Gridlock blamed on new high rises

Mar 21 2007 By David Bell

A LEADING councillor has suggested Birmingham should ban more skyscrapers until it sorts out its growing traffic problems.

Scrutiny chief Coun Martin Mullaney hit out at the impact major developments were having on the city's congested road network after holding an inquiry into the latest gridlock hotspot - the St Chad's ring road.

The stretch has been cut from six lanes to two as part of the £400 million development of the city's tallest residential building, a 43-storey tower of 332 apartments and a 23-storey hotel.

Since the change, the area has been the scene of regular congestion with thousands of drivers stuck in barely moving traffic.

Coun Mullaney told officials: "This was once a very efficient traffic roundabout system and now we have something else entirely. "We want to understand what is happening. It seems the price of skyscrapers is congestion.

"Unless we do some major changes on transport should we be calling a moratorium on any more of these developments?"

Highway officials admitted the road system was "creaking" even though the amount of traffic entering the city had dropped ten per cent in ten years.

But traffic manager Alan Lloyd admitted capacity had eroded so much that it now only took a minor incident to trig-ger off gridlock.

Recently a broken down lorry on Paradise Circus had sparked a trail of traffic chaos which had even jammed up the motorway at Spaghetti Junction.