Wood burners and Birmingham Airport pollution among concerns choking Solihull residents

Cars idling, burning wood and pollution from Birmingham Airport are just some of the issues residents say are worrying them about Solihull’s air quality. But questions are being asked why so few people took part in Solihull Council’s consultation on air pollution, as fewer than 200 residents got involved.

The results of the survey were discussed at the recent meeting of Solihull Council’s Economic Development, Managed Growth and Skills Scrutiny Board. The key themes raised in the audience responses are:

• Car idling – leaving a car’s engine running while it is not moving – especially on school streets.
• Wood burning
• Effective communication with residents
• Air quality monitoring – the need for routine and real-time monitoring of air quality
• Traffic congestion
• Active travel – the need to promote and support more active forms of travel such as cycling
• Electric vehicles – especially the need to install more electric vehicle charging stations throughout the neighborhood
• Sustainable public transport
• Birmingham Airport – some respondents share concerns Birmingham Airport is having a ‘significant effect’ on local air quality

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Solihull Council, in the report, committed to introducing an air quality web page providing key information; raising awareness of the health impacts of wood burners; improving monitoring capabilities and working with Birmingham Airport to develop and promote initiatives to reduce the impact on air quality in Solihull. During the debate, Councilor Bernadette Donnelly said that 173 Solihull residents and 10 businesses/groups responded to Solihull Council’s survey in the form of two online questionnaires between December and February last year.

“The results are really disappointing,” Coun Donnelly said. “There seems to be a missing link somewhere with actually getting the commitment.

“I have come across this many times over many years. The most important thing is to involve people, to ask for their opinions.” Nick Laws, senior public health specialist, said: “The results are comparable to other authorities when they have tried to get involved in air quality.

“I agree that we need to improve the way we engage people. We need to reframe the subject so that it is a little more real to people. We have to do things differently because air quality affects us all.”

He said 40 people who attended wanted to stay involved and suggested they become “air quality champions” and could work with them in the future. Coun Donnelly added: “Some things like pollution can only be changed through behaviour.

“It’s a hard thing to do, but it’s not impossible.” Mr Laws replied: “We have a behavior change programme, we work with the West Midlands Combined Authority.

“We have to address people’s behavior. We’ve used nudge theory in the past, things like the smoking cessation campaign.” A recent study by WM-Air and the University of Birmingham found that air pollution caused up to 2,300 premature deaths a year in the West Midlands region, as well as 4,200 asthma diagnoses, 300 lung cancer diagnoses and 1,000 accidents cerebrovascular.

The meeting took place at the Civic Suite on Wednesday (July 17).

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