So, now we know . . . vehicles really are speeding through our area at a rate higher than ever imagined.
On one stretch of road, where the data-collection cables were yards from a school warning sign, more than 60 per cent of drivers were accelerating through the 30mph speed limit. This is outrageous.
We also discover that the poor people of Bordesley are suffering almost 140,000 vehicles a week zooming by as they struggle to get on to or off their drives.
For them, the failure to complete the bypass from the M42 to Redditch almost 20 years ago created a nightmare from which successive county councillors and highway officers have failed resoundingly to offer any relief.
At the other side of the M42, the people of Hopwood are consigned to the same fate – and it can only get worse for them as the new Longbridge begins to suck in traffic from around the region.
Meanwhile, the rat-run into south Birmingham will continue to blight Barnt Green and Cofton Hackett. Villagers in the latter will be feeling particularly bitter after promises more than 12 months ago of lower speed limits and calming measures have failed to materialise.
In the run-up to the county council elections back in May 2005, The Village ran a campaign asking the Alvechurch sitting councillor, George Lord, to make a public commitment to put traffic calming at the top of his election agenda.
Predictably, the only immediate effect was an angry phone call from Lord demanding to know who we thought we were . . . and then the Alvechurch electorate lamely ticked Tory once again and watched as nothing continued to happen.
But would you believe it? it’s the county elections again in May. Let’s not let this chance for effective representation slip away once again.
Readers would be forgiven for thinking we have returned to the days when you couldn’t peruse a newspaper without seeing a picture of the local MP – as someone remarked recently, the previous incumbent would turn up at the opening of an envelope.
We haven’t counted, but there are at least three pictures of our current esteemed Member in this issue of The Village. But it is nearly Christmas, after all, so we’re happy to extend a little goodwill.
Meanwhile, may we thank you for welcoming us into your homes (via your letterboxes) for the past year and wish you all a very Happy Christmas and prosperous New Year.