One of our members attended an event at City Hall on 6th November, which brought together people interested in – and working on – air quality issues, from across the borough.
After a presentation from Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, there was a panel discussion involving:
- Andrea Lee from Client Earth
- Shirley Rodrigues, Deputy Mayor, Environment and Energy
- Professor Stephen Holgate from the Medical Research Council
- And (chair) Polly Billington from UK100
After an informative question and answer session, the meeting broke into eight groups. Two groups each looked at the following topics:
- How can community groups help raise awareness of air pollution
- How can we encourage people to move away from using their cars for unnecessary trips
- How can we work together to ensure ULEZ is a success
- Effective lobbying: How can community groups help London get the air quality policies and support required from Government
Our representative joined a group talking about the first topic - How can community groups help raise awareness of air pollution?
The responses the groups came up with were many and varied. They included:
- Going into schools, talking to children about air quality, walking to school or taking public transport as opposed parents driving
- Getting children to plant hedges or trees outside the school to stop some pollution. These are known as Green Screens
- Working with children to get their parents involved
We plan to continue our work measuring air quality in Mitcham – so being able to share what we have learned and learn from others is very valuable.