Improving access to inner Birmingham : who wins, who loses.

The paper explores the balance of indirect benefit and direct disbenefit to the inner city of major transport schemes located there, with reference to 2 case studies in Birmingham. Both of these proposals - one for a road and one for a Light Rail Transit scheme - were abandoned as a result of protest campaigns. The paper looks at the composition and viewpoint of the "sides" in these controversies, and discusses of how a better understanding of the incidence of benefit can be achieved on both sides, and how this might contribute to a better and more robust decision making process.