A councillor has issued a last-gasp rallying cry to stop plans to tear down a much-used flyover, branding plans to do so "daft and senseless".

Jon Hunt (Lib Dem) is wholeheartedly against council plans to demolish the A34 flyover in Perry Barr.

The proposal is part of the £523 million regeneration of Perry Barr.

The area will welcome thousands of athletes for the Commonwealth Games in 2022 and plans are afoot to vastly improve the local area.

The flyover outside One Stop Shopping Centre is to be knocked down as part of changes to reconfigure both the A34 and A453 Aldridge Road.

As part of the plans, drastic changes will be made to the Birchfield Road roundabout with the introduction of a new traffic light junction.

Birchfield Flyover in Perry Barr
Birchfield Flyover in Perry Barr

The underpass towards the city centre will be filled in and removed, subject to plans being approved.

Birmingham City Council cabinet will decide on whether to approve the plans to rip down the flyover on February 12.

Coun Hunt said: "City leader Ian Ward backed demolition at a residents' meeting last week and made it clear he continues to think of it as an eyesore.

"We need this daft plan to be reviewed by backbench councillors, who know the impact it will have.

"The first big objection continues to be the two years of chaos that demolition will cause.

"The work proposed for the station area is already going to cause disruption. We need to keep the A34 link into the city centre."

The Perry Barr councillor is urging those who are against proposals to sign a petition which, he says, will apply much-needed pressure.

Proposed traffic changes in Perry Barr explained

Perry Barr councillors Jon Hunt and Morriam Jan have explained how changes will work, subject to planning approval;

  • The Birchfield roundabout is being covered over and replaced with a traffic light junction. This would be fine but the planners propose to ban U-turns rather than putting in a U-turn facility to create a lane for traffic to get into One-Stop. As this will be quite a wide junction this is perfectly possible.
  • The planners propose instead - if the flyover were retained - to put a roundabout under the flyover (even though they are getting rid of the Birchfield roundabout). This would mean through traffic to the Aldridge Road merging with One-Stop traffic on the roundabout.
  • This, unsurprisingly, causes huge tailbacks on the Aldridge Road lane of the A34 / Birchfield Road - and has an impact on traffic trying to get onto the flyover as well.
  • Their alternative is a seven-lane traffic lights that would link the Aldridge Road, the southern access of One Stop and the A34 / Walsall Road going into the existing underpass.

And councillors have said how an alternative plan could also work;

  • At the moment three lanes of traffic go under the flyover but there is space for at least one more lane and probably more.
  • That extra lane, to the south, could be used to create a traffic light access into One-Stop at the south.
  • That would reduce the amount of traffic going up to Birchfield, where a U-turn lane would be included.
  • The A34 to Aldridge Road traffic would then continue to use its two lanes under the flyover and the One-Stop exiting traffic would use its lane.
  • The outstanding problem is then to allow the One Stop traffic to return to Birchfield. That is where the space available on the lorry park helps.
  • The existing Aldridge Road traffic is to be redirected so it all goes along the line of the flyover and past the Greyhound Stadium.
  • There will then be a major traffic light junction (as at present) between the Stadium and the site of the City University.
  • The second set of traffic lights will go.
  • That would allow the One-Stop traffic to do a fairly sharp right turn through the lights to get back onto the Aldridge Road northbound up to the Birchfield Island - or onto the underpass.

Source: Urgent - Perry Barr flyover decision day near / Jon Hunt

"We need more signatures to show the petition is still live.

"About 1,500 written signatures have gone in alongside the 2,300 on-line signatures. Can we reach 5,000 in that time?

"We need to step up the pressure against this senseless proposal. Please encourage everyone you can to sign this petition."

The controversial proposal to demolish the flyover in Perry Barr would cause two years worth of traffic disruption, it was previously reported.

Ward representative Cllr Jon Hunt (Lib Dem) feared the temporary road diversions put in place would be inadequate.

He said: "We had a ward meeting where various people were talking about the big transport projects for Perry Barr including the proposed demolition of the flyover.

"Startling information came out of it (from a council officer) which is if they take out the flyover we would have two years of disruption on the roads because of the diversions put it.

"Frankly, local people have very little confidence that would be adequate.

"There would effectively be no access from the north, it would cut off a large chunk of the city."

The main component of the project is to deliver the athletes village on the former Birmingham City University campus in time for the Commonwealth Games in 2022.

The site will accommodate more than 6,000 athletes and officials for the event and then provide 1,400 permanent homes afterwards.

But significant improvements to local transport infrastructure are needed.

To view the petition, click here.