Residents living along the proposed route of the A34 Sprint bus lane are 'still in the dark' over the plans - despite being told that their concerns would be addressed nearly three months ago.

Back in March the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) announced that it would be making a series of changes to the route between Walsall and Birmingham.

This was largely in response to a sustained campaign by residents living along the Walsall Road.

Among the points of contention for the group was the planned removal of parking bays along the Walsall Road, as well as claims that residents had not been properly consulted over the route.

The changes included a pledge to retain the 'majority of parking between Perry Barr and Scott Arms', as well as promising 'ongoing engagement with residents and businesses' as the plans evolved.

How the Sprint bus could look on the A45
How the Sprint bus could look on the A45

However local woman Annette Pereira, who heads up the A34 Safety Action Group, says that she and other residents are still in the dark over plans for the route.

"As far as Transport for West Midlands goes, you know they promised that they would give us some opportunity to sit down with them and have an influence, and that just hasn’t happened," she said.

"We're still very much in the dark.

"There was a meeting that we had planned for last week, it was the 6th of June, and we invited them along.

"But we just had a response saying it isn’t appropriate to meet because they haven't got anything to tell us that would make a meaningful discussion, because they’re still doing some work through June.

"And we've had nothing else. They’ve said that the Sprint team will be in touch in due course but we’re in June now. I mean first of all they said it would be April/May, so they’ve gone back on their promise really so everybody along the road still don't know what's going on.

"There's a lovely lady who lives down the road with an autistic son, and she is at her wits end because she still doesn’t know what's going on – if they can go back on their promises like this, who knows, they might just carry on and do whatever they want to anyway because they seem to be all-powerful. So yes, that's where we are.

"But I’m damned if I’m gonna give into them. In one email I actually told them I’m stepping back because I have health issues, partly due to the fact that this campaign has been extremely stressful.

Members of the A34 Action group, including Annette Pereira, with MP Khalid Mahmood.
Members of the A34 Action group, including Annette Pereira, with MP Khalid Mahmood.

"And it's true. There's a lot of people suffering from anxiety, sheer worry about what is going to happen in the future. It’s not fair to keep people hanging on like this forever.

"Cause it seems to me as thought they’re just deciding amongst themselves what bits of Birmingham to carve up and how to behave, and then they’re just riding roughshod over ordinary people who are absolutely terrified of the prospect of how they’re going to get to work or from work.

"I believe they think because we thought we’d won, if you like, that we were just going to go away. Well we aren't."

A spokesperson for the WMCA said: “As we said earlier this year, we are committed to ongoing engagement with communities as we progress each of the Sprint schemes, through development, construction and delivery.

“As agreed the next of our quarterly updates will be released by the end of June. We are currently undertaking a substantial redesign of the A34  scheme after listening to the feedback from communities.”