It is the privilege of my life to represent the new constituency of Hodge Hill and Solihull North in the new parliament. And down in Westminster, I’ve wasted no time getting down to business, pushing forward with the plans I pledged to deliver during the election campaign.
I have urged the new Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, to provide investment in a new A&E and maternity unit for Heartlands Hospital; I have met the new Transport Secretary, Lou Haigh, to ask her for help in building a new business park next to the HS2 sites to host thousands of local jobs; and I have asked the new Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, for her support in boosting local police teams to help fight knife crime, speeding and drugs.
I’ve also invited the new Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Liz Kendall, to Birmingham to listen to community groups and parents about tackling child poverty.
Locally, I’ve met the brilliant teams at Solihull Citizens Advice and the Elmwood Family Hub; out on the streets, I’ve held my first pop-up gazebo surgeries outside Smith’s Wood school and on the Chester Road; and I’ve dispatched letters to every resident with my contact details and a survey on your priorities.
But there’s one campaign that I’m going to put centre-stage after what I heard and saw while walking 250 miles around the patch during the election. And that is the need to combat the curse of speeding.
Everywhere I went I heard about the horror of accidents (or nearly-accidents), the fear caused – especially to children – by speeding cars and the horrible noise of racing.
Let’s be clear. This is dangerous – and often criminal – behaviour. In 2022 (the last year for which we have data), there were 296 casualties reported in our constituency area.
This can’t go on.
So, I’m asking West Midlands Police to work with me and residents to tackle speeding. To be fair, the police have got the message. Our local inspector has already been in touch to say, “Road harm reduction is a priority for West Midlands Police.” But, until we take action to stop the four main causes of road accidents – speeding, using mobile phones, lack of seatbelts, and drink/drug driving –we won’t solve the problem.
Nationally, there are some interesting proposals to improve the safety on our roads, for instance, introducing Graduated Driver Licensing, which supports young drivers by limiting high-risk driving situations, a measure proven to reduce casualties from collisions involving 17- to 19-year-old drivers by between 20% and 40%. What do you think? Would this type of action help?
But locally, we know the police can’t be everywhere all the time. So, we will need a partnership between police and residents to make progress, to train residents to use handheld speed detectors.
So, if you’d like to be part of this new dialogue with police, our council and our mayor then drop me a line – or jump onto my survey here. It would be brilliant to have you on board.
