Birmingham Air Quality Survey

Birmingham City Council asked for your views on Birmingham’s air quality. We wanted to understand whether or not air quality is important to the people of Birmingham and in what ways; how much it interests you or has an impact on you.

We received 1,104 responses to this survey – thank you to everyone who took part.

The results showed that Birmingham people are very concerned with the issue of air quality and the negative effects it could have on our city with:

• 87% of respondents thinking air quality is a ‘serious issue’ to be tackled now;
• 88% telling us they think air quality has a very serious impact on health; and,
• 67% saying that air quality was an important consideration when making choices about how they travel.

Those who filled in the survey also told us what they thought contributed most to air pollution. The top three causes chosen were:

• congestion and vehicles idling in queues;
• lorries and vans; and,
• diesel cars.

Respondents also selected the ways in which they thought air pollution could be tackled. The top three ways are:

• using public transport;
• more trees and green spaces; and,
• restricting access for polluting vehicles.

Birmingham City Council has been working towards creating a greener, more sustainable city for a number of years: working on the basis that every person who lives and works in Birmingham has a right to clean air. For example, through our Birmingham Connected programme we aim to transform the way people travel around the city in an attempt to reduce vehicle emissions.

The results of this Be Heard survey will contribute towards the next phase of our work. This includes feasibility studies to identify areas of Birmingham where air pollution is at its highest so we can create the Clean Air Zone the Government requires Birmingham – and other UK cities – to have in place by 2020 to comply with air quality legislation.