{"id":37979,"date":"2025-04-21T09:39:18","date_gmt":"2025-04-21T09:39:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/37979\/"},"modified":"2025-04-21T09:39:18","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T09:39:18","slug":"ex-police-chief-says-people-selling-up-on-solihull-road-as-lives-put-at-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/37979\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex police chief says people selling up on Solihull road as ‘lives put at risk’"},"content":{"rendered":"

‘We need action’, speeding campaigners say after car flipped in Solihull road\"CouncillorCouncillor Samantha Gethen and Church Hill Road resident Mike Doyle(Image: Sam Greenway LDR)<\/p>\n

A former police chief says speeding students \u201cshowing off\u201d in his road will lead to lives being lost if action is not taken.<\/p>\n

Mike Doyle, a former chief superintendent at West Midlands Police<\/a>, lives in a stretch of Church Hill Road near Solihull<\/a> town centre which he says is regularly being blighted by the menace of \u201cfeckless\u201d speeding drivers.<\/p>\n

Things came to ahead after a recent incident in which a car flipped onto its roof, demolishing two trees and smashing into a lamppost – witnessed by parents with young children.<\/p>\n

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Mr Doyle said: \u201cIt’s been going on for years but has reached a crisis point over the last 12 months.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been numerous incidents, dangerous is an understatement – we are trying to get significant traffic calming and change attitudes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey (Solihull Sixth Form College students) turn out of the college and speed up in excess of 50mph.<\/p>\n

“They are showing off in front of their friends, saying \u2018look at me\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Doyle said he wanted to see the police take more action including confiscating the cars involved.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went to the police (about the incidents) – I\u2019m an ex-cop and got a shrug of the shoulders,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no road assessment of the data because it\u2019s not being captured – they want mangled bodies (before they will act).\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Doyle said it was a \u201clovely\u201d area to live in but speeding had got so bad residents were putting up their houses for sale.<\/p>\n

(Image: Mike Doyle)<\/p>\n

The lamppost damaged in the recent crash has been replaced with a new one that has a \u201cSpeed kills, slow down\u201d sign, and “Slow” has been painted on the road.<\/p>\n

But Mr Doyle says that is not working to slow drivers down in the stretch between the junctions for Witley Avenue and Whitefields Road.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpeed bumps would stop them flying around coming round the blind bend – it is not a difficult problem to solve,” Mr Doyle added.<\/p>\n

Councillor Samantha Gethen, who represents the St Alphege ward the stretch is in, said: \u201cWe are trying to look at it from all angles, education, traffic calming, anything we can to stop the danger.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout the necessary data it’s difficult to make the case for stronger, more targeted interventions, even when the local community can clearly see the risks and consequences unfolding day-to-day.\u201d<\/p>\n

The councillor said Solihull Council<\/a> is looking at introducing a 20mph speed limit near St Alphege Junior School, but if implemented that wouldn\u2019t cover this particular stretch where drivers come down the hill and speed.<\/p>\n

(Image: Sam Greenway LDR)<\/p>\n

At the last full meeting of Solihull Council – where Mr Doyle raised the issues – Councillor Ken Hawkins, the authority\u2019s cabinet portfolio holder for environment and infrastructure, said: “Solihull roads are the safest in the West Midlands, one of the safest in the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat doesn\u2019t make things right when you have people racing recklessly and causing people\u2019s safety to be at risk.”<\/p>\n

The councillor said he would raise the issues with police, adding: \u201cWe will be taking this further.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Image: Sam Greenway LDR)<\/p>\n

A West Midlands Police spokesperson said: “We do collect data on serious collisions and deaths on the road across the whole West Midlands Police force area.<\/p>\n

“This data is reviewed and used to inform our patrols and operations.<\/p>\n

“In the West Midlands we have set the goal to reduce road deaths and serious injury by 50 per cent by 2030 and to zero by 2040.”<\/p>\n

Inspector Tom Clayton, from Solihull Local Policing Area previously said: “We’ve been working with partners and carrying out proactive patrols and operations.<\/p>\n

“This partnership approach is vital and involves everyone from local speedwatch groups to the local authority and colleagues from our roads policing unit.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone concerned about speeding and dangerous driving can report it to us via 101.\u201d<\/p>\n

Solihull Sixth Form College was contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"‘We need action’, speeding campaigners say after car flipped in Solihull roadCouncillor Samantha Gethen and Church Hill Road…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37980,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,748,2266,393,4884,8919,16,15,7830],"class_list":{"0":"post-37979","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-education","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-solihull-council","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-west-midlands-police"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114375292588864917","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}