Parent activists Mums for Lungs call for a ‘diesel-free city’ to protect children’s lungs and highlight 'illegal' air pollution on North Circular

 

At the North Circular Road (IKEA) monitoring site (Photo Amandine Alexandre-Hughes)

 

A group of concerned parents have launched a pavement art campaign in areas of London with harmful levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO₂). Mums for Lungs campaigners used eye-catching stencils stating, ‘illegal air pollution recorded here’ and demanding action to ‘protect children’s lungs.’ The stencils point to 15 air quality monitors that recorded illegal levels of NO₂ in 2020 – a pollutant that can cause reduced lung function in children, as well as trigger asthma attacks and hospital admissions for children living with lung conditions. 

 

Location of stencils at air quality monitoring stations

 

London has never met its requirement to reduce pollution below legal limits(1) and the health impacts of pollution are not equal. Previous research shows that NO₂ pollution is on average 24-31% higher in areas where people from Black, Asian or minority ethnic backgrounds are most likely to live. (2)

 

 

Environmental Defense Fund Europe (EDF Europe) compiled readings from the city’s reference air pollution monitors and used modelled data, produced by Cambridge Environmental Research Consultants (CERC) for the Breathe London pilot project, to estimate that approximately two-thirds (67%) of the NO₂ pollution at these locations came from diesel vehicles, such as cars, taxis, vans and heavy goods vehicles. (3)

 

 

Most of the illegal sites are located outside of the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ), London’s measure to lower diesel pollution by charging more polluting vehicles to enter the city centre. The zone dramatically reduced air pollution in central London (4) and will be expanded to a much larger area on 25 October 2021. Some of the illegally polluted sites are beyond the ULEZ expansion, including in Kingston and Merton. 

 

 

Nine of the 15 locations are on or adjacent to the city’s Red Routes – a network of major roads managed by Transport for London. A recent health assessment has shown how these roads create an unequal health burden in the city (5), leading to calls for action to make them significantly healthier and safer. Around 47,500 primary school children study close to these major roads. (6) The Mayor of London has committed to identifying ‘bespoke solutions’ for Red Route locations that are unlikely to meet legal NO₂ limits after the ULEZ expansion, but plans are yet to be seen. (7)

 

 Amandine Alexandre-Hughes, Mums for Lungs activist and Clean Air Ambassador for Harlesden Neighborhood Forum, (Brent Ikea site) told Wembley Matters:

 

The expansion of the ULEZ cannot happen soon enough in Harlesden. Our high street has the highest NO2 rating in the UK, so cleaning up the air in our area requires urgent action. 

 

However, the ULEZ expansion won’t be sufficient for Harlesden children to breathe clean air and, also, it won’t cover Brent North. IKEA Wembley, for example, is on the ‘wrong side’ of the North circular. So, NO2 levels will remain extremely high there and that's a real worry for me, as I live close to IKEA Wembley with my husband and 4 year old son.

 

All children deserve clean air, whether they live in Brent North or Brent South. It’s the bare minimum we owe them as adults. Diesel vehicles need banning in London as soon as possible. The boom in diesel delivery vans in the capital is completely unsustainable. It has to be reversed at speed.

 

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[1] Annual average pollution targets for NO₂ were set in 2000 with an objective date to meet the target in 2005. In 2007, the target was updated to be in line with EU obligations to be achieved by 2010.

[2] EDF Europe analysis using Cambridge Environmental Research Consultants (CERC) high-resolution modelled NO₂ 2019 annual averages produced as part of the Breathe London pilot project and census 2011 data from the Office for National Statistics.

[3] EDF Europe analysis

[4] Greater London Authority: Central London ULEZ - Ten Month Report

[5] EDF Europe and Centric Lab: Rethinking London’s Red Routes

[6] EDF Europe: Parent and teen campaigners demand action after study reveals nearly 50,000 London school children exposed to dangerous pollution from Red Route roads

[7] Mayor of London: Improving London’s Red Routes

 

Drive-through NHS Covid-19 Test Centre opens at Wembley IKEA

An Ikea spokesman said:

Today, a drive-through NHS Covid-19 test centre has opened in the car park of our Wembley store.

We are incredibly proud that we are able to support the Government and the NHS in this small way, and are working with them to identify any additional sites that could also support the national effort.

I understand from other press sources that initially the centre will be for NHS staff by invitation only.

Hey kids, get down to St Raph's tomorrow for the Great Brent Easter Egg Hunt!

REVEALED: IKEA''s tax avoidance - more complicated than its flat-pack instructions?

A new report commissioned by the Greens in the European Parliament has revealed that furniture multinational IKEA has dodged €1 billion in taxes over the last 6 years using onshore European tax havens.

IKEA is using a series of tax loopholes in different European countries, namely the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, to avoid paying taxes. Molly Scott Cato MEP, a member of the European Parliament’s special committee on tax, said:

Just like its flat-pack furniture, assembling a tax dodge is simple if you know the right tricks. And it’s easy to tuck away out of site where tax administrations will barely notice it. This report deconstructs the massive scale of IKEA’s tax avoidance practices. 

Ikea Bremt Park

This is a company which is held in some affection by British people, so what is revealed will come as a shock to many and risks damaging IKEA’s reputation with UK customers. It is time that corporations such as IKEA realised that being an ethical company goes beyond checking the credentials of suppliers and treating your staff well. Complex tax avoidance schemes are unethical and British people expect companies to pay a fair share of tax to fund the services they rely on.

Scott Cato  has joined other Green MEPs in signing a letter to the EU competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, and tax commissioner, Pierre Moscovici, presenting the report as evidence and urging the Commission to carry out a further investigation to verify possible infringement of EU law. Molly said:

This cynical ‘tax hopping’ is reprehensible and we want the European Commission to fully investigate if and how it infringes on EU law, and take action to address this. EU finance ministers, for their part, should work immediately on trying to recoup the tax revenues, which have been denied to them.

Greens also say that a Corporate Tax Package published by the European Commission at the end of January will not go far enough in preventing IKEA using its different tax loopholes. Molly concluded:

There is an urgent need to change the regulatory framework which facilitates corporate tax avoidance in Europe. We badly need public country-by-country reporting rules for all sectors to provide transparency and ensure the tax strategies of corporations can be properly scrutinised. 

We also need a minimum corporate tax rate to end the race to the bottom of tax dumping in Europe. Such measures require the active cooperation of EU governments and most have so far shown no enthusiasm for truly tackling corporate tax avoidance.