Agenda item

Rosemary Petit, Chair of the Air Quality Commission, explained that the Leader of the Council, Councillor Stephen Cowan, had asked her to lead a group of residents to make recommendations on how to improve the borough’s air quality. Other commissioners had been sought and a great team had been assembled. She paid tribute to the hard work of her fellow commissioners: Kate Forbes, David Chamberlain, Andrew Pendleton, Professor Derek Clements-Croome and Natalie Lindsay and explained that many long nights of reading and evidence gathering had been required to build up enough knowledge to make recommendations on the issue. She also thanked Chris Bainbridge, Elisabeth Fonseca and especially Peter Smith who had supported the commission.

Rosemary Petit explained that nearly one in four deaths in Hammersmith and Fulham could be attributed to air pollution. Two hundred and three residents died early each year as a result of poor air quality. The diseases and health problems caused and exacerbated by air pollution were numerous, and scientific research was regularly identifying more conditions caused by air pollution. The commission had decided that it was necessary to drastically improve air quality and looked at a wide range of ways this could be done, receiving briefings from officers, evidence from experts, reading a mass of reports, and also considering over 40 submissions made by residents and experts in response to the commission’s call for evidence.

The commission had decided not to limit its recommendations, but to give everyone from the government right down to individual residents something to do to improve air quality.

The key recommendations for government were: to ban the sale of new, and importation of all, diesel cars and to take measures to encourage drivers to scrap existing diesels; to introduce nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate matter (PM10) testing as part of the MOT, and; to introduce no drive days in major cities during episodes of very high pollution.

The commission recommended that the GLA and Mayor of London: review the London Plan to prioritise air quality; give Hammersmith and Fulham a low emission neighbourhood; replace diesel and petrol buses with electric ones; launch an anti-idling campaign; hold car free days in inner London; smooth traffic flows; monitor grass, hedge and tree cover across London; and amend the Climate Change and Energy Strategy to stop promoting combined heat and power installations above air quality neutral technology.

The council had a very large number of recommendations and the commission felt that it could, by implementing them, lead by example. The recommendations included:

-       The Local Plan and other planning policy documents to be amended to: require developments to be assessed for their impact on air quality; include Walkability, and; strengthen and increase the prominence of greening and arboricultural policies.

-       The WELL being standard to be adopted for new developments and prefabrication of buildings encouraged.

-       A freight consolidation scheme for West London.

-       To work towards using only low emission vehicles, and make sure contractors met low emissions targets.

-       The development of an Urban Ecology Plan with an increase in tree, hedge and grass planting on council land and staggered pruning of trees.

-       The promotion of air quality alerts and forecasts and the development of awareness raising and education schemes.

-       An increase parking permit charges for diesel vehicles.

-       Encourage ‘Blue Green’ schemes in homes and offices.

-       Improve pedestrian and cycle routes.

-       Increase the number of electric vehicle charging points in the borough.

-       Wash down streets to reduce resuspension of pollution.

-       Replace boilers with models which emitted less nitrogen oxides.

Finally the commission had recommendations for residents, businesses and community groups. These were for employers and community groups to promote low carbon and air pollution behaviours such as car sharing, and replace high polluting equipment, for schools to engage pupils in tackling poor air quality and in greening initiatives, and for residents to walk more, especially to schools with children, to cycle more, to become Citizen Scientists and monitor air quality, and to replace ageing boilers where this was affordable.

Rosemary Petit said that there was much to be done, but that if everyone played their part it was possible to make Hammersmith and Fulham the greenest borough in London.

The Chair thanked the members of the air quality commission for their hard work.

Councillor Cartwright asked whether lorries and buses were responsible for most of the nitrogen oxide in the borough. Rosemary Petit said that it was certainly true that larger vehicles created more pollution but that buses and lorries were relatively low polluters now, with mobile machinery such as cranes emitting eight times the amount of pollution of the average bus. Buses were now often hybrids which cut the level of pollution.  Elisabeth Fonseca, Environmental Quality Manager, explained that lorries made up about 12% of nitrogen oxide emissions in the borough whilst London Transport buses made up 22%. Diesel cars made up 21% of the emissions with petrol cars a further emitting 13% of NOx pollution. Coaches were responsible for 7% of emissions which, considering how few coaches travelled on the borough’s roads, showed that there was much work to be done with coach operators.

Councillor Dewhirst noted that a ban on sales of diesel cars might seriously weaken the UK motor manufacturing industry, and that he felt a more phased approach would be of benefit. He noted that many buses were hybrids, with diesel engines as back up to the electric engine. He was impressed with many of the recommendations to the council, and pleased that the commission had identified that the council’s contractors needed to use low emission vehicles as well. Councillor Hamilton said that he was concerned that the scrappage scheme, a surcharge on diesel fuel and an increase in parking permit prices for diesel cars might have a significant effect on poorer residents. Rosemary Petit agreed that there was a balance to be struck but felt that a modest increase was an important way to encourage people to stop driving high emission vehicles. Councillor Holder felt that motor manufacturers needed to do more to help resolve the problem of air pollution, especially in light off many companies having been lying about the emissions of their vehicles. Andrew Pendleton said that the inclusion of NOx emissions in the MOT test would help inform drivers and make some companies clean up their act.

The Chair asked where particulates settled. Elisabeth Fonseca said that the vast majority of particulate matter settled on and, was re-suspended from, the main carriageway of roads. She added that more particulate pollution (PM10) was re-suspended (17%) than produced by the exhausts of all vehicles on the roads (11%). The Chair asked whether any local authorities already washed down roads. Elisabeth Fonseca said that it wasn’t yet done on a large scale, but that the council was carrying out trials around scrubs lane and that data on the success of this trial should be available in a few months.

A resident asked how far from roads air pollution spread. Elisabeth Fonseca explained that pollution dropped quite quickly, but that in Hammersmith and Fulham, safe levels were exceeded a long way from main roads as a result of the concentration in the area. Rosemary Petit noted that green walls were a potential way to prevent pollution from spreading too far. Councillor Dewhirst asked whether stationary traffic produced particularly large amounts of pollution. Elisabeth Fonseca said that where traffic wasn’t moving there was a significant concentration of vehicles, but that because engines were idling each car was actually emitting a lot less than if it were moving quickly. Start/Stop technology was helping to reduce the level of pollution caused by cars in traffic jams.

A resident asked whether the face masks occasionally worn by cyclists had any benefit. Elisabeth Fonseca replied that whilst there were masks which could filter out pollution the majority of those she had seen were not likely to make a significant difference to the level of pollution in the air the wearer was breathing.

Councillor Dewhirst asked whether there had been any further plans presented by TfL for the redevelopment of Hammersmith Bus Station. The Leader explained that there had been no plans presented by TfL since 2014 when a plan with a 30 storey tower-block and no flyunder had been brought to the council. He explained that a residents working party had been set up to develop plans of what residents wanted to see but that this was only just beginning its work.

Councillor Harcourt thanked the commission for the incredible amount of work they had put into the report. He said that the administration was committed to becoming the greenest borough in London, and noted that there were some hard decisions to take to achieve this but that he also felt it was important to include residents in the plans, as their behaviour and support was key to improving air quality.

The Leader of the Council thanked Rosemary Petit for having chaired the commission and made it such a success. He remembered that in his youth everyone had assumed that the 21^st century would be clean and cities free of pollution; now he felt, was the time to make that idea a reality and he felt that the commission’s report gave Hammersmith and Fulham a chance to lead that work.

It was resolved-

That the report be noted and passed to the Cabinet for their consideration.