|
Overview
Planning
measures are essential in the improvement of Air Quality. In the City of Birmingham air quality is a consideration in Transport
Planning, Area Land Use Planning and in the evaluation of individual
development sites.
Transport Planning
The
Local Transport Plan (LTP) is the strategic planning document for the entire
West Midlands Region. This includes the areas covered by seven municipal
authorities; Birmingham, Coventry, Solihull, Sandwell, Walsall, Wolverhampton and Dudley. The plan
sets out the transportation strategy for the region over a five year period.
All modes of transport are covered in the LTP.
The
LTP contains targets covering a whole range of transportation issues. The LTP
for 2000 to 2005 contains a general target to ‘Improve
air quality by meeting national air quality objectives for seven pollutants as
set out in the Air Quality Strategy for England, Scotland, Wales and
Northern Ireland’. However,
for the next LTP for 2005 to 2010 Central Government have made Air Quality on
of four key themes. This means that the next LTP will include specific projects
to improve air quality, as well as more specific targets. This is important as
the LTP is the mechanism through which municipal authorities bid for
transportation funding from Central Government. Therefore air quality
improvement work will now be able to gain funding from resources allocated to
transportation.
The
air quality specialists from all seven municipal authorities in the region are
working together to develop the targets and projects to improve air quality
that will be included in the next LTP.
The Unitary Development
Plan
The Unitary Development Plan
(UDP) is the strategic Land Use Plan for the City of Birmingham. This plan outlines the
principles of development for the City up to 2011.
The UDP sets out a number of key strategies that will form
the basis of land use planning strategy for the City. Several of these
strategies have the improvement of air quality as one of their aims. These
strategies include;
i)
The
redevelopment of the City Centre for residential use which will reduce the need
for people to travel into the City for work. The UDP contains detailed policies
to minimise the provision of car parking places for these new residential
developments in order to encourage alternative modes of transport.
ii)
The encouragement of ‘mixed use developments’.
These developments encourage developments which feature both workplaces and
residential uses within the same scheme. In some cases these feature ‘live work
units’ which provide small work units with residential accommodation built in.
This strategy is aimed at reducing the need to travel to work.
iii)
Support for renewable energy and combined heat and
power. This encourages the use of cleaner energy sources.
Individual planning
applications
Air
Quality is taken into consideration in the assessment of the suitability of
individual applications for development. This means that air quality
specialists are consulted on all proposed developments. Where a proposed
development is likely to result in a significant increase in road traffic air
quality modelling is carried out to examine the impact of the development. In
cases where the additional traffic is likely to lead to the air quality
objective levels being exceeded recommendations are made by the air quality
specialists that the development be refused.
In
addition proposed residential developments are examined to see whether they are
located in areas where air quality standards are acceptable. Where residential
developments proposed in locations where the air quality objectives are
exceeded the air quality specialists recommend that the development be refused.
|