The poor air quality in Kensington and Chelsea is “illegal,” said Conservative Councillor David Nicholls at a council meeting on Wednesday.
Cllr Nicholls introduced the motion for debate on air quality and climate change out of concern over decreased life expectancy and other health concerns related to air pollution.
“In September, the mayor of London triggered the capitol’s emergency air quality alert for the seventh time in 13 months, because of the shocking state of our city’s filthy and illegal air,” said Cllr Nicholls.
The royal borough was named one of four boroughs in which 60 per cent of nitrogen dioxide exceeds the legal limit, in the Updated Analysis of Air Pollution Exposure in London. With current plans taken under consideration, it is predicted that the four boroughs will be the only to exceed the limit by 2025.
According to fellow Conservative Councillor Sarah Addenbrooke, who seconded the motion, as many as 6.6 per cent of deaths in the borough could be attributed to poor air quality. She added that the young, the old, and the sick are disproportionately impacted.
A total of six councillors from the Conservative, Labour, and Liberal Democrat parties spoke in favour of the motion to work on strategies for addressing air quality and climate change.
Labour Councillor Robert Atkinson said that the national government has failed to act on air pollution.
“For the eighth year running, the fuel levy, which was designed to discourage the use of vehicles, and to discourage environmental pollution was not applied,” he said, adding that the mayor of London was denied additional transportation powers.
Of the councillors who spoke, most agreed that strong measures need to be taken to regulate persistent sources of pollution, like ticketing idling cars, reducing diesel, and investing in super highways.
Conservative Councillor Will Pascall said he welcomed the motion, but he believes that the appropriate long-term solution has not yet been found.
“We’ll try to bring these two schemes to work together, because they are often contradictory in what they propose. We need to look at integrated enforcement.”
The motion passed unanimously.