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Nothing short term for us...
Page 16
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A NEW pressure group has accused highway engineers of imposing road safety measures without properly considering the needs of business users.
The West Midlands Business Transport Group was set up so organisations such as the RHA and the CBI can speak with one voice on regional transport issues.
It aims to ensure their views are taken into account when the region's seven metropolitan councils submit a combined Local Transport Plan (LTP) to the government next year.
Group chairman Jerry Blackett says: "They are playing a very long game on the basis that if they build good quality public transport people will automatically stop using their cars. That's fine, but in the very short term there is nothing for business." He says some safety measures,
such as traffic lights at roundabouts, can be particularly disruptive: "It's hard for right-thinking people to oppose measures done in the name of safety but sometimes they are done almost on a whim."
David Bull, chairman of the region's Chief Engineers & Planning Officers Group, says the needs of business are already being taken into account in the LIT submission.