Background
The West London Air Quality Group consists of the London Boroughs of Brent, Ealing, Hammersmith & Fulham, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow and Richmond upon Thames. The group meets regularly to discuss local and regional air quality issues and works in partnership on projects developed to help reduce pollution and improve air quality in west London.
The GLA regularly produces air pollution maps for London.To see the 2008 map of nitrogen dioxide levels in West London, click on the map image below. All areas shaded red or yellow show an exceedence of the annual mean target.
As the map shows, air pollution does not respect borough boundaries and without co-operation and joint working across regional groups such as the West London Alliance,individual boroughs would find it difficult to comprehensively manage local air pollution levels. Reducing pollution in one borough by pushing the source of the problem into a neighbouring borough is not appropriate or sustainable in the long-term, and the WLA has agreed to work in partnership to seek joint solutions to air pollution problems.
West London Air Quality Strategy
The WLA boroughs have designated all or part of their areas as Air Quality Management Areas for nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and most have also designated for particulates (PM10). As well as developing local Air Quality Action Plans, a West London Air Quality Strategy has also been published.The original 2002 Strategy has been revised to cover the period 2006 – 2011 and covers the following areas of work:
• Transport and Air Quality Action Assessment
• Land Use Planning Integration
• Sustainable and Integrated Transport Action
• Integration of Climate Change
• Communication/Engagement Strategy
• Non vehicular sources
• Freight Movements
• Heathrow Airport with operational T5
The West London Air Quality Strategy 2006-11 can be downloaded here:
Air Quality Monitoring
A range of pollutants are monitored across the WLA region.Results are reported annually by individual boroughs and can be accessed on the local authority air quality web pages.
Borough Air Quality Home Pages:
Brent
Ealing
Hammersmith & Fulham
Harrow
Hillingdon
Hounslow
Richmond
Real-time monitoring data can also be accessed via the London Air Quality Network: www.londonair.org.uk
For detailed information on air quality in the vicinity of Heathrow airport,including real-time pollution levels, click here: www.heathrowairwatch.org.uk
Recent Projects
www.walkit.com– WalkIt is an online urban walking route planner. The Group funded the addition of ‘low pollution’ routes for west London which allows users to plot routes avoiding busy roadside locations and making use of shortcuts through parks etc –complete with printable maps and directions.
New Solutions to Shared Pollution– This project identified air quality “hot spots” in the region and focussed on assessing measures to reduce emissions from road transport. The advantages of alternati vevehicles/fuels were considered in the report and public transport hubs and links were also assessed for their accessibility. The report helped inthe development ofthe West London Air Quality Strategy. A second phase of work looked in detail at freight and air quality issues. The New Solutions report is available by clicking here.
Reducing Taxi Emissions– A Best Practice Guide for Reducing Emissions from Taxis has been developed and published by the Group– availableby clicking here.Within the West London region, Heathrow is a significant generator of taxi cab movements.This guide reviews measures for improving fuel consumption and reducing emissions and includes recommendations for taxi fleet operators and other organisations.
Transport and Enhanced Emissions Model – TEEM is a combined traffic and emissions model developed specifically for west London. This allows various scenarios to be tested to assess their air quality (and CO2) impacts.Working with the West London Transport Group, we are using TEEM to test the impact of a range of possible traffic management measures.
A TEEM study on emissions from goods vehicles on selected roads in west London is available here.
Contact
If you would like to contact us, please contact Rob Gibson,Chair of the West London Air Quality Group on rob.gibson@hounslow.gov.uk.