THE Romsley parish Councillor pilloried for his plans to build a relief road over the Clent Hills to ease traffic in Halesowen has hit back.

Wildlife lovers and local residents blasted Councillor Stan Francis’ idea ‘to build a road over the Clent Hills and Romsley Parish Council immediately distanced themselves from the plan. Stung by the criticism Cllr Francis is claiming he was not serious and just wanted to get a debate going over the continual traffic problems around Grange Island.

He said: “I threw in a rogue card, a road over Clent Hills, was I serious? Nope, but it started people and authorities talking.

“I know how councils work and a straight question never works and Worcstershire County Council have by all accounts discussed it.”

Councillor Francis, who once threatened to block traffic on the island on Friday nights, believes the problems concerning ‘roulette island’ goes back to the 1960s ‘when the owner of the Benz garage offered to build a tunnel and Halesowen Town Council said ‘no’.

He said: “We asked for traffic lights part time that could also be used for pedestrians, it was refused, but the channelling is there under the ground in case the present set up doesn’t work?”

He added: “How do we get rid of traffic off the M5 when junctions three and four are closed and by the way to shut the people up that say it’s only very occasionally, well the Highway Agency came back with up to April this year, junctions 3 and 4 were closed no less than 66 times which is more than once a week?”

He said: “Aggressive and personal letters to newspapers are the norm to those that do not have the full facts, or they do but they just like to punch at everything, continue like this and the island will stay as it is.”