º£½ÇÊÓÆµ

Oops.

Our website is temporarily unavailable in your location.

We are working hard to get it back online.

PRIVACY
Economic Development

Acocks Green protesters fear historic district will split

Another backlash over proposals by Local Government Boundary Commission to redraw Birmingham's political map with new council wards

Protest over Boundary Commission plans for the new Acocks Green council ward

Residents and councillors have staged a protest over plans to split the centre of a historic Birmingham district into different council wards.

Parts of the centre of Acocks Green, including the police station, the baptist church and a row of Edwardian shops, will be in the new Yardley West council ward under proposals from the Local Government Boundary Commission.

The commission unveiled a new political map of Birmingham three weeks ago which has sparked Longbridge and Hall Green after they found their communities divided.

Now, Acocks Green has joined the chorus of anger and is calling on their community to be reunited when the commission reviews its proposals next year.

Campaigners said, while the vibrant shopping centre and village green would remain in Acocks Green ward, the new boundary would place the older part of the village in neighbouring Yardley East - meaning community issues would need to be dealt with by different councillors and officers.

Julia Larden, of Acocks Green Focus Group, said: "It is clear that these faceless bureaucrats in London have no understanding of how Birmingham works.

"We are a community of urban villages. To break up our village and to make it harder for us to work together to protect it is insensitive and stupid beyond belief."

Acocks Green Neighbourhood Forum chairman David Treadwell added: "These actions are most arbitrary, which are only in the interests of the administrators."