With over half (58%) of the UK planning a staycation this holiday season, travel booking site Omio has revealed the top 30 most sustainable English cities to visit.
Seafront favourite Brighton takes the top spot, scoring best for vegetarian and vegan eats as well as amongst the top places for electric car chargers, carsharing, low bus transport fares and low pollution levels.
Newcastle follows closely behind at number two, ranking within the top five cities for low pollution levels and the number of bike routes.
Of the cities ranked, Milton Keynes and Hull make it easy and cheap for people to get around as they have the cheapest single bus fare tickets at just £1 compared to £2.40 in Nottingham, Wolverhampton and Walsall.
After London, Nottingham and Coventry ranked top for the best set-up for electric cars, with the most charging points across the cities according to Zap-Map. Following London, Bristol has the highest number of cycle routes within five miles of the city centre.
When it comes to air pollution Coventry, Plymouth and Bolton were revealed as the cleanest, whilst Liverpool pipped London to the post as the most air polluted city.
Brighton and Newcastle top the charts with the largest variety of vegetarian and vegan eateries, but Wigan, Bradford and Rotherham came out lacklustre in catering for eaters of plant-based diets.
Top 30 most sustainable places:
- Brighton
- Newcastle upon Tyne
- Nottingham
- Bristol
- Coventry
- Derby
- Southampton
- Milton Keynes
- Leeds
- Sheffield
- Hull
- Birmingham
- Plymouth
- Leicester
- London
- Bolton
- Manchester
- Stoke-on-Trent
- Wigan
- Walsall
- Liverpool
- Sunderland
- Salford
- Doncaster
- Wolverhampton
- Wakefield
- Bradford
- Rotherham
- Stockport
- Dudley
Omio, which launched in 2013 to help customers discover different ways to travel, describes itself as an all-encompassing travel hub that supports customers exploring Europe, the United States and Canada via train, bus, flight and ferry.
In compiling the top 30 sustainable cities, Omio selected the top 30 Urban Areas in England ranked by ONS population data.
The company then analysed prices of single tickets for adults in local public transport as per various local and regional bus operators, the number of charging points for electric cars according to the Zap-Map database, and the number of carsharing vehicles within five miles of the centre as per CoMoUK.
Omio also analysed data on World Health Organisation air quality from the National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory, the number of cycle routes on Bikemap, as well as the number of restaurants on Happy Cow that have an offer for vegans or vegetarians.
