Agenda item

Resolved: that officers would carry out a desk top review of the benefits of green spaces on air quality. It was also agreed that the Committee would refer its views to Mayor and Cabinet as follows –

·The Committee believes that officers should explore the options for encouraging the uptake of the Lewisham air app – this could include an internal communications campaign at the Council and the widespread automatic download of the app on to Lewisham managed devices.

·The Committee also believes that the Council should review the options for encouraging its public sector partners to take up the Lewisham air app.

·It was noted that Lewisham’s Clean Air Champion intends to visit local assembly meetings and the Committee recommends that this is endorsed and supported by Mayor and Cabinet and the relevant officers.

·The Committee recommends that consideration be given to a ‘dirty diesel’ tariff for the most polluting vehicles. This could include higher charges for parking and residential permits.

7.1  Christopher Howard (Senior Environmental Protection Officer) and Alexandra Crush (Transport Policy and Development Manager) introduced an update on the implementation of the air quality action plan and on the low emission vehicle charging strategy consultation, the following key points were noted:

·         A comprehensive list of activity and actions had been provided in the report to the Committee.

·         A great deal of progress had been made on the air quality action plan, in line with the requirements of the Greater London Authority (GLA).

·         Work had taken place with the Council’s previous and current air quality champions.

·         A schools air quality award had been launched, Paddy Swift had been appointed to work with schools to develop sustainable travel plans.

·         The Council had joined a consortium of boroughs to form an ‘anti-idling’ campaign network.

·         A number of events to share information about air quality had been held. This included a conference to launch the new ‘Lewisham air’ mobile app.

·         Lewisham was due to be the location of a new air quality ‘supersite’ – which would be one of only three in the country.

·         The number of diffusion tubes (for air quality monitoring) across the borough had been increased.

·         The Council had been successful in a bid to government for the development of two new ‘clean air villages’ in the borough, which would engage with business to lower their emissions. The focus would be on reducing pollution from deliveries.

·         The air quality audits offered by the GLA were taken up by three Lewisham schools. These schools were part of 50 schools audited across London. Schools were selected in order to ensure a coverage across as many London boroughs as possible, where legal limit levels were being exceeded and had cooperation of the school themselves but were not necessarily the 50 worse polluted schools in London.

·         The report included information about the Council’s response to the Mayor of London about the expansion of the ultra-low emission zone.

·         The Council’s position was that the low emission zone should cover the whole of Greater London.

·         A detailed response was awaited from the GLA to question from officers about the likely impact of the zone on the emissions in the borough.

·         The consultation on the low emission vehicle charging strategy would run until 13 August. Work would take place to analyse responses in order to finalise the strategy by the end of the year.

·         The intention was to have all residents within 500m of a charging point by 2020, which was an ambitious target.

·         There were four key objectives in the strategy, the first related to target markets for charging through the selection of key locations for charging points, the second was related to the uptake of grants, funding and income, thirdly, the strategy acknowledged the need to keep apace with technological developments and finally it considered the policy and public engagement options for supporting the uptake of electric vehicles.

·         The strategy also considered the options for infrastructure – via lamp columns; and two kinds of dedicated charging points for standard and rapid charging.

·         The website was being used to gather information about the locations at which respondents wanted to see charging points.

7.2  Christopher Howard and Alexandra Crush responded to questions from the Committee, the following key points were noted:

·         The supersite that was being developed was a fixed site and the decision to locate it in Lewisham was a positive development for the borough.

·         Lewisham’s air quality app provided a simplified visualisation of air quality in the borough and it included daily updates on pollution levels in the borough.

·         Additional information could be provided about the pollution absorptive capability of green spaces.

·         From 2020 there would be a London wide heavy vehicle low emission zone, which would have a significant impact on the quality of London’s air.

·         It wasn’t clear what the impact of the ultra low emission zone would be on areas adjoining it. Officers had requested additional information from the GLA and Transport for London.

·         The GLA provided the template for categories (and potential actions) for the air quality action plan.

·         Further work could take place to refine the initiatives in the action plan. The current approach was to focus effort where most work was needed to produce results. Different areas of the Council had responsibility for different aspects of the plan.

·         With the Clean Air Village project, Lewisham was part of a five borough consortium of boroughs working on improving air quality. The Council also meet with the air quality South London cluster group formed of eight boroughs.

·         The platform for the Lewisham air app was provided by Kings College London. Monitoring data and weather conditions were combined with traffic data to map levels of pollution across London. Lewisham’s air monitoring data was managed by Kings.

·         Most users of vehicle charging points In Lewisham were billed on the time a vehicle spent connected to the charging point, which should deter owners from plugging in their vehicles and leaving them in a charging bay for long periods of time.

·         Trailing charging cables over foot ways was not permitted. Some consideration might need to be given to how the lamp column charging would work where lamp columns were at the back of the pavement. It might require the running of charging cables under the footway (to a separate kerbside charging post) as low emission vehicle charging became more popular.

·         Funding was available through London Councils (although this required some match funding) to develop the charging network. The Council was currently exploring how best to make use of this resource.

·         20% of new homes in developments had to include ‘active provision’ for low emission vehicle charging and a proportion needed to include the infrastructure (passive provision) for future connections. These proportions were currently being reviewed in the emerging London Plan. Officers were also working with Lewisham Homes as part of the strategy.

7.3       In the Committee discussions, the following key points were also noted:

·         That the Council should lobby the GLA to ensure that there was a timetable for expanding the ultra low emission zone.

·         There had been conflicting information about the impact on the areas surround the new low emission zone on air quality in areas adjoining the zone.

·         Further work should take place with Scouting groups in the borough to support air quality initiatives.

·         Further information should be provided to residents (potentially through the Council’s website) about the costs of charging low emission vehicles and the different options available.

·         Government needed to provide funding for air quality initiatives and to develop a new clear air act.

7.4 Resolved: that officers would carry out a desk top review of the benefits of green spaces on air quality. It was also agreed that the Committee would refer its views to Mayor and Cabinet as follows –

• The Committee believes that officers should explore the options for encouraging the uptake of the Lewisham air app – this could include an internal communications campaign at the Council and the widespread automatic download of the app on to Lewisham managed devices.
• The Committee also believes that the Council should review the options for encouraging its public sector partners to take up the Lewisham air app.
• It was noted that Lewisham’s Clean Air Champion intends to visit local assembly meetings and the Committee recommends that this is endorsed and supported by Mayor and Cabinet and the relevant officers.
• The Committee recommends that consideration be given to a ‘dirty diesel’ tariff for the most polluting vehicles. This could include higher charges for parking and residential permits.