Air Pollution in Putney

Posted on Jun 08, 2011

PUTNEY SOCIETY  MAJOR SURVEY OF AIR POLLUTION LEVELS IN CENTRAL PUTNEY December 2011

 The Putney Society is very concerned about harmful air pollution in Putney High Street.  With support from Mapping for Change (a social enterprise set up by University College London and London 21) we mobilised volunteers to conduct a survey of Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) levels at 36 sites in central Putney over four weeks in September/October 2011.  The key conclusions from our survey are very worrying:

NO2 levels 75% in excess of EU limits not only in Putney High Street (recorded by Wandsworth Council) but also at Putney Cross and on Putney Hill (in our survey)

NO2 levels 25% in excess of EU limits along the Upper Richmond Road and close to the High Street

EU limits for NO2 also exceeded on several residential roads in Putney

The pollution effects of traffic on major roads clearly spread beyond the immediate locality.

Air Pollution Map of Central Putney

Our findings are presented in the form of a map of central Putney which depicts the NO2 levels we measured at each site (circles) and Wandsworth Council’s own measurements for comparison purposes (triangles).  The Council already monitors air quality in the High Street and Felsham Road and our survey is intended to complement this work by covering the whole of central Putney. (Council data portrayed by the triangles on the map have not yet been ratified and there is some disparity between our readings and theirs at Felsham Road)

Why measure NO2 levels?

 Vehicle emissions are the major source of NO2 which is an irritant gas known to harm lung function and cause respiratory problems especially among children and the elderly.    Levels of NO2 are also a strong indicator of the presence of other dangerous pollutants from vehicle emissions such as fine particulates (PM10 and PM2.5). (A report by the Institute of Occupational Medicine for the Mayor of London July 2010 estimated over 4,000 premature deaths per annum in London attributable to air pollution in the form of fine particulates - PM10 & PM2.5)

The present position

Wandsworth Council declared the whole borough an Air Quality Management Area in 2001 and has introduced a number of policies designed to combat air pollution levels which they recognise as being too high, dangerously so in some cases.  We fully support these policies and accept that much work has been undertaken already. The Council has reported that hourly mean NO2 levels exceeded EU limits 2,602 times in the High Street during 2010;  the permissible number of “exceedences” is 18 per annum

The Mayor of London’s Air Quality Strategy commits the administration to a range of actions designed to combat air pollution including more stringent Low Emission Zone (LEZ) limits.  These foresee imposing Euro IV standards for all buses by 2015 and Euro 3 standard for larger vans and minibuses by January 2012.  The EU first introduced these standards over ten years ago and we feel valuable time has been lost which now needs to be made up as quickly as possible.

We note that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) recently announced additional modest funding for councils to tackle air pollution, focused on helping reduce NO2 levels.

Next Steps
We believe more urgent action is essential and propose the following:

 The earliest possible introduction of low-emission buses on routes using any of Putney’s roads, especially Putney High Street; all routes using roads which have recorded high levels of air pollution should be prioritised;

A greater emphasis on “active travel” (i.e. walking and cycling) for local journeys as a first step towards reducing traffic volumes;

A much faster imposition of the most stringent EU emission limits on all classes of motor vehicle within the LEZ;

More intensive monitoring of air pollutants, especially particulates, with much more publicity given to outcomes; this would enable the effectiveness of measures already being undertaken to be gauged.

We shall share our data with Wandsworth Council and will seek an early meeting with the Council for further discussion of the data and the many proposals put to the Cabinet Member for the Environment at our members’ meeting in April 2011.

 Dr Carolyn McMillan, Chair: : carolynmcmillan@btinternet.com Tel: 020 8789 6692

 Jonathan Callaway, Deputy Chair: callahiljo1@btinternet.com Tel: 020 8789 1990

 Mapping for Change  www.mappingforchange.org.uk   Louise Francis, Chief Executive  l.francis@mappingforchange.org.uk Tel: 020 7679 2296

See Simon Birkett's presentation here:

The 14 possible actions which have been  put to the Council Include: 

1. Acceptance by the council that we are reaching the limits of over-development in Putney, especially given levels of traffic congestion, overcrowding on public transport etc

2. Acceptance by the council that re-development in the High Street, along the Upper richmond Road and elsewhere should in any event avoid exacerbating the canyon effect created by ever taller buildings

3. Improve traffic flow through better junction design (we do note that th council have introduced SCOOT which smoothese traffic flows in the High Street although seemingly at the expense of pedestrian crossing time). Junctions which could be improvied include Lower Richmond Road/Putney High Street/Putney Bridge and Putney High Street/Upper Richmond Road

4. Get rid of the bus garage - several people have pointed to the number of buses as a key source of air pollution and also that heavy diesel vehicles contribute disproportionatley to levels of particulates, and especially so when they are stationary, as they often are when queuing to get into the garage

5. Put pressure on bus operators to improve their working practices so buses don't stand so often with engines running - switch off or keep going, basically when crews are being changed

6. Put pressure on Tfl to introduce lower/non-polluting buses - the Society has written to them on this but their response, paraphrased, is that vehicle types are set out in franchise agreements and can only be changed when these are renogotiated. This may be true but they do not appear to accept that they should prioritise highly polluted streets/bus routes ahead of others when bringing in better buses

7. Managing delivery times to shops, and pressuring shops to use smaller vehicles whenever possible - they pollute less and are less likely to block the street they are stopped on

8. More frequent street cleaning including more focus on dust removal (vacuuming would be ideal); motor vehicles are major contributors to dust/particulate levels, not only from exhaust fumes but also wear and tear on brake pads and tyres

9. Support improvements to domestic gas boiler emission standards - council publicity and information on grant schemes would assist here

10. Support us in pressuring the Mayor to bring forward stricter emission limits in the LEZ, perhaps differentiating between inner and outer boroughs

11. Introduce differentiated resident parking charges: lower for low emission cars, higher for diesels (as already practised by other councils). We see the focus of reducing usage of diesel vehicles as important given increased awareness that while they may emit less CO2 they do emit more NO2 and more particulates

12. Step up monitoring on PM2.5 and not just PM10 particulates

13. We also believe introducing 20 mph zones benefits air pollution levels and given the convincing majority of votes in favour of 20 mph zones in West Putney and the Dover House Estate, could these lower limits now also be extended to all residential streets in Putney and to the High street itself? 

14. Further encouragement by the council of modal shift, i.e. getting people out of their cars and on to their feet, on to bikes, buses etc. We note additional cycle parking has been installed on the High Street and welcome this but we believe more could be done, e.g. by replacing car parking spaces with cylce parking rather than using up scarce and valuable pedestrian space on pavements

Further ideas which came from the discussion session:

1. More smaller buses rather than the current number of large ones

2. A questionnaire in Brightside on readers' actions to combat air pollution

3. Urgent priority to be given to air pollution levels on roads near schools

4. Urgent need to raise awareness of the problem by much more proactive publicity campaign; also specific actions - e.g. erecting signs on the High Street informing people of real-time pollution levels

5. Have we got our priorities right? £3.6bn on the Thames Tunnel, a fraction of that on air pollution now known to be a much greater killer than water quality

6. Clear support for more 20 mph zones and dissatisfaction at the council's position that introducing further zones would only be considered in response to direct requests by residents

7. Council should be drawing up its transport strategy to reflect the DfT's road user hierarchy, starting with pedesstrians, then  cyclists, then public transport etc

8. Measures adopted by the Council should be outcomes-based, i.e. there should be measurable improvements to each proposed action and actions should be prioritised by projected outcomes

9. Restrict use of diesel engine vehicles

10. Introduce cycling lanes in Putney High Street

11. Introduce two-way cylcing on one-way streets

The Society does not necessarily endorse every one of these but felt it important to record what was raised because we do hope to meet you again for follow-up discussions in due course.

 

Tags: air pollution, environment, Putney High Street