Open letter: Our streets are in a state of emergency and we need sustained action now

Filed under: General

Following our open letter, we received a joint reply from the addressees and a separate reply from the Police and Crime Commissioner.

Councillor John Cotton, Council Leader, Birmingham City Council

Councillor Majid Mahmood, Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport,
Birmingham City Council

Richard Parker, Mayor of the West Midlands

Simon Foster, West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner

Chief Constable Craig Guildford QPM VR DL, West Midlands Police

Cc: The Rt Hon Louise Haigh MP – Secretary of State for Transport, Simon Lightwood MP – Local Transport Minister, Birmingham MPs and Birmingham City Councillors

Sent by email

Friday 26 July 2024

Our streets are in a state of emergency and we need sustained action now

Dear all,

Following the latest collision which killed a pedestrian in Jewellery Quarter on Sunday 21 July, we are writing to you on behalf of a city living in fear of its own streets.

We are currently at a point where those travelling in the UK’s second city aren’t sure whether they will make it home alive.

Since our first open letter in June 2023, at least 23 people have lost their lives and a further 26 have been seriously injured in collisions on our roads. Among their number was four-year-old Mayar Yahia, killed while walking home with her mother, who was also seriously injured.

When a child dies in such a way on our streets, we have failed as a society. And while we can never bring Mayar back, or fill the void that now sits at the heart of her traumatised family, we have a duty to learn from this failure and to ensure we do everything possible to prevent such a senseless loss.

Following our original correspondence, we saw a flurry of high profile activity last summer.  Significant steps were taken, particularly in terms of road policing, with extra resources earmarked for road traffic units and a root and branch transformation of third-party reporting through Operation Snap. Commitments were made to triple average speed enforcement cameras in Birmingham, and to remove almost all 40mph speed limits across the city.

But momentum has tailed off quickly. Progress on rolling out average speed enforcement cameras has run aground, many roads are still above 30mph, and Neighbourhood Policing Team (NPT) participation in Operation Triton has been inadequate. 

While there is a greater spirit of collaboration between all authorities, and new road harm reduction strategies are emerging, their subsequent action plans are largely unfunded. This puts us already off-course for achieving the Mayor’s commitment of Vision Zero by 2040.

Road safety is a statutory duty and basic human need, not a nice-to-have. Safe travel and welcoming streets form the bedrock of any thriving area, and our region’s success depends on having them.

The situation as it stands continues to be untenable. If we don’t take urgent and sustained action, more people will be killed and seriously injured.

We are now calling on you collectively to:

1. Declare a state of emergency for Birmingham’s roads, holding a press conference with each key partner detailing the changes they will make.

2. Make urgent changes to our streets, using temporary materials like those used for the Emergency Active Travel Fund and in Paris, that mean reckless driving physically cannot happen, as outlined in both the upcoming West Midlands Road Safety Action Plan and Birmingham Road Harm Reduction Strategy. For example, Great Hampton Street should be narrowed and reduced to a single carriageway. Officers must be enabled to act quickly by revisiting the governance and engagement approaches of both Birmingham City Council and the WMCA to ensure they are proportionate.

3. Publish a timetable for the roll-out of average speed cameras and updated speed limits within Birmingham.

4. Hold quarterly Gold Command meetings, led by an Assistant Chief Constable (ACC) or above, attended by the Mayor, Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC), Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport, until it is clear that the region is on-course for Vision Zero.

5. Get a central grip on the number of separate road policing operations by establishing a clear owner and bringing a progress report to the PCC at every Strategic Policing and Crime Board meeting.

6. Further increase roads policing capacity so that there is always a unit working in each Local Policing Area (LPA), utilising capacity within Priority Crime Teams, and ensure that the Operation Snap team is sufficiently resourced for the rate of submissions.

7. Resource and upskill NPTs to achieve proactive neighbourhood traffic policing, with a designated NPT road safety lead, supported by rolling secondments within the Road Harm Reduction Unit for Neighbourhood Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) to learn how to process traffic offences, taking knowledge back to their neighbourhood team and tackling localised antisocial driving and parking.

8. Use existing powers to suspend the licences of those arrested for dangerous driving offences, to ensure that they do not endanger other road users whilst awaiting trial.

9. Immediately begin recruiting the next Mayor’s Cycling and Walking Commissioner.

10. Ensure the West Midlands Road Safety Action Plan has coordinated and full funding so that multi-agency delivery can start at the point of adoption, as well as strengthening action twelve to create 100 school streets across the region by 2028.

These changes require leadership, investment, and action. We ask you all to advocate at every level for increased resources from our new government to achieve them, and to ensure these are used as efficiently and rapidly as possible to change the shape and culture of our city’s roads.

It is of vital importance that all our citizens get home safe, no matter how they travel.
We stand ready to work collaboratively with yourselves, your officers and Birmingham’s communities to make our streets safe, and to give our region the future it deserves.

We look forward to your response.

Kind regards

Mat MacDonald
Chair
Better Streets for Birmingham