership candidate who ran off to be a mayor and rode on the coattails of Richard Leese’s achievements is quite sickening.

Pippa Crerar@pippacrerar.bsky.social · 5mo ago

NEW: Keir Starmer tells cabinet he’s staying put. “I take responsibility for these election results and I take responsibility for delivering the change we promised. “The past 48 hours have been destabilising for government and that has a real economic cost for our country and for families”.

I let @jordanbhx.bsky.social post this to the other place, so I’ll post them here! Here are some healthy streets transformations from Birmingham using Google Gemini.

Some lovely installations for BrumPark(ing)Day showcasing how much more valuable parking spaces are when they’re places to meet and socialise. Imagine if we closed half of Caroline Street to traffic and spread the greenery and the public space along its whole length

Some lovely installations for BrumPark(ing)Day showcasing how much more valuable parking spaces are when they’re places to meet and socialise. Imagine if we closed half of Caroline Street to traffic and spread the greenery and the public space along its whole length

Let's go! It's now 74,000. Membership rising fast 🚀 Join.greenparty.org.uk

Join the Green Party

Join the Green Party from just £6 a year. Become a member today - join the only party standing up for people and planet.

join.greenparty.org.uk

Zack Polanski@zackpolanski.bsky.social · last yr.

💚 Delighted to announce we just reached 73,000 new members! ✊🏽 @greenparty.org.uk is the party of environmental, social, racial and economic justice. 👉🏼 Join.greenparty.org.uk

At the Sustainable Mobility Conference in Barcelona, I spoke about a critical modern challenge: urban obesity. Cities stretched by sprawl, scattered functions, and decades of car-centric design. Mobility must now serve a different ideal — proximity, equity, and human connection.

“You have to get out of bed in the morning and sometimes for that you need delusion.” #RadicalOptimism?

Jenny Chase@solarchase.bsky.social · last yr.

It's important to celebrate even quite small reasons for climate optimism, because otherwise you will succumb to despair, and that will help nobody. Sure, the line between optimism and delusion is a fine one, but you have to get out of bed in the morning and sometimes for that you need delusion.