Residents in Great Barr have expressed their frustration as speed bumps have been installed on a road where numerous potholes remain unaddressed.
One local business owner on Booths Lane said that the council had ignored four large potholes but paved new speed bumps that hadn’t slowed traffic, reports the Express & Star.
He said: “I haven’t seen them slow down. I think it’s a waste of money, and we pay for it, we’re the taxpayer. The council is supposed to have no money. We’re paying for this and it isn’t doing the job.”
The speed bump on Booths Lane in the Oscott/Great Barr area were installed by Birmingham City Council after consultations that began in late 2025. Local campaigners Alex Hall and Charlotte Whitehouse have both called for speed bumps because of drivers that repeatedly broke the speed limit.
In a social media post in March on Facebook, Alex Hall and Charlotte Whitehouse stressed the importance for their campaign to raise more speed bumps on Booths Lane and Sandy Lane.
Hall said to residents:
“We’re out on Booths Lane today [and] one of the things that we’ve been campaigning for quite a long time is to get speed bumps on Booths Lane and also on Sandy Lane. This is a big issue around Booths Farm, because of the speeding cars.”
A Birmingham City Council spokesperson said:
“We assess all highway network defects using a defined risk matrix to ensure a consistent and proportionate response to repairs. Like many highway authorities, we have experienced a significant increase in both reactive repairs and planned maintenance activity across the network since the start of 2026.
“The newly installed traffic calming features referenced are part of a separate scheme currently being developed and delivered outside of routine highway maintenance activities.
“Our teams are working at pace to prioritise and address defects based on safety risk and network condition, alongside an extensive programme of ongoing works scheduled across Birmingham. We will continue to monitor the condition of the road, taking appropriate action where issues meet our intervention criteria.”
(Picture: Artist’s impression/Highways News)
