Freight association warns of substantial costs to city centre businesses from transport action plan
THE Freight Transport Association has warned that Birmingham’s new transport action plan could add substantial costs to doing business in the city centre.
The Birmingham Mobility Action Plan (BMAP) is a 25-year vision for the future of the city’s transport system. If given the go ahead it could see a radical shift in how transport works across Birmingham.
The ideas put forward include 300km of new mass transit routes, measures to improve road safety, investment in walking and cycling infrastructure and measures to reduce the impact of freight.
The city council has said the plans will improve road safety, reduce carbon emissions and cut congestion.
Sally Gilson, FTA Policy Manager – Midlands said: “Encouraging modal shift from private cars to public transport is a step in the right direction, however I am concerned that plans for low emission zones would cause substantial costs for industry. With regards to any possible city road charging, freight is an essential road movement and should therefore be exempt.”
The FTA said it wanted clarity with regards to the Green Freight Initiatives and City Core Low Emission Zone.
“The schemes within London have come at substantial cost to businesses and any uptake of similar schemes in Birmingham would have a significant cost implication,” added Ms Gibson.
She said encouraging a change in mode switch to reduce the number of private car journeys on the road network was a positive step to helping ease the congestion issues however, she said the FTA remained cautions that this could be at the detriment to road share for freight movements, and any reduction in road share could hinder congestion and increase pollution.
“As a whole FTA welcomes the focus on transport issues and congestion included within Birmingham City Centre with the launch of the Birmingham Mobility Action Plan and has said that it is pleased that the BMAP states it will ensure that measures to improve efficiency and movement of people across the city also has a positive impact on the movement of goods,” added Ms Gibson.
