After posting the question on twitter, I recieved a massive response.

Only ten of the responses made it onto the map, on local nurse and cycling enthusiast, whose location made it onto the map, Joanne Street said:

“It’s hard to believe the magnificent spaces we have right on our very doorstep, I try to take advantage of that whenever I can. Having the Lickey Hill’s less that 5 minutes away on my bike with work just 15 minutes away, its a whole world that more and more people should explore.”

With local beauty spots such as Woodgate Valley Country Park (pictured) and Sutton Park right at the heart of built up areas people should be encouraged more to go out and experience these green open spaces that are so near.

The map is viewable here.

Users of the Birmingham Cyclist website have deemed parts of the route poor, which is part of a £1.3 billion redevelopment of Selly Oak.

One user has expressed dismay at the ‘slalom’ of signage posts which extend down one of the 1.5 metre wide cycle lanes, eluding to poor planning by Birmingham City Council.

Another posted about the roundabout near Harborne Lane offering ‘poor visibility’ and inconveniently placed crossings for cyclists.

However there are some better thoughts on the new road, some uninterupted cycle paths, routes through the University and the avoidance of the roundabout on the opposite route on Harborne Lane – Chord Lane – are deemed good.

“Incentives are a small step in the right direction and we are glad that the council recognise that we need to increase recycling rates. It is a shame that this has to be done through Nectar, meaning more money going into big chain stores rather than local, independent shops who tend to have a better record of using less packaging and producing less waste.

Generally, we need to reduce the complexity of recycling and collect more recyclable waste more often to ensure it doesn’t go into black bags and get burned instead.

Councils need to reduce the frequency of black bag waste collections so long as they increase the frequency of recycling collections and collect food waste every week. What is crucial is that people understand that recycling does save councils a lot of money, which in turn saves the tax-payer a lot of money.

Birmingham Friends of the Earth have been calling for the amount of rubbish in black bags to be halved through food waste collections and better kerbside recycling.”

The scheme is being piloted in in these areas with the hopes to roll it out to over 400,000 households across the city.

In the first scheme of its kind in Britain, up to 4,500 homes are to benefit from the reward which according to a council spokesman will earn households 25 point per collection. Residents will be given a barcode sticker to attach to their recycling bins which will be scanned by recycling collectors upon each visit.

The innovative scheme is being demonsrated today on the streets of Cotteridge by Councillor Tim Huxtable and Nectar Client Development Director Will Shuckburgh, with points also being earned at leisure centre visits across the city.

Councillor Timothy Huxtable, Cabinet Member for Transport, Environment and Regeneration at Birmingham City Council, said:

“Increasing public participation in recycling is a key objective for both the City Council and future of the city as a whole, so we are delighted to have teamed up with such a prominent partner as Nectar to promote this initiative.

This is a real win-win project for all, as the more that people recycle, not only will they be helping to save the environment, but the more opportunity they will get to reward themselves.”

Will Shuckburgh from Nectar said:

“Using Nectar points to reward residents for environmentally-friendly behaviour is a great initiative and we’re excited to be working with Birmingham City Council to implement this scheme, ultimately hoping to make the city a greener place. Many people may already be recycling so by signing-up to the new initiative they will be rewarded with points to spend on a range of treats for relatively little extra effort.”

The scheme will be funded through the West Midlands Improvement and Efficiency Partnership and not directly from council tax funds. Nectar points can be redeemed at stores such as Sainsbury’s, Argos and Homebase

Read a statement by Birmingham Friends of the Earth on the scheme.

The petition urges the council to, alongside its current collections, add a separate collection from homes for food waste. Friends of the Earth believe that if Birmingham were to follow cities such as Swansea and Leeds, collections would reduce the amount of vermin in the city as well as possibly halving the amount of rubbish sent to landfill or incinerators.

Whilst the issue of vermin would be reduced, the food waste would then be composted en masse, locking up carbon and avoiding sending the waste to landfill where it produces methane in decomposition, which is argued as being the worst greenhouse gas.

Joe Peacock of Birmingham FoE said:

“If it can be kept separate, the remaining dry wastes can mostly be recycled. Both components could become a resource instead of a problem. Birmingham’s recycling rate could be doubled by 2020, and our rubbish mountain halved, or better. In fact this has to happen if the City Council’s own target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 60% is to be met.”

Currently a large proportion of waste from Birmingham homes is incinerated or sent to landfill, however the city council has made improvements in recent years on paper and plastics collections which have increased the amount of rubbish recycled and the council are already meeting its current targets on reducing carbon emissions. There are further plans to incentivise some forms of recycling which are to be announced next week.

A spokesman for Birmingham City Council said:

“At the moment we have no plans to add another collection alongside the ones we already have, we believe that it is cost prohibitive to include another collection from households, and we do believe that the best solution to this is that people compost at home. We do actively encourage people to compost their food waste at home, by teaming up with evergreener.com we now offer discount composters and wormeries, as well as bargain priced water butts.”

However the e-petition is still open and Friends of the Earth have said that this food waste could be better used by waste companies such as Biogen which has a number of plants in the Midlands.

These plants turn such waste into fertiliser to spread on fields, and gas, which is used to heat buildings or to generate electricity.

The petition is available to sign here, but if you are interested in composting at home then discount composters are available here.

The bicycle trains, designed to create a safety in numbers approach to commuting within the city are to start on September 22. The groups are recruiting experienced cyclists to lead the rides which will pass through 5 of the city’s major arterial routes on In Town Without My Car Day.

John Bennett of Push Bikes hopes it will get more commuters on their bikes, he said: “we need to show that cycling on main roads can be safe and enjoyable.”

Arriving at a cyclists breakfast in Victoria Square, Friends of the Earth says that the trains will work in much the same was as “walking buses”, which have been successful for school children.

Joe Peacock of BFoE said: “We have seen this working along busy routes in other towns, so it seems like a perfect way of creating a buzz around cycling into Birmingham.”

Congestion and traffic related pollution are also a targets of the rides if they are a success, as reduced traffic will lower CO2 emissions.

Rachel Vann of Sustrans added “This is a great opportunity for those considering cycling to work to have a go whilst being safely led by experienced and qualified ride leaders. There are some fantastic Sustrans NCN routes into the city which many people don’t know about, so this is a great way to discover them. Cycling to work is a great way to fit some exercise in to your day, helping people to keep healthy.”

Birmingham Friends of the Earth will shortly be setting up a website for people or groups to register their interest in taking part and to help them find a suitable route.

The gathering, organised by resident and academic Miles Weaver had found the mob behaviour “disgusting”. Using the hashtags #riotcleanup and #wearebrum the message to meet at Birmingham’s icon, ‘the Bull’at 10am were retweeted hundreds of times, with London cleanup operations allowing the tag to trend on Twitter.

Local resident George Hetherington who witnessed destruction and muggings from the safety of his apartment told us of his shock and awe at the troubles he saw.

A primary school teacher and resident of Birmingham’s Gay Village which has been recently seen environmental improvements, Mr Hetherington said:

“It has taken us many years to improve the quality of this city, particularly the areas around Hurst Street, that was a battle in itself, and to see it being attacked overnight is sickening.”

He added:

“I’m so proud that local residents, neighbours, and even people from as far outside the city as Bromsgrove have come to show their solidarity, we can’t let these youths ruin the wonderful city which has taken so long to start regenerating.”

It revealed 155,059 tonnes of CO2 had been cut – exceeding the target of 130,000 tonnes with data coming from Birmingham’s Environmental Partnership of 33 organisations across all sectors.

The figures, independently verified by the Energy Savings Trust represent a cut of almost 400,000 tonnes of carbon since 2008.

Cllr Paul Tilsley, Deputy Leader of Birmingham City Council, said:

“To meet our ambitious targets for the third successive year is a tribute in itself to the efforts of everyone across the city who has made a contribution to cut carbon emissions.

“Our focus on improving sustainability will continue as the benefits are huge – a cleaner and greener environment along with increased opportunities for business in emerging technologies to develop here in Birmingham.”

Many businesses and public organisations have been involved in the task of reducing Birmingham’s carbon footprint, the NEC, Cadbury’s and Birmingham Children’s Hospital have all implemented energy saving lighting which have reduced both their costs and their carbon.

Image (C) Birmingham City Council News Room

With a weekend of fun and frolics now over, the Mardi Gras themed on ‘Equality over the Decades’ was enjoyed by an estimated 80,000 people who visited the city for the events, myself being one of them.

However, there was, when leaving the night clubs at 6am a noticeable difference with previous Gay Pride events.

An unusually high amount of waste and rubbish – particularly recyclable rubbish – left on the streets surrounding the Gay Village, resembling a ghost town.

A Street Waste Collection worker for Birmingham City Council, Matthew Clifford said:

“The waste this year is massive, I’ve been here for two years and it hasn’t been this bad before”

His thoughts resembled my own as in previous years there was an emphasis on recycling, particularly with the plastic glasses all were required to use for safety purposes.

For the previous three years, recycled polycarbonate glasses have been used for which revellers paid a £1 deposit which when redeemed would see the glass recycled and not left on the streets.

Although this scheme was running at this years event, take up was limited due to lack of publicity and awareness with bars and clubs also preferring to serve in single use plastic glasses.

Adam Kennedy, General Manager of one of Birmingham’s most popular nightclubs in the LGBT community DV8 said:

“Though we do support recycling and have our own policies to recycle throughout the year, the gay pride weekend saw us receive many complaints about the deposit scheme.”

He also said:

“We did enforce the scheme, however we did offer the disposable alternative for the customers who wished not to re-use glasses.”

Nobody directly from the Gay Pride Committee was available to comment.

A map showing some of the waste around the streets of the gay village is viewable here. If anybody has further images to add to the map please do get in touch.

The plans will see the line extend from Snow Hill Station near the Jewellery Quarter area of the City to the newly rebuilt New Street Station by 2015.

The new line and improvements to the service, including new trams, will cost over £125 million and is expected to forge a path through the busy Bull Street and Corporation Street to connect the two main city centre stations of the City. It will also have four new stops at Snow Hill, Bull Street, Corporation Street and Stephenson Street.

With the 1.4km of extra track it is hoped that congestion in the City Centre will subside. It is, according to the Telegraph, Birmingham is one of the worst places for commuters with the average commute taking over 52 minutes.

With Hs2 only recently announced, the Government are eager to see through the plans which could lead to the creation of over 1500 jobs as a benefit of better travel in the region.

Fewer cars on the city streets and more people choosing public transport should not only mean less stress and road rage and more opportunities for the city but fewer carbon emissions and a better environment.

Click here to find detailed plans of proposed metro routes for the West Midlands.