Opinion CHAMBER
The Official Publication of Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce
LINK
Editor’s View
By John Lamb
Bus firm’s roundabout way to boost pass use
Sutton Coldfield
Chamber of Commerce
Greater Birmingham
Commonwealth Chamber of Commerce
One of the most refreshing stories I can remember landed on our desks as we prepared this edition of Chamberlink. It was a blessed relief from the miasma of
Greater Birmingham
Transatlantic Chamber of Commerce
Brexit; a diversion from world-wide atrocities; it could even make me forget England’s failure to win the Six Nations rugby championship. It was difficult not to feel a rush of joy and
celebrate the sort of eccentricity that only Britain can serve up. You get the same sort of feeling when reading
Front cover: Saira Demmer, the chief executive of new Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce patron SF Recruitment See page 17
Editor John Lamb 0121 607 1781, 0797 1144064
j.lamb@
birmingham-chamber.com
Deputy Editor Dan Harrison 0121 607 1887, 0797 1144052
d.harrison@birmingham-chamber.com
Reporter Jessica Brookes 0750 8317356
j.brookes@
birmingham-chamber.com
You can now read the latest issue of CHAMBERLINK and view back issues online at:
www.greaterbirminghamchambers.com
the ‘Darling Buds of May’ by H.E. Bates or Kenneth Grahame’s ‘Wind in the Willows’. In fact our hero should be the main character in such a novel. You see, Kevin Beresford is president of the
UK Roundabout Appreciation Society. Never heard of it? Nor me… But National Express has, in my view, come up
with a masterstroke by appointing Kevin, 67, from Small Heath as a champion for senior citizens’ bus travel. He is now the “face” of a National Express
West Midlands advertisement campaign encouraging people to make use of their free bus pass. Apparently, there is a roundabout of the year
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4 CHAMBERLINK April 2019
competition but there seems to have been no such contest since 2017. That was when a traffic island in Auckland decorated with really bizarre sculptures which were claimed to represent the regeneration of life won. Far inferior, in my view, to a roundabout in Guadalajara, Mexico, which has a magnificent display of stampeding horses as its centre of attraction.
‘It was difficult not to feel a rush of joy and celebrate the sort of eccentricity that only Britain can serve up. You get the same sort of feeling when reading the Darling Buds of May’
My own personal favourite in Birmingham was
the model of Wallace and Gromit posed on a motorbike and sidecar above the entrance to the Queensway tunnel. Not exactly a roundabout but nevertheless and wonderful image fashioned out of over 10,000 individual plants on two metres high fibreglass frames Kevin says (see page 17) that roundabouts are
a labour of love for him and adds that his favourite is the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. That’s the place where you close your eyes and hope for the best. “I’m a photographer,” says Kevin, “and I
believe great art is found in mundane things. Andy Warhol painted cans of soup; Tracey Emin had her bed; even Van Gogh painted just a pipe on a chair. “If you have imagination, the world’s your
oyster. I take my camera everywhere, and having a bus pass gives you freedom to jump off when something catches your eye.” Well said, Kevin, and roundabouts will now
take on a totally different meaning as we while away the hours driving in and out of Brum.
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