ACOCKS Green residents have drummed up support of more than 500 people calling on Birmingham City Council to give the village Conservation Area status.
Over the past 12 years campaigners, council officers and councillors have been working so they could be given permission to manage its places of special architectural and historic interest.
However their pleas have fallen on deaf ears.
Now a petition with more than 500 signatures and the backing of a cross-party group of councillors has been handed to Ian Ward, the leader of Birmingham City Council at a full council meeting on Tuesday, November 3.
MP Jess Phillips and Birmingham conservation architect Joe Holyoak have both expressed their frustration at authority’s approach to the issue.
Joe said: “Members of Acocks Green Focus Group have worked very hard to make the case for the Conservation Area and have been encouraged by the City who did not have the resources to do the work themselves.
“Then the Council decided not to support the proposal.
“This is very discouraging.”
Ms Phillips said: “Acocks Green has a rich history and heritage and too often that goes underrated and therefore unreserved.
“The community has worked so hard to have it awarded conservation status and they have my full support.
“It is very important that such status is not just afforded to affluent areas in the city but that protects the full heritage of our historic home.”
Acocks Green began to grow in the 19th Century when it had the first railway station out from first the Jewellery Quarter (Hockley) and then Snow Hill (Colmore Row) area.
Many leading jewellers, gunsmiths, silver smiths, architects solicitors and other professionals came to live in Acocks Green.
