Please sign this petition for a musician friendly scheme to mitigate the impact on musicians working in the Birmingham clean air zone (CAZ).

The Birmingham clean air zone charge will impact musicians carrying out gigs in the Birmingham clean air zone (CAZ).

Musicians undertaking evening gigs in the Birmingham CAZ area with cars/vans not meeting the requirements of EU6 for diesel and EU4 for petrol will be paying a double charge of  2 x £8 total of £16 as most evening gigs will overlap the 24 hour Midnight to Midnight day charging span.

Musicians working at venues within the CAZ are not continuously driving around clogging up the air, it's a case of “having” to drive in to bring heavy/bulky equipment to a venue, park up for a few hours, pay parking charges then load equipment again from the venue at the end of the gig and drive out.

Evening gigs often require the musician to work very late and require the musician to leave the CAZ zone after midnight facing a double charge.

Gigging musicians are similar to any other non-regular workers but are also having to use their own transport for equipment, as use of public transport to carry heavy bulky equipment along with the non-regular hours is neither practical nor possible.

This cost is unavoidable for musicians carrying equipment and will have a damaging impact on the heart and soul of culture within the Birmingham CAZ.

This will also impact businesses i.e. rehearsal studios, grassroots venues, musical instrument shops, pubs, hotels and clubs. Many musicians are often on very low fees with emerging artists regularly 'working' for no fee at all in order to build their career, and so will not be able to afford the charge at all.

This could cost them their career and livelihood, or they will simply go elsewhere to other towns and cities to rehearse, perform, or buy musical equipment and so starving the city of its important talent pipeline.

This petition is calling upon Birmingham City Council to work with organisations like the Musicians’ Union to come up with a musicians’ friendly scheme to mitigate the impact of the Birmingham CAZ on musicians and those businesses reliant upon musicians.