Parents in a Birmingham suburb have called on future leaders in the city to take urgent action amid a ‘road rage nightmare’ in their neighbourhood. The city council, which currently has no political leadership, previously introduced divisive Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN) measures in Kings Heath to cut traffic in residential neighbourhoods and make streets safer.
But the project has been engulfed by controversy for some time, with the use of modal filters, which keep through-traffic from certain streets, being particularly contentious. Those in favour of the scheme have raised fears over dangerous driving and air pollution. Opponents are concerned about accessibility, operational need for local businesses, and increased journey distances for some properties.
So far, modal filters have been introduced to the west of Kings Heath High Street and a section of York Road has been pedestrianised. But there was both fury and relief when Birmingham Council, led by Labour at the time, revealed earlier this year that the proposals for the scheme’s second phase needed to be “revised”. In particular, it said there needed to be a “focus on deterring rather than restricting vehicular traffic movements in the area”.
Political Shift After Local Elections
Since then, last month’s local elections saw Labour lose control of the council and the fracturing of Birmingham’s politics, which meant no party had the numbers needed for an overall majority. Talks have been taking place in recent weeks to form a coalition which could lead the city – and it’s possible the Greens, who gained the two seats in the Brandwood and Kings Heath ward, could play a role in an incoming administration.
Prior to the elections, the Green Party candidates in the ward said they were “committed” to delivering phase two of the LTN despite acknowledging the concerns. “Having grown up in Kings Heath, we understand the long-standing traffic and road safety issues here,” Jordan Phillip and Hamzah Sheikh said in a statement. “We are committed to working with residents to make our roads safer with whatever measures work best and has resident support.”
“Specifically on LTN phase two, we recognise that some residents have concerns about details of the project, and we will work closely with them to address these concerns. But we remain committed to delivering phase two, as promised to residents for many years.”
Call for Urgent Action
In the build-up to the elections, Birmingham Green Party leader Coun Julien Pritchard also suggested there was a ‘war on pedestrians’ and said he wanted to see safer streets and community-led solutions. With Green councillors in Kings Heath and the party possibly being involved in a coalition, the future leadership of the council is being urged to address road safety fears “as quickly as possible”.
“The election result in Brandwood and Kings Heath demonstrates the massive scale of local support for the LTN,” mum Katie Day argued. “It’s time to move on from the manufactured idea that this scheme is ‘controversial’, and start delivering the safer streets that the majority of residents are crying out for. I’m looking forward to working with Green Councillors Phillip and Sheikh to move plans forward as quickly as possible to address the daily nightmare of rat-running and road rage we are enduring on our neighbourhood roads.”
Fellow resident Mike Jerome claimed that residents “suffer a constant fear of random and unexpected harms”. “Speed limits are routinely ignored,” he said. “Residents in this neighbourhood are subjected to intolerable behaviours, massively affecting their quality of life and health.” He said this included road rage, fist fights and horns blaring throughout the day.
“We expect our elected councillors to deliver on their election promises,” Mr Jerome added. “Along with the Transport Plan, the Road Harm Reduction Strategy and the Clean Air Strategy to ensure that our streets, our neighbourhoods and our city are healthy, safe and desirable places to live.”
Contentious Project Acknowledged
Earlier this year, Coun Majid Mahmood – the Labour cabinet member for transport at the time – defended the move to ‘revise’ the LTN plans. “I remain confident that this … is the right step forward for this project,” he told a meeting. “We’re very aware that this project is contentious and creates a large volume of correspondence from people with very different views.” He went on to say however that controversy “should not in itself prevent us moving forward”.
“Officers have worked extremely hard to explore every possible route to find a way forward,” Coun Mahmood said. “This [decision] does not mark the end of that effort, it acknowledges that a new first principles approach is required.”
There are others however who argue there are valid reasons to oppose the LTN – around 2,800 people have joined a Facebook group to discuss concerns as of June 2026. Coun Robert Alden, Conservative group leader in Birmingham, even pledged that the LTN would be scrapped if the Tories took control following the local elections.
“What we’re seeing here is the council trying to spend millions of pounds on a scheme the residents have said they’re against,” he said. “We want to see local communities being empowered to have the schemes they want in their local area. It’s astonishing it’s taken a Damascus conversion at the final moment, weeks before polling day, for the Labour administration to realise they should be listening to residents, rather than trying to force things on them.”
Asked about the Kings Heath locals who are in favour of the LTN amid concerns over pollution and dangerous driving, Coun Alden argued: “The solution to cleaner air is not to force one group of people to take all the pollution for everyone else.”
