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Birmingham has undergone significant regeneration in recent
years, and the programme of regeneration is continuing. It is important that
the opportunity of regeneration is used to achieve improvements in air quality.
The policies of Birmingham City Council encourage residential
development on sites in the city centre that have previously been used for
industry or commerce. In the past there have been very few residential
properties in the City Centre, and these have been of poor quality. In recent
years the encouragement of City Centre living has seen a rapid increase in the
population of the City Centre. The City Council now aims to have 10 000 people
living in the central region of the City by 2008. These new City centre
developments are of a very high quality, and have very limited parking to
encourage the use of other modes of transport. In addition many developments
are ‘mixed use’, meaning that workplaces, leisure uses and residential
properties form parts of the same development. This reduces the need to travel.
In this way the regenerated areas appeal to professional workers who
often do not own cars and are able to walk to workplaces and leisure locations
within the City Centre. In some cases additional public transport facilities
such as bus stops and areas to store bicycles are provided by the developer as
a condition of their approval to develop a site.
This
principle of rebuilding City areas that are in need or
regeneration around travel modes other than the car is essential in tackling
the problem of poor urban air quality. |