West Midlands NO! Campaign

Advantage West Midlands (AWM), the unelected regional development agency, has made the biggest single “investment” of any of England’s regional development agencies by putting £100m into the refurbishment of New Street Station.

The refurbishment is costing the taxpayer £400m but will not increase the capacity of the station.  Because the approach to Birmingham New Street is below ground, the 6 lines into the station cannot be increased and will continue to be a bottleneck even after £400m has been spent tarting up the building.

According to the AWM press release, Councillor Mike Whitby said “The West Midlands spoke with one voice and we thank people for backing this important bid for funding”.  I very much doubt that people in Stafford or Hereford or Shrewsbury would have been in favour of spending £100m of their taxes on a train station in Birmingham.  But they wouldn’t ever be asked though because when AWM talk about the West Midlands speaking with one voice and people backing it what they actually mean is that the “business community” in and around Birmingham wants it which is all that matters to AWM.

Mick Laverty, the unelected acting Chief Executive of AWM, said “We know how important this project is to the region - that’s why we’ve made the biggest single investment in a regeneration scheme by any regional development agency in the country”.  I’m not entirely sure what importance the quality of the shops in New Street station is to the “region” outside of the Birmingham area.  And one of the important things about an investment is that your investment make a return.  How much money do AWM intend to make out of this investment and when can we, the taxpayer, expect to see any of those profits returned into our pockets?