Founded in 2008. The Landscape Juice Network (LJN) is the largest and fastest growing professional landscaping and horticultural association in the United Kingdom.
LJN's professional business forum is unrivalled and open to anyone within within the UK landscape industry
LJN's Business Objectives Group (BOG) is for any Pro serious about building their business.
For the researching visitor there's a wealth of landscaping ideas, garden design ideas, lawn advice tips and advice about garden maintenance.
Replies
Sorry, A4540 Ringway
Nightmare for me. I do about 1 and a half days which involve driving through the city to the South side. The ring road is always congested and the A38 was designed with flyovers and tunnels to take it directly under the city. ( Which it does efficiently in a few minutes). This coupled with the ridiculous idea of knocking down the A34 flyover convinces me that the city is run by halfwits with no idea of business. How on Earth does causing more congestion on the ring road equate to cleaner air? I'm inclined to just drop the work. I also think anyone considering running a business in the city centre will be thinking again. Face facts, Brum's loss will be other's gain.
That’s only half the story.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-51088499
I'm very aware of my carbon footprint and working constantly towards improving it. What will not help, however, is forcing commercial vehicles to take a lengthy detour around the city, involving numerous roundabouts and traffic lights, when there is an efficient through road, much of which is in tunnels. Just imagine the congestion this will cause. If it is really about air quality then I would suggest there are far more people living and working around the ring road than anywhere near the A38 tunnels. The suggested £8 per day charge is a tax on any business that chooses to operate in the city centre and from talking to business owners I know, many are thinking of just simply looking elsewhere to work.
Compared to London, Birmingham's public transport is very poor and perhaps they should be looking to establish improvements there before rushing this through. Not that it will be of any use to me, I can hardly jump on a bus with lawnmowers, strimmers and a blower.
I listened to a program on Radio Four yesterday about work, during the discussion horse drawn transport in London was mentioned.
A hundred years ago the streets of London were covered in manure from the huge number of horses that pulled vehicles around the city, there was an outcry and demands that urgent action was required to deal with the problem.
Then in a very short period the horses were all but replaced by vehicles with internal combustion engines. The problem no longer exists.
The is a strong possibility that hydrogen fuel will take over from petrol and diesel as the fuel of choice for road vehicles and electric vehicles will not the be all and end all when it comes to reducing emissions.
The Radio Four program was actually discussing the strong possibility that in the future there will not be enough jobs for everyone to have one.
Image a Birmingham city centre with the cars removed, it may seem like a good idea, but will there be reasons for people who don’t live there to visit it daily if they don’t have jobs or their workplace has been moved out of the city?
There could be a huge change in a very short period, Birmingham City centre could become a housing estate with little traffic, but not much else either.
I have a brother who lives within the zone, when I go up there I can see the employment disappearing along with shops and other facilities.
Will the reason why people want to drive into and visit Birmingham, such as employment and shopping still exist in ten years time, also will pollution from petrol and diesel still be an issue?
One other thing is consider is that the tail pipe pollution from a car is only part of the issue, all vehicles including electric vehicles create a lot of dust from brakes, tyres, road surface wear and just stirring things up, so whatever the means of propulsion vehicles still reduce air quality.
Andy
My great grand parents lived slap bang in the middle of Peaky Blinders territory and in later life lived in Park Street, Aston where the corner shop was run by the parents of Toni Iommi, the Black Sabbath guitarist, my grandmother was sent to live with her aunty when she was seven years old to live in Bidford on Avon to get her away from Birmingham city centre. I can claim I have Brummie blood in my veins and remember visiting an old uncle who lived in the back to backs when I was a kid and have the city visited throughout my life.
So I have seen the city reinvent itself many times over the years, it will be interesting to see how it transforms itself into a traffic free village, also if it ends up as being a green and pleasant land.
Andy.
I spent a week over Christmas in Koln (Cologne) which is a green permit zone (LEZ) and had to park the car in a multi-story Park and Ride car park about eight miles from the centre of Koln. The great thing about this city is that it has great tram and train connections at a very reasonable rate, which makes it very easy to get to wherever you need to go, and the car park was free for the whole week.
I could have applied for a permit to take the car into the LEZ but it takes at least 7 days via the internet. The trouble was we only decided to go the day before we actually went so didn't have time to get a permit.
I was in London recently and visited Greenwich by bus. An hour journey costing just £1.50, 24hour service too. Believe me, Brum has nothing like that. Each time I go, I swear it'll be my last time. The city is run by people that've never run any kind of business whatsoever.