EQUALITY STREET!
Labour council under fire for planning to use woke names for its new roads
MILLIONS giggled along to David Brent’s Equality Street song for Comic Relief back in 2013.
Ricky Gervais came up with the spoof political reggae track for his cringeworthy character from The Office – taking a dig at political correctness.
But now a Labour council seems to have taken inspiration from the fictional office manager after it announced plans to give roads ‘woke’ names such as Diversity Grove.
Birmingham council said yesterday that six new streets would have names including Destiny Road and Humanity Close which ‘reflect community and Commonwealth sport values’.
Birmingham will hold the Commonwealth Games in 2022.
But Gary Sambrook, Conservative MP for Birmingham Northfield, said: ‘ Labour politicians using our street names to advance their woke agenda shows just how out of touch the council really is.
‘Instead of celebrating the people and places that make ordinary Brummies proud, loony Left Labour councillors have embar
‘Embarrassed our city’
rassed our city yet again with these ridiculous names. They should name streets after inspiring people rather than empty words which we are all too used to from Birmingham city council.’
It is not the first time Birmingham has been accused of undue political correctness. In 1997 and 1998 the city rebranded its Christmas festivities as ‘Winterval’.
The new roads, which will provide 1,400 homes, are in the Perry Barr area and were named after a competition in which members of the public submitted suggestions.
Louise Kilbride, from suburb Handsworth Wood, impressed a panel of judges with her submission, which was based on the theme of cohesion and shared values and included Equality Road, Inspire Avenue and Respect Way.
Miss Kilbride, who lives a mile from the new roads, said: ‘It got me thinking about street names that could in some way reflect the diversity of the Perry Barr area – names that would have a positive meaning for local people and echo my belief that everyone deserves decent housing.’
Labour councillor Waseem Zaffar, Birmingham’s cabinet member for transport, dismissed Mr Sambrook’s criticism.
He said: ‘These comments are misinformed and ill-judged as they completely fail to recognise that these names were chosen after being submitted by a local entrant to a public competition by a community panel that featured local residents, those working on the project and local councillors from more than one political party.
‘They are values that we share in the city and also reflect the Commonwealth monwealth Sport Movement values val of humanity, equality and destiny – which is entirely appropriate given our status as host city for the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
‘It is disappointing that the MP does not appear to share these values and has not paid attention to the competition criteria, which excluded the submission of people’s names.
‘If he feels so passionately about street naming, it is a real shame he didn’t submit a competition entry of his own.’ own ’ Earlier this year London mayor Sadiq Khan launched a commission to identify statues and memorials to remove across London.
The Local Government Association Labour Group said in June: ‘There is overwhelming agreement from all Labour councils that they will listen to and work with their local communities to review the appropriateness of local monuments and statues on public land and council property.’