LONDON Green Party MEP Jean Lambert has called for urgent action to clean up South London’s polluted air.
She made her comments during a visit to Crystal Palace to see for herself one of the capital’s many smog ‘hotspots’ that breach EU health limits.
The visit came hot on the heels of latest opinion polling showing 81% of Londoners support the Green Party’s policies on tackling air pollution.
Speaking on the corner of The Triangle, an area on the borders of five of the most-polluted London boroughs: Lambeth, Southwark, Lewisham, Bromley and Croydon, she said:
“The latest figures show that almost 3,400 people a year are dying because of London’s dirty air – across England as a whole it’s more than 25,000 people.
“Urgent action is needed now: smog isn’t just unpleasant, it’s killing almost one in 12 Londoners.”
Ms Lambert, who is a founder supporter of Clean Air in London, went on to say:
“We need to radically rethink the way they are dealing with air pollution. To protect people’s health we need both the UK Government and the Mayor of London to be bold in tackling air pollution – and stop trying to water down the rules.
“We need a ‘very low emissions zone’, cleaner buses, a strategy to reduce pollution from taxi exhaust, 20mph speed limits as standard in residential areas, and more steps to encourage walking and cycling.
“It’s time we recognise that air pollution is a political issue. We can clean up our air, but we need to force politicians to take the issue seriously.”