Green Assembly Member Baroness Jenny Jones welcomes Mayor’s discussion with inner London boroughs to expand the Ultra Low Emission Zone.
Smog in New York, photograph courtesy of Cham.
The Mayor of London has said he is in ‘conversation’ with inner London boroughs like Islington and Hackney about joining the Ultra-Low Emission Zone which is being proposed for 2020. New figures show that the ULEZ only covers 7% of the main road network which is due to be over the NO2 legal limit in 2020.
Jenny Jones said: “I welcome the Mayor saying that he is in discussion with these inner London boroughs to expand the ultra-low emission zone. His current proposal to clean up the air on a tiny fraction of the main roads with the worse pollution, is of no use to the people living along the majority of London’s polluted roads, or to the school children going to schools near those roads. My only concern is that the Mayor may stop the boroughs from joining the scheme when it is set up in 2020 and to ask them to wait for nearly a decade before action is taken.”
This is a question of democracy and I hope that local people will be given the choice of cleaner streets by opting into the ultra-low emission scheme. With air pollution linked to over 4,000 premature deaths a year in London, I think it would be scandalous if local people were deprived of that choice.”