Green Assembly Member Jenny Jones calls Oxford Street and Putney High Street “disgraceful examples of the Government and Mayor’s failure to take responsibility for air pollution” as they breach annual legal limits five days into the new year.
Readings taken at Oxford Street and Putney High Street air quality monitoring station have shown that they are the first location in London to breach annual legal limits for Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2). NO2 is deemed to be harmful to human health and the EU permits an annual limit of no more than 18 hours per annum at the concentration of >200ug/m3 . On Monday 5th January they exceeded this annual limit by at least 1 hour.
London streets once again have broken annual legal limits for pollution within a month of the new year.
The Government is currently trying to remove the requirement for local authorities to run air pollution monitors similar to those in central London and Putney, so that this information will not be available to Londoners in future years.
Jenny Jones said:
“Oxford Street and Putney High Street are a disgraceful example of the Government and Mayor’s failure to take responsibility for air pollution. As a result even more people will die prematurely and suffer worse asthma and other respiratory conditions. The Government’s attempt to cover this up and hide the truth from local people must be resisted.”
“A recent court case means that the Government can’t delay meeting the legal deadlines for nitrogen dioxide and the Mayor needs to rewrite his Air Quality Strategy to include effective new measures that can clean up our air sooner rather than later. He must also drop all his road building plans which will increase traffic and air pollution in London.”
Jenny Jones has also advocated the following emergency and long-term measures to tackle air pollution:
Emergency measures in the run up and during dangerous pollution episodes:
- A smog forecast and alert system that informs the general public and particularly vulnerable people such as asthmatics, with more detailed messaging and resources at schools, hospital and emergency services. This could encourage behaviour change to reduce pollution (such as not driving) and to reduce harm (such as not doing vigorous exercise near main roads).
- Traffic restrictions on certain roads so only essential vehicles can travel along them.
Permanent fixes:
- Bring forward the Mayor’s Ultra Low Emission Zone by 2018 (Mayor’s plan is 2020) and extend the ULEZ to surrounding boroughs that want it.
- Clean up the bus fleet by only introducing new buses that are hybrid or electric and that meet or exceed the Euro VI air quality standard.
- Reverse the recent and expected future increases in traffic levels by investing more in the bus and cycling networks, cancelling road building projects