Businesses hit hard as Walsall Sprint bus work is branded 'unmitigated disaster'

Walsall Council leader Mike Bird said works being carried out by Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) were poorly planned and were costing businesses thousands, resulting in the authority being hit with a deluge of complaints.

Sprint will run along the A34 from Birmingham, through Great Barr and onto Walsall and include routes to Solihull and the airport.

The tram-like vehicles have been promised to be more reliable, frequent and a greener mode of transport, also helping to ease congestion.

Officers from TfWM presented a progress update on phase one of the scheme to a meeting of the authority’s Scrutiny Overview Committee on Monday (December 12).

But committee member Councillor Suky Samra and Councillor Bird said residents were fed up with the delays the project is causing.

Councillor Samra said: “Walsall has been dug up in every possible aspect it can be done and none of these sites are finished.

“Residents ring us and say ‘Walsall is gridlocked, do officers go to sleep at night thinking what are we going to do next just to make our lives a misery?’

“I got stuck on Town Hill. Is there any work going on? No. I’ve been up and down there and there is no work.

“Why has your team decided to dig up every possible bus stop you intend to install and not complete any of them before moving on to the next?”

Councillor Bird said: “This has been an unmitigated disaster from day one.

“I’m not a bus lover but believe me the road works and the gridlock and the despair our residents and businesses have encountered is nothing short of disgraceful.

“I’ve seen on many occasions (the sign) ‘we’re sorry for the inconvenience but the improvements will be here long after we’ve gone’. Well, the quicker you’re gone the better.

“I’ve made many complaints to TfWM because we, Walsall Council, are the people who are getting the blame.

“It has been an absolute nightmare. I can’t make too fine a point of saying every officer in my highways department are sick and tired of getting complaints because of the way this has been handled.”

In response, Angela Hosford, head of Sprint development, Transport for West Midlands, said: “Before we start the works, we try and do a lot of exploratory works to look at utilities and statutory undertakings that may or may not be under the surface.

“Quite often when we take the surface off we find there are things there we need to manage and design around and that doesn’t always lend itself to a quick process.

“A lot of the statutory (services) – if it's live electrics, gas works or water – we’ve got to be very careful about how we manage our work around those.

“Not only do they have a direct hazard or danger for those doing the work, they’d also have an impact on residents or properties in that vicinity.

“So if you see we’ve taken the top off and it doesn’t look like there is much going on, that’s not in anybody's interest and it is certainly not in ours as a delivery programme either.

“We’re trying to work as quickly as we can to resolve and if there are any particular locations causing particular concern we can deal with those on a site-specific basis.

“Another element of this for us is safety. We need to make sure the traffic management works safely and rolls out in a way that protects the workforce, access to property so sometimes we have to take a little more space than might appear necessary.

“A lot of what we’re doing is not us just going wild and free. We are under the scrutiny of the highways authority and is supervised.

“We can’t just do what we want, it's got to be done in a way deemed to be safe, appropriate and minimising disruption as much as we can.”