When I read how air pollution stops children’s lungs developing properly, I see the children I know. Family, friends, neighbours. Children who live, study and play in London.
They are all being harmed by pollution: 98 per cent of London schools are in areas exceeding World Health Organization limits.
Children growing up in polluted areas in London have smaller lungs than children in the rest of England. The average loss of breathing capacity is about the size of two large eggs. It’s damage that will affect their health for the rest of their lives.
In some places, you can taste and see the pollution. On the approach to the Blackwall Tunnel there are queues of vehicles alongside homes and schools; walls and windows are covered in a layer of black soot. Sadiq Khan has acknowledged that it’s the poorest Londoners, least likely to own a car, who are most likely to suffer from toxic air pollution. And yet he is pushing ahead with plans for a new road tunnel here.
Every Southwark air quality monitor breaks World Health Organisation safety levels
The Silvertown Tunnel would lock London into more pollution and congestion, draining away millions of pounds that could be spent instead on helping people to get around safely, without burning fossil fuels. The scheme is financed by a PFI deal, an approach which has been disastrous for universities and hospitals. Rather than taking a brave decision to update his ideas, the Mayor now claims that it will be too expensive to cancel the contract.
Challenging the financial argument head on, Green London Assembly member Sian Berry recently put forward a plan to cover the cost of cancellation. She proposed a trial of smart road pricing at the Blackwall Tunnel: to raise income, reduce congestion and help get a London-wide scheme right.
Cancel Silvertown and we can invest instead in better, cheaper public transport and non-polluting travel. In 2000, on average 1,125 people a day crossed Blackfriars Bridge on bikes. In 2020, it was 8,900. What changed? Transport for London built a wide, smooth cycle path, physically separated from motor traffic.
Freeing ourselves from Silvertown, we could return to plans for a much-needed foot and cycle bridge linking Rotherhithe to Canary Wharf. Could you ask your councillors to encourage the Mayor to make the healthy swap Southwark needs?
