Showing posts with label air quality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label air quality. Show all posts

Friday 22 December 2023

Brent Council publishes its Air Quality Action Plan - protecting those most at risk. Brent has some of the most toxic air in the UK and pollutants can cause serious harm. It is estimated air pollution kills 149 Brent residents each year.

 

 


From Brent Council

Brent’s new plan for how to improve air quality and protect those most at risk from toxic air over the next four years was passed by Cabinet this week. 

 

Brent has some of the most toxic air in the UK and pollutants can cause serious harm. It is estimated air pollution kills 149 Brent residents each year. 

 

The Air Quality Action Plan 2023-2027 (AQAP) sets out how the council will work closely with residents to combat the main sources of pollution in Brent, by:  

Improving transport and encouraging sustainable travel

  • Making homes and buildings energy efficient 
  • Tackling pollution from construction sites
  • Reducing inequalities through raising awareness of the health impacts of pollution.

 

To support this plan, the council is launching its Air Quality Champions programme which aims to recruit community volunteers to raise awareness of pollution and help shape solutions. Apply to become an Air Quality Champion and help the council deliver this important work. 

 

Air quality has improved in Brent but pollution remains at dangerous levels in parts of the borough, particularly around the North Circular and in Harlesden. The action plan prioritises these areas to tackle pollution there first. 

 

Through committing to thirty-seven actions, the AQAP will aim to reduce levels of Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) and Particulate Matter (PM2.5 and PM10). 

 

Sign up to Brent’s Environmental Network to stay up to date about Brent Council’s work to combat the climate emergency and poor air quality. 

Read the Air Quality Action Plan (2023-27).  

 Here are some key images from the Action plan (it is more than 100 pages so best viewed via the above links:

Note PM10 and PM 2.5 Measure Particulate Matter LINK  NOx measure Nitrogen oxides LINK



BRENT AIR QUALITY FOCUS AREAS



Image from Philip Grant's May 2022 Stopping-up Order objection, as referred to in his comment of 22 December below.



Thursday 28 April 2022

1 Morland Gardens – is proposed Stopping-Up Order another mistake?

 Guest post by Philip Grant in a personal capacity

1.Brent Council notice on display at Morland Gardens. (Photo by Margaret Pratt)

 

In June 2021, Martin published a guest blog I had written, Brent’s development delayed, about the Council’s failure to obtain the Stopping-Up Order needed before they could proceed with their proposed development at 1 Morland Gardens. They’d been told in December 2018 that they would need such an order, if they wanted to build over the footpath and community garden in front of the heritage Victorian villa. They could have applied for it at any time after they received full planning consent on 30 October 2020.

 

Now, finally, they have started the process, by giving notice of a proposed Stopping-Up Order. But already they’ve added to their long catalogue of mistakes over 1 Morland Gardens! The Legal Notice published in the “Brent & Kilburn Times” on 14 April failed to mention Morland Gardens when describing the highway to be stopped-up, only giving its grid references:

 


 

Under the Legal Notice, the only way to inspect or request copies of the draft order and plan was in person at Brent Customer Services, where they would be available for ‘a period of 28 days from the 14th April 2022.’ I went to the Civic Centre on Tuesday 19 April, and the documents were not available to inspect or get copies of. I reported this, and the Senior Officer concerned has just let me know that they will be publishing a new Legal Notice in our local newspaper on 28 April.

 

These were procedural mistakes, but they are not the biggest error. Right from the start, when Council Officers greedily thought they could add the Council-owned “highway” to the 1 Morland Gardens site, in order to build more housing as part of the redevelopment of the Brent Start college, they failed to consider what the effect of a stopping-up would be.

 

3.Part of the Morland Gardens “highway” between the college and community garden.
(Photo by Margaret Pratt)

 

At the moment, pedestrians walking to and from Hillside to the homes further along Morland Gardens, and the Five Precious Wounds R.C. Church in Brentfield Road, can take the path alongside the low front wall of the college, and be shielded from the traffic fumes and noise by the trees of the community garden. If these routes (in green on the plan below) are stopped-up, they will have to walk alongside the busy roads, right up to the road junction.

 

4.Brent’s “stopping-up” plan, with before and after routes added.

 

The additional walking distances involved are not great, but pedestrians would now be exposed to the pollutants emitted by the heavy traffic, especially when it is tailed back along Hillside because of the traffic lights. This junction is in what has been designated an Air Quality Management Area (“AQMA”), because of its poor air quality, and in fact is one of the most polluted road junctions in Brent.

 

Because the site is in an AQMA, the planning application for Brent’s Morland Gardens redevelopment had to include an Air Quality Assessment (“AQA”). This was prepared for the Council by a specialist company (Gem Air Quality Ltd), but the scope of what they were asked to report on was just ‘the potential impacts of existing and future traffic levels on a proposed mixed-use development located at Morland Gardens.’ 

 

In short, the assessment only considered the effects of traffic pollution on residents and users inside the planned new building! It did not assess what the plans would mean for pedestrians and others, and did not look at the difference between pollution levels along the paths that would need to be stopped-up and those on the pavements beside the main roads here.

 

In fact, no actual air pollution readings were taken at Morland Gardens, Hillside or Brentfield Road as part of the assessment. It was a desk-based modelling exercise, but it did use an accepted technique described as a “comprehensive tool for investigating air pollution problems due to small networks of roads”. This was applied to a number of “receptor” points around the planned new building:-

 

5.Main part of Figure 3 from the Morland Gardens AQA report.

 

The AQA looked at the “before” and “after” predicted annual mean levels of nitrogen oxides and particulate matter. It can be seen that the receptor locations R1 and R3 are the equivalent to points B and C on the stopping-up order plan, so the predictions for those do provide at least an indication of the likely levels of the traffic pollutants harmful to health. These are the tables of results prepared by Gem Air Quality Ltd and included in their AQA:-

 


 

6.Tables of predicted mean annual values from the AQA. (Gem Air Quality Ltd, October 2019)

 

It will be seen that the predicted level of Nitrogen Dioxide at ground level (especially at the corner of the building nearest the traffic lights – R3 = 51.0) is above the permitted “safe” limit. For particulate matter, the table appears to show levels at around half of the “objective”, but the World Health Organisation guideline value is 20, not 40 µg/m3, and the AQA only looks at PM10 concentrations, not the more harmful PM2.5 particulates (present in vehicle emissions).

 

Added to that, the AQA only contains mean annual predictions. The document admits: ‘that the short-term impacts of NO2 and PM10 emissions have not been modelled as dispersion models are inevitably poor at predicting short-term peaks in pollutant concentrations, which are highly variable from year to year, and from site to site.’  Pedestrians would have to walk closer to the traffic that the “receptor locations”, and the report also admits that: ‘street canyons have not been modelled as part of this assessment.’

 

Having Brent’s proposed nine-storey building at the corner of Hillside and Brentfield Road would contribute to a “street canyon” effect. The report says: ‘Street canyons may result in elevated pollutant concentrations from road traffic emissions due to a reduced likelihood of the pollutants becoming dispersed in the atmosphere.’

 

Taking all of these facts together, the levels of harmful pollutants which pedestrians would have to face when walking along the “red route” shown on the stopping-up plan above would cause a much higher risk to health than the existing “green routes” which the Council plans to stop-up. Did Brent’s planners consider this, when recommending the scheme for approval? NO!

 

7.The Air Quality section of the Officer Report to Planning Committee, 12 August 2020.

 

The Planning Officers report, and the advice from Brent’s Environmental Health Officer on which it was based, only looked at the AQA, which was just about the air quality inside the proposed building. But para.175 above includes this important sentence:

 

‘Officers acknowledge that there is the potential for high levels of nitrous oxide associated with pollution from adjoining streets to impact on the lower floors of the building (lower ground to second floor).’

 

To deal with this, a condition was included in the planning consent, requiring that the mitigation measures recommended in the AQA must be implemented, and proved to have been implemented, before the new building could be occupied. Those measures can be summed up in this extract from the “Building Mitigation” section of the AQA’s conclusions:

 

‘A mechanical ventilation system that draws air in from the roof may be considered acceptable as predicted NO2 concentrations on the fourth floor and above are below the relevant air quality objectives. However, the inlets should be placed as high as possible (roof level) and as far away from the local roads as possible.’

 

If the air quality at the corner of Hillside and Brentfield Road is only considered to be safe four floors above street level, then surely pedestrians need to be kept safe from the pollution as well! Deliberately forcing them to use the pavement by the busy junction, rather than the existing paths, shielded from the worst of the traffic pollution by the community garden, must surely be wrong!

 

8.The proposed Morland Gardens redevelopment site, as currently pictured on Google Streetview.

 

There is a variety of additional health risks to pedestrians from exposure to high levels of traffic pollution. I’m especially concerned about the increased risks of asthma to children which the proposed stopping-up could cause. 

 

One of my children has suffered from asthma since the 1980s (with more than a dozen childhood hospitalisations, and one almost fatal attack), caused by the traffic fumes encountered on a 50-metre stretch of Kingsbury Road, on the way to school. The reality of such risks was finally confirmed in the 2020 inquest verdict, following the tragic death of 9-year old Ella Kissi-Debrah, which found that she: ‘died of asthma contributed to by exposure to excessive air pollution.’

 

But there is a way that the stopping-up order can be prevented. Para. 4 of the Legal Notice (as it will be reissued) sets out how anyone can object to it:

 

'Persons desiring to object to the making of proposed order should send a statement in writing of their objection and the grounds thereof, to the Head of Healthy Streets and Parking, Regeneration and Environment, 5th Floor North Wing, Brent Civic Centre, Engineers Way, Wembley, Middlesex, HA9 0FJ, or via email to
trafficorders@brent.gov.uk , quoting the reference TO/23/031/NP, within the period of 28 days from the 28th April 2022.' 

 

And there is a final irony. The person who is responsible for Brent’s proposed Morland Gardens stopping-up order is the Council’s Head of Healthy Streets!

 

Result from the Address Pollution website, 29 April 2022

LINK


Philip Grant.

Monday 29 November 2021

CLOSES TOMORROW NOV 30th: Have your say on Brent's Air Quality Action Plan

 From Brent Council Website

Dirty air costs lives.

That's why we have made it a priority to work with our residents and businesses, TfL, the Mayor of London and national government to improve air quality across the borough. While great progress has been made in recent years, there is still work to do; and we want to hear your views on what action to take.

We are working to update our Air Quality Action Plan to make sure the action we take over the next five years will have the most impact, where it's needed most.

In 2019, 59% of Brent’s monitoring sites had an annual nitrogen dioxide level higher than the legal limit. When it comes to particulate matter, both our PM2.5 sites and one of the PM10 sites exceeded World Health Organisation limits.

Clearly, more needs to be done. Air pollution is considered the world's largest environmental health threat, with over 4,000 deaths across London attributed to air pollution in 2019.

This is not just an inner London problem – a report by the GLA and Imperial College London shared that the highest number of these deaths were recorded in outer London boroughs.

Pollution levels lowered during 2020 as a result of COVID-19 restrictions but there is a risk that, if more people return to using cars, pollution levels could increase to over and above 2019 levels.

We want to work with you, our residents, to ensure this doesn’t happen.

Over the next year, we will be working to review progress made against our current Air Quality Action Plan and updating it to make sure the actions taken over the next five years (2023-2027) are as ambitious as possible. This will support national and London-wide policies, such as the Ultra Low Emission Zone, to help protect Brent residents from the health impacts of poor air quality.

The review will take place over a series of stages:

 1) Developing the draft Air Quality Action Plan:

We want you to help us design the plan. By filling in the below survey, you can tell us what air quality means to you and what action you think should be taken across the borough. The survey will be open until 30th November 2021.

Meanwhile, we will also be undertaking borough-wide air pollution modelling to better understand the situation in Brent, identifying pollution hotspots and dominant sources for those locations.

2) Feedback on the Draft Air Quality Plan:

The information you share in the first survey, along with the borough-wide data modelling, will help feed into the creation of a draft Air Quality Action Plan.

Once the draft is written, you will have an opportunity to give your feedback on the draft plan, through a public consultation on this site, before the final version is published in 2023.

3) Publishing the Air Quality Action Plan

Once the plan has gone through that final public consultation, the final plan will be shared in 2023 and delivery of the actions will start.

In other news! Brent’s Long-Term Transport Strategy is being developed alongside the AQAP – you survey responses will also be fed into this. You can have your say on the draft Transport Strategy in the coming months – watch out for more news on this site.

Sunday 21 March 2021

Check air quality in your street, workplace or school with one CLICK

 


The Report for Brent Civic Centre

 

A new national website is allowing people to measure air quality on their street using their postcode. This is particularly useful when consideraing Healthy Streets/Low Traffic Neighbourhoods.

Research from the initiative shows that one in four UK addresses – almost eight million – are exposed to air pollution levels exceeding World Health Organization safety limits.

addresspollution.org offers a free air quality report for every UK address based on data from the Environmental Research Group at Imperial College London.

The work was commissioned by campaign group the Central Office of Public Interest (COPI), which wants the property sector to mandatorily disclose air quality information in the same way it does with asbestos. And it hopes this will also put pressure on governments to act.

A pop-up ‘demand action’ button is displayed to visitors using the site, which takes them through to a petition calling for estate agents and sites such as Rightmove and Zoopla to disclose air quality info at the “earliest opportunity”.

COPI founder Humphrey Milles described air pollution as a “dangerous, invisible killer” and said it would be “shameful” for the property industry not to inform people now this air quality information was so readily and easily accessible.

Legal opinion obtained by COPI goes further and suggested there is a strong legal argument that estate agents, property websites, surveyors and conveyancers will need to inform prospective buyers and renters of air pollution levels.

In their opinion Jessica Simor QC and barrister Neil Fawcett refer to the ground-breaking recent ruling on the re-opened inquest into the death of nine-year-old Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, which found her death was “contributed to” by exposure to excessive air pollution. Previously, deaths were only "linked" to exposure to air pollution.

Mark Cunningham, chief executive and co-founder of Whenfresh, which provides property data to major lenders, said that if the problem of air pollution isn’t dealt with, “it will clearly have an impact on the saleability and value of properties in high pollution areas”.

He added: “So like asbestos, radon, flood risk and Japanese knotweed, if data is available the mortgage lenders will want to understand it. Lenders take any environmental issues that might impact the value of the properties they effectively co-own very seriously."

The website’s national roll-out – it was previously available in some London areas – follows a report published in the journal Environmental Research last month that concluded that 99,000 early deaths across the UK are due to dirty air.

Another piece of research published by the European Society of Cardiology in October 2020 found 15% of COVID-19 deaths globally could be attributable to air pollution.

Earlier this month the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that the UK has “systematically and persistently” exceeded legal limits for dangerous nitrogen dioxide (NO2) since 2010.

The UK has agreed to abide by court decisions initiated before it left the European Union. It could therefore face fines if it continues not to comply, and has been ordered to pay the European Commission's legal costs.

Thursday 16 April 2020

At last a response to Brent Scrutiny's recommendations on air quality

Readers will recall that there was some disquiet that Scrutiny Committee reports are merely noted by the Brent Cabinet rather than responded to in detail with action points. This was particularly true of Scrutiny's recommendations on Air Quality which were made after painstaking investogation and consultation with local organisations.

Now 5 months after the initial report Cabinet is to discuss an Executive reponse at Monday's virtual meeting (4pm).

The report is below - comments welcome. Click bottom right corner for full page version:


Wednesday 17 January 2018

Brent's 'toothless' Air Quality Action Plan condemned by Clean Air for Brent


 
From yesterday's Twitter
From Clear Air for Brent
Air pollution is now said to be the number one killer in the world, followed by HIV(1). According to Brent Council, 200 premature deaths occur each year which are directly attributable to air pollution as well as further unquantified premature deaths where air quality is a factor, so Clean Air for Brent (CAfB) expected to see bold actions backed by robust measures in Brent’s new Air Quality Action Plan (3,4).
However the plan, which was signed off by Council leaders late last year, contains no specific measures to protect public health or even to comply fully with legal standards (5). The action plan correctly identifies road transport as the major source of harmful emissions, but does not contain adequate solutions, and fails to effectively tackle the worst pollution hotspots and routes.
It is a plan that shies away from real action and accountability on this life-threatening issue. Fiona Mulaisho, Chair of CAfB said:
“In agreeing this toothless plan, Brent Council has missed another opportunity to step up its game, and promise much needed bold actions to its residents.  We appreciate they are under severe financial constraints, but residents' health must be pushed far higher up their priority list.
The Air Quality Action Plan, which covers the period from 2017-2022, contains four proposed Air Quality Focus Areas; but Brent’s own monitoring data show that these are not the worst affected areas.  If, as stated, the Council's '...ultimate aim is to secure clean air for all especially for those at greatest risk or in the worst affected areas in the borough'; this plan will sadly not deliver it.  CAfB urges the Council go beyond its current confines to:
·      Create a borough-wide Clean Air Zone allowing for targeted action to improve air quality, reducing public exposure to all forms of pollution, delivering health benefits and economic growth.
·      Undertake much more ambitious commitments to increase the proportion of journeys by walking and cycling in the borough (6).
·      As a matter of priority introduce a Low Emission Neighbourhood which focuses action on a genuine priority area with a combination of controls, incentives, dis-incentives and awareness raising, to provide a measurable improvement (compared with a similar non-intervention area) over 5 years.

2.     Clean Air for Brent (CAfB) is a coalition of residents' associations, community groups and individuals focused on raising awareness about air quality, changing behaviours to improve air quality, and improving public health outcomes in the Brent Borough through the provision of better air quality. It is also committed to contributing to local and national clean air policy debates.
4.     Air pollution contributes to poor health and is responsible for the premature death of 9,500 Londoners a year, with 112 early deaths in Brent in 2010. It is linked with cancer, strokes, heart disease and respiratory problems. The main pollutants are nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and particulate matter, particularly from diesel vehicles.  Of all outer London local authorities, Brent has the highest number of people - 69,283 - living in the Capital’s worst polluted areas. 
5.     The EU legal mean for NO2 is 40µg/metre3; the World Health Organisation sets it at 20µg/metre3. Similarly, EU legal requirements on particulate matter are 25m/m3, double the World Health Organisation guideline amounts of 12.5m/m3.
6.     The current relevant Brent Cycling Strategy target is to increase the mode share to 3% in 2021 from 1% in 2013.  The equivalent Brent Walking Strategy target is to increase pedestrian mode share to 30% in 2022 from 27% in 2016.
7.     For further information contact: fionamulaisho@yahoo.com
8.     CAfB website: https://cleanairforbrent.wordpress.com Twitter: @CleanAir4Brent  Facebook: Clean Air for Brent



Monday 6 November 2017

Brent Air Quality Action Plan going to Cabinet for approval

Brent Council's Air Quality Action Plan is on the agenda for approval at the next Cabinet on November 13th with a publication date of November 30th. The Council is still working on the details of implementation.

The AQAP contains 20 measures and is aimed at reducing nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter in the borough.

The measures are grouped into 5 themes:

.     Cleaner Transport 

.     Public Health and Community Engagement 

.     Exposure Reduction Measures 

.     Emissions from New Developments and Buildings 

.    Delivery Servicing and Freight
The covering report adopts a confident tone stating:
A huge amount of work is required if we are to succeed in cleaning up and taking care of our natural environment. The good news is we understand the problem, we are determined to fix it, and have a strategy for doing so. As this action plan makes clear, there is much we can and will do, both on our own and in partnership with others, to secure a future for Brent in which our air is as clean as it can possibly be.
The Full Action Plan is below. Click on bottom right corner to enlarge:




Monday 16 October 2017

Clean Air for Brent volunteers ready and willing to improve air quality in the borough

The volunteers
Update from Clean Air for Brent

New voluntary body, Clean Air for Brent (CAfB), formally launched at Willesden Library on the evening of Wednesday 11 October 2017. Fiona Mulaisho of Kensal Rise chaired an enthusiastic meeting of some 30 people who enrolled as members and elected a Steering Group to take the organisation forward. Priorities for action were identified.
Clean Air for Brent is a coalition of residents’ associations, community groups and individuals in Brent focused on raising awareness, changing behaviours and lobbying for better measures to tackle air pollution to improve public health outcomes.  
Tulip Siddiq MP had hoped to attend but was detained by Parliamentary duties. In a message to the meeting she said:
“I believe Sadiq Khan is saying the right things about air quality in London and it is high time local authority action plans’ ambition matched his own. Ultimately, however, it will be down to government to introduce the sweeping changes needed to make local air cleaner and within legal limits… I look forward to working closely with Clean Air for Brent in the coming months to advance their campaigning objectives.”
Cllr Ellie Southwood, Cabinet Member for Environmental Services, explained that Brent’s Air Quality Action Plan will go to Council for approval in November but there are many initiatives already underway. Recently all Brent schools had been sent an anti-idling toolkit to promote efforts to reduce pollution from vehicles outside schools, including from school runs.  Clean Air for Brent is ready to support any actions the Council can take to clear the air we breathe.
Clean Air for Brent reported on a range of activities they have undertaken during their formation process. These included monitoring air pollution in local streets as part of a citizen science project across London, holding “The Air We Breathe” event in Brent Civic Centre in July, attended by 80 people, setting up a website and responding in depth to local, regional and national consultations.
A lively action planning session brought forward numerous ideas for priority actions for Clean Air for Brent which the Steering Group welcomed as guidance for its next steps. There are volunteering opportunities both for experts and those with little knowledge but with enthusiasm to tackle air pollution projects individually and together. 
As Cllr Ellie Southwood said: 
“We know there is an army of people out there who are really passionate about this and can help us make a difference.”
For Clean Air for Brent Fiona Mulaisho thanked people for attending and said :
“We are ready to go and looking for more volunteers.”

You can volunteer  via the contact page on the website  https://cleanairforbrent.wordpress.com/contact/ or by emailing the cafbrent@gmail.com .

The more people that can respond to the Mayor's London Environment Strategy consultation (or at least the air quality section) the more our voices will be heard.  It closes on 17th November and here is a link: https://www.london.gov.uk/WHAT-WE-DO/environment/environment-publications/draft-london-environment-strategy-have-your-say