Pollution solution
Sorry that I've been a bit quiet on the blog this week. There was the bank holiday of course and since then I've been preparing myself for the return of Parliament next Monday. I missed out on saying "pinch, punch ..." Can you believe it's September already? What's that they say? Time flies when you're having fun?
Well, I'm not sure if you can count it as fun, but I've been doing a bit of local press work this week. You can read the column I've written for the Enfield Advertiser on the importance of getting your name on the electoral register in the next edition of the paper, which comes out on Wednesday. But in the meantime, below are a few thoughts on some pollution statistics that the Tottenham, Wood Green and Edmonton Journal brought to my attention.
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, published some figures back in June which state that an estimated 4,267 Londoners are dying prematurely each year because of long-term exposure to airborne pollution. The figures show that, as you might expect, those living in inner-city areas breathe in the most polluted air, but us lot in outer London don't fair too well either and an estimated eight, nine and even ten people per ward in Edmonton died from pollution-related illnesses in 1998.
It's concerning that people who suffer from existing conditions, like asthma, have their symptoms exacerbated by how high the levels of key pollutants, including nitrogen dioxide, are. Pollution is, unfortunately, part and parcel of living in a city but there are things we can do to improve the air quality and I know that Enfield Council has a comprehensive plan to do just that.
However, air pollution does not stop at local authority boundaries and many vehicle journeys through Enfield start and end outside the borough, which makes the problem of pollution even harder to manage. Air pollution needs to be looked at as a city-wide issue and addressed as such, but even though Boris Johnson published these statistics and is well aware of the estimated number of premature deaths from air pollution, it seems he is making decisions which will actually increase pollution across the capital. London's Mayor has called for "urgent targeted measures" to be introduced to address the city's poor air quality (which is the worst in the UK), but at the same time he has delayed the introduction of the third phase of the low emission zone and is seeking to remove the western extension of the congestion charge.
He simply can't have it both ways, and to oppose two key measures that would make a massive positive impact on the air quality in London completely goes against his spoken desire to reduce pollution. The new cycling scheme - which was Ken Livingstone's idea anyway - is a great way to get people moving around in an environmentally friendly way, but some tough decisions really do need to be made about dramatically reducing the number of vehicles, especially high polluting vehicles, travelling into and around the capital. Each borough needs to be led by a central policy. Only then can we start to bring air pollution down to a more acceptable level.
Well, I'm not sure if you can count it as fun, but I've been doing a bit of local press work this week. You can read the column I've written for the Enfield Advertiser on the importance of getting your name on the electoral register in the next edition of the paper, which comes out on Wednesday. But in the meantime, below are a few thoughts on some pollution statistics that the Tottenham, Wood Green and Edmonton Journal brought to my attention.
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, published some figures back in June which state that an estimated 4,267 Londoners are dying prematurely each year because of long-term exposure to airborne pollution. The figures show that, as you might expect, those living in inner-city areas breathe in the most polluted air, but us lot in outer London don't fair too well either and an estimated eight, nine and even ten people per ward in Edmonton died from pollution-related illnesses in 1998.
It's concerning that people who suffer from existing conditions, like asthma, have their symptoms exacerbated by how high the levels of key pollutants, including nitrogen dioxide, are. Pollution is, unfortunately, part and parcel of living in a city but there are things we can do to improve the air quality and I know that Enfield Council has a comprehensive plan to do just that.
However, air pollution does not stop at local authority boundaries and many vehicle journeys through Enfield start and end outside the borough, which makes the problem of pollution even harder to manage. Air pollution needs to be looked at as a city-wide issue and addressed as such, but even though Boris Johnson published these statistics and is well aware of the estimated number of premature deaths from air pollution, it seems he is making decisions which will actually increase pollution across the capital. London's Mayor has called for "urgent targeted measures" to be introduced to address the city's poor air quality (which is the worst in the UK), but at the same time he has delayed the introduction of the third phase of the low emission zone and is seeking to remove the western extension of the congestion charge.
He simply can't have it both ways, and to oppose two key measures that would make a massive positive impact on the air quality in London completely goes against his spoken desire to reduce pollution. The new cycling scheme - which was Ken Livingstone's idea anyway - is a great way to get people moving around in an environmentally friendly way, but some tough decisions really do need to be made about dramatically reducing the number of vehicles, especially high polluting vehicles, travelling into and around the capital. Each borough needs to be led by a central policy. Only then can we start to bring air pollution down to a more acceptable level.