National Express petition handover

I was in Digbeth earlier with Labour’s Allens Cross candidate Seb Lovell-Huckle to hand over the 61 bus petition and make the positive case for retaining the direct service to Birmingham.

Thank you to the hundreds of people who signed the petition. These are some of the comments you shared:

“I relied on the 61 to get to and from work safely … [now] I often have to walk for 20+ minutes alone in the dark (finish work very late) and it makes me feel unsafe.”

“[This] will make it harder visiting elderly parents on other side of the city as it now means three buses instead of two.”

We’re clear that these communities need a direct bus to Birmingham. I also raised the recent changes to other services, like the X20.

We’re keeping up the pressure, including as Birmingham transitions to a regulated bus service - subject to public accountability for the first time in nearly 40 years.