Make voice heard on clean air zone

DEAR Editor, Air pollution is a major public health crisis, responsible for up to 900 premature deaths in Birmingham each year.

The biggest cause is road transport. We are required by the Government to bring air pollution levels down to within legal limits in the shortest possible time or we could be fined up to tens of millions of pounds.

More important, however, is the unacceptable impact on the health of our citizens for generations to come if we don’t act now.

The Clean Air Zone is just one element of a much bigger picture. We are already investing in public transport and cycle routes, building charging points for electric vehicles and have a new policy on taxi emissions.

We propose that the Clean Air Zone should include all roads within the A4540 Middleway ring road, because this is where the worst hotspots are. Any charges need to be enough to encourage people to change their travel behaviour or switch to cleaner vehicles. We think the price range we are consulting on will do this – this is not about making money, but cleaning up our city’s air.

We know some people and businesses will need support. This may be money to help with the cost of changes, extra time to change vehicles, discounts on charges (possible zero charge) or extra incentives to use public transport. This is why we need people to take part in our consultation. We want as many as possible to have their say before the consultation closes on August 17. Make your voice heard at birmingham.gov.uk/caz.

Cllr Waseem Zaffar (Labour, Lozells), Birmingham City Council Cabinet Member

(Transport & Environment)