Ruth Cadbury MP Criticises Air Quality Plan
As being inadequate to tackle local air pollution
Brentford & Isleworth MP Ruth Cadbury condemned the Government’s Air Quality plan released this week as being wholly inadequate to deal with the scale of air pollution locally. “Living between central London and Heathrow, our roads are massively congested making this area one of the most polluted parts of the UK," she said.
The government report on air quality was published by Michael Gove, the environment secretary, this week, after a court ruled last year that the government must improve on previous proposals.
It includes a ban on new petrol and diesel vehicles from 2040 but the government has not made “clean air zones” mandatory and has only introduce a targeted scrappage scheme with a limited number of vehicles covered.
Ms Cadbury said, "This plan does nothing to address the problem now, particularly as there is no mention of Heathrow’s expansion plans.”
She added, “ I had expected the Government to take serious steps to address air pollution. They’ve had two failed plans, and this one is no better. Ending the manufacture of new diesel and petrol vehicles in 23 years’ time shows the Government’s lack of urgency on what has become a health emergency.”
Labour says they would deliver a national diesel scrappage scheme and a clean air act that would ensure all polluted cities were required to have legally binding clean air zones because air pollution leads to 40,000 premature deaths and many children suffering from asthma and other breathing difficulties.
The British Heart Foundation said, “We believe that charging the most polluting vehicles to enter clean air zones and a targeted diesel scrappage scheme is still the most rapid and effective way to improve the nation’s air quality and help save lives.“
Caroline Russell AM said, “The Mayor’s draft transport strategy has a specific goal of reducing the traffic on our roads. This should be the central focus for the Government too – alongside measures that enable people to travel differently.
“Instead of shunting the responsibility onto councils, the Government should be investing in rail electrification, electric buses and networks of routes for walking and cycling. The important thing is not diesel scrappage for individuals to upgrade their vehicles, but providing incentives to get people out of their cars and onto public transport, and walking and cycling
“We know diesel and petrol are poisoning our air but switching to electric cars won’t solve our pollution problem and let people trust the air we breathe.
“We will still be left with street-clogging congestion, lethal pm2.5 particle pollution and the misery of road danger.
“If the Government had any imagination they would see the unmitigated disaster of air pollution as an opportunity to rid our towns cities and villages of the problems of congestion, parking and noise while improving people's health and cutting NHS costs.”
July 29, 2017
