Birmingham City Council has outlined its five-year air quality action plan, aiming to reduce pollution ahead of the implementation of its clean air zone (CAZ) in June.
The council said it will work between 2021 and 2026 to improve air quality across the city by promoting behaviour change away from single-occupancy private vehicle use. As part of this shift, it will support an increase in cycling.
Furthermore, the council aims to provide the necessary infrastructure to support EVs and improve access to grant funding to help the public and businesses to replace, upgrade or retrofit existing vehicles.
Under the air quality action plan, traffic management solutions will be deployed to reduce the numbers of vehicles, smooth traffic flow and ease congestion away from relevant exposure locations.
It also has a 20-year plan to deliver an integrated public transport network incorporating three more Metro lines, nine cross-city bus rapid transit lines as well as reopening and upgrading rail routes and associated stations.
These steps will coincide with the council’s plans to introduce a CAZ this summer.
Read more: Birmingham prepares for CAZ launch this June
Stephen Arnold, Birmingham City Council’s head of CAZ, said: “Birmingham currently has unsafe levels of nitrogen dioxide, and we know this has a detrimental effect on the health and life expectancy of our citizens.
“The clean air zone is a significant first step in tackling this issue, but – as this plan has shown – other actions must be taken alongside its implementation if we are to make meaningful improvements to air quality.
“We are already well on our way to delivering some of the priority actions in this plan, which align closely to the ambitions in Birmingham’s clean air strategy and route to zero action plan.”
