Issue - meetings

To agree the adoption of the Council’s new Air Quality Action Plan 2025-30.

Councillor Wesley Harcourt, Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Ecology introduced the report aiming to protect the health and wellbeing of the people in the borough from the effects of air pollution, and to promote healthy living. He informed that Hammersmith & Fulham was the tenth worst local authority in England for air pollution - with 7.4% of deaths linked to toxic air. There was not a single part of the borough where the air quality met World Health Organisation targets.

The Council had a statutory duty to tackle pollution and was required to have an Air Quality Action Plan. The Plan, recommended in this report set out how the Council would work to meet national objectives for air pollution and help improve the health and wellbeing of everyone in the borough over the next five years. As a statutory document, the style and format of the Plan was quite technical and not easily understandable as it needed to follow a template.

In addition to health, the Pan was also important in terms of equalities because the most vulnerable people were living in the worst areas for air quality and their health was adversely affected.

Councillor Adronie Alford stated that there should be some tolerance to motorists using their cars and control on the misuse of e-bikes. As some of the suggestions on the Plan would impact some residents, Councillor Alford asked if the Council was going to consult with the local neighbourhood, particularly on issues related to parking, before implementing any changes.

The Leader confirmed that consulting with residents was key to the way this Council operated. Residents had been consulted extensively before the cleaner neighbourhood in South Fulham was introduced and it was now extremely popular. The essence of consultation was trying to understand people's concerns and taking reasonable measures to address them. However, any form of change could be controversial.

AGREED UNANIMOUSLY BY THE CABINET MEMBERS:

To agree the adoption of the Council’s new Air Quality Action Plan 2025-30.