On Wednesday 22nd February, Rt Hons Thérèse Coffey, Secretary of State at DEFRA, Andy Street, Major of the West Midlands, and Cllr Ian Courts, Leader of Solihull Council, visited the Birmingham Air Quality Supersite (BAQS) on campus. The supersite is one of three stations in the UK which use state-of-the-art monitoring systems to identify harmful pollutants more accurately than ever before and allows policy-makers both to understand how air pollution adversely affects health and to intervene to improve public health.
There was also opportunity to discuss the recent grant success for the region: A DEFRA Air Quality Grant of almost £1m was awarded to WMCA to monitor particulate matter and develop an engagement programme to increase awareness and encourage behaviour change towards domestic burning across the region. WM-Air will be supporting the programme of activities.