Brakes slammed on plans to shut A38 for Car Free Day

Aston Expressway

Birmingham City Council has slammed the brakes on its plans to hold a Car Free Day later this month.

It now plans to hold the event next spring, after seemingly realising that sometimes there is inclement weather in September.

The council said: “We are clear that this is a postponement, not a cancellation, and we will be announcing a new date soon – at a time when the weather has started to improve, bearing in mind that this will be an open air event.”

In June it announced plans to hold an event on the A38 Aston Expressway on Sunday, September 22, which is International Car Free Day.

A one-mile stretch of the key route was to close as part of an initiative between Birmingham City Council, The Active Wellbeing Society and the Sport England-funded Active Communities Local Delivery Pilot Programme.

However the council has been forced to postpone the event after realising “there are a number of outstanding issues that are not going to be addressable in time for the event to take place at the end of September as planned”.

It is the second postponement of an environmental initiative in Birmingham after the planned Clean Air Zone, which was due to come into force next January, was delayed for at least six months because the technology was not going to be ready in time.

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