Grassroots groups urge action
As Birmingham sweltered through record-breaking temperatures and an amber heat warning went out across the West Midlands, residents, campaigners and community groups called on local authorities to take urgent and long-term action to help the city cope with extreme summer heat.
The Met Office recorded a UK-high temperature of 34.7°C in Redditch on Friday as many green campaigners in Brum pushed for bolder solutions – from open-water swimming and shaded public spaces to community orchards and redesigned housing.
Rob Tilling, coordinator of Fruit & Nut Village, says the network’s 80+ forest gardens, orchards and groves across Birmingham offer a clear blueprint for urban cooling. But he warns that official policies aren’t keeping pace with the climate.
Orchards are cooler
“You notice going into the orchards, it’s a cooler area immediately, there’s a drop of several degrees,” he said.
“We’re creating a canopy, we’re not mowing the ground, we’re improving soils through mulching. These spaces retain moisture and stabilise temperatures.”
Yet Tilling says too many of Birmingham’s parks remain mown grassland, which fails to protect against rising heat.
“You can’t imagine how insufferable a future it would be where we maintain expanses of mown grass,” he added.
“It seems like the city council are on ‘business as usual’ – they’ve declared climate and wildlife emergencies, but they’re not integrating our ideas. They don’t see the bigger picture.”
Public calls for open-water swimming
With cooling options limited for many families, public pressure is mounting for safe, free access to water. A petition launched on change.org is appealing to Severn Trent to open Bartley Reservoir for supervised swimming. Chris Hofmann, who started the petition, said Birmingham suffers from a “distinct lack” of open-water facilities.
Currently, the nearest public lido to Brum is in Droitwich, and access to reservoirs like Upper Bittell in Barnt Green is limited to paying members.
Hall Green resident Sara Mia said: “It would be such an amazing offer for the city to have safe, managed open-water access for all or at least pools open longer and free during heatwaves. It’s happening across Europe.”
Neighbourhood campaign group Retrofit Balsall Heath has proposed a bold vision to open up the River Rea through Calthorpe Park to form a lake – “a place for children to play, for recreation, and for everyone to stay cool.”
Birgit Kehrer from ChangeKitchen CIC echoed this idea, suggesting that existing bodies of water like Swanshurst Lake and Cannon Hill Park’s lake could be made swimmable.
“Providing dipping opportunities is so much cheaper and environmentally sound than everyone turning on their fans and having loads of cold showers,” she said.
Housing and heat inequality
For Kamran Shezad, director of the Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences, the city’s heatwave also laid bare inequalities in heat resilience. He regularly visits elderly people in top-floor flats suffering extreme heat with no access to cooling systems, while low-income families struggle to keep children comfortable.
“Simple steps like using cold flannels, sleeping on lower floors, and closing blinds during the day can help,” he said.
“But longer term, we need proper building insulation, reflective roofing, window shading and ventilation systems.”
Shezad called on both local and national authorities to treat heat as a public health emergency, not just a climate issue.
“We need housing upgrades prioritised for low-income families, and heat-resilient infrastructure in schools, care homes and hospitals,” he said.
He also advocated for urban greening through tree cover, green roofs and shaded walkways – but warned against top-down planning.
“These efforts must be made with communities, not just for them. Co-production and genuine consultation are essential.”
