Anne Shaw on the Transformation of Birmingham

Birmingham was the first city I lived in as a proper ‘grown-up’ and it was metamorphosing before my eyes. Previously famous as Britain’s ‘car city’, it ripped up its inner ring road the year I arrived. Today, the city centre is unrecognisable: spacious, walkable and with a brand new tram route snaking past brand new buildings. Anne Shaw has been involved in this transformation since she first moved to Birmingham in 1991 to take up a job as a drainage engineer. Today she’s Executive Director of Transport for the West Midlands, and she tells me just how this extraordinary change has been achieved.