Having read the comments made on the traffic coming through Alvechurch in The Village magazine, I thought it was time to put pen to paper.
I have worked in The Square for over 30 years and lived in the village for 29 years. During this time I have seen the rise and fall of traffic though the village.
When I first started work at the butchers, they still drove sheep and cattle through the village to new pasture. The bypass and narrowing by The Swan have worked; the mini-roundabouts haven’t, to much confusion.
When they started the M42 in the early 1980s they put yellow lines down round The Square and village to stop cars parking and holding up the lorries coming thorough (does this not tell you something?)
We lost trade from local people and those passing through who couldn’t park any more. We complained about this and were told that the lines would be removed after the M42 was completed, then again when the bypass was completed. We are still waiting.
As for closing off the village – it would kill the shops as we do rely on passing trade. Many of our valued customers can only get to our shop by driving or being driven.
What we would like is the parking restrictions put back into The Square to stop people parking there all day, so that customers can pop in and out of the local shops and businesses.
Let’s keep the shops and small businesses the heart of our village and not make it a place where people come and reminisce about how it was.
The village shops are here to serve the village and the surrounding areas and to make a living, not just to make the village look pretty.
Paul Queen, Alvechurch