We are asking you to sign to support the Handsworth Wood Residents Association Brum Breathes Bid for local traffic calming in our area.

People living in Handsworth Wood Ward have long been affected by speeding vehicles rat running through residential areas, and ineffectual road layouts. Pedestrians and children fear crossing roads and walking to school or to their local park. In an area which is home to so many families, this is unacceptable.

Handsworth Wood Residents’ Association has applied to the Council for Brum Breathes Funding to create a 20 mile an hour zone to traffic calm an area at the centre of the road network in the Ward. Local residents on the roads proposed for the scheme have signed a petition in support. We are now asking residents in the wider neighbourhood to support our Bid.

Brum Breathes Funding is designed to reduce congestion, emissions and traffic volumes by encouraging better use of main arterial roads by traffic passing through the area. By freeing local roads of this speeding through-traffic local walking and cycling and active leisure become more possible.

The traffic calming we are proposing will discourage rat running at speed through residential roads, making them safer for families and the air cleaner. The roads affected by the proposed Scheme are right at the heart of the highway network across the Ward: College Road, Windermere Road, Somerset Rd, Cornwall Road, Devonshire Road, Selborne Road and Endwood Court Road. All are on major pedestrian routes to local schools and most journeys in the Ward involve passing near these roads.

The calming measures proposed are: clear 20mph signage, with a few speed bumps on Somerset Road, Devonshire Road and Windermere Road, a kerbed traffic island at the end of Endwood Court Road to act as a pedestrian refuge, and a one-way system on the narrow Slack Lane where our famous Grade II listed Handsworth Old Town Hall is located.

This won’t solve all the traffic issues in the Ward but is a start which we hope we and others can build on.

What have we done so far?

• We have worked with the Birmingham City Council’s Highways team to make sure that the scheme meets all the technical requirements.
• The Council’s Brum Breathes team have confirmed that our Bid complies with the Brum Breathes funding requirements too.
• A well-attended Handsworth Wood Ward Forum in July 2024 voted very overwhelmingly for our proposed Brum Breathes scheme.

However, the Handsworth Wood Ward Councillors at the time of posting this have not yet approved the scheme. Without their support this the Bid cannot proceed.

We want our area to be safe for pedestrians including children and cyclists, and for all our residential streets to have good air quality. Residents on these roads have already signed a petition on support of our Bid.

We are asking you to sign this petition too to show that we have the support of the wider Handsworth Wood Ward and neighbourhood.

[Image: Significant crash on College Road, 25/07/24 ]