Thousands of children in London schools benefit from Mayor’s air quality audit programme

·         Mayor Sadiq Khan’s blueprints for 50 schools in most polluted areas of London will now be implemented across 200 additional schools as five London boroughs commit to extending the Mayor’s air quality audit programme.

·         Sadiq visits Salisbury Primary School in Newham to view innovative new scheme which reduces the exposure the youngest children have to toxic pollution.

·         British driver Sam Bird showcases the ABB FIA Formula E Championship’s fully electric race car to Newham pupils and speaks about the future of electric vehicles.

Two hundred schools in areas of high air pollution will put in place measures to protect pupils from toxic air, expanding a successful scheme launched by the Mayor Sadiq Khan.

Five of London’s most polluted boroughs - Newham, Islington, Southwark, Westminster and Brent - have committed to extend the Mayor’s air quality audit programme to help cut pollution in their schools. Under the Mayor’s scheme, detailed air quality audits were carried out in 50 schools across 23 London boroughs. The audits assessed the air quality in some of the capital’s worst polluted schools and made a series of recommendations to protect pupils. As part of the programme the Mayor issued a £1 million fund which provided each of the 50 audited schools with a £10,000 starter grant and enabled any of the other London schools located in areas exceeding legal air pollution limits to apply for green infrastructure funding. 

Sadiq today visited Salisbury Primary School in Newham, which received £10,000 of the Mayor’s £1 million improvement fund following their audit in 2018. With additional funding from Newham Council, the school has relocated their Day Care Centre playground away from busy Romford Road, reducing the children’s exposure to harmful emissions. 

Newham council is now extending air quality audits to all primary and secondary schools in the borough as part of a long term air quality monitoring study. The monitoring will help target clean air initiatives which currently includes a ‘Healthy School Streets’ programme and ‘anti-idling’ campaigns – both supported by the Mayor.  

The Mayor also joined pupils and leading British Formula E and Envision Virgin Racing driver Sam Bird to see the Formula E race car and learn how the ABB FIA Formula E Championship is helping to innovate electric vehicle technology and support London’s electric vehicle revolution. The fully electric racing series will return to London for their first ever event in the borough of Newham on the 25th & 26th of July at ExCeL London using a world’s first indoor/outdoor circuit. 

Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan said: "London's toxic air is directly harming the health of our children. Working with boroughs like Newham we are determined to do everything in our power to protect them and ensure future generations breathe cleaner, healthier air. It’s wonderful to see Salisbury Primary School leading the way and transforming their environment into a safe, clean space for everyone. I’m delighted that other boroughs will be following their lead in expanding our innovative air quality audits to all state run schools. 

“As Mayor, I’ve moved as fast as I can in London to implement the most ambitious plans to tackle air pollution of any major city in the world. This includes implementing the world’s first Ultra Low Emission Zone, which has already reduced harmful nitrogen dioxide pollution by almost a third in central London zone. Government must follow London’s lead and help clean up filthy air across the country. A key part of this is legally binding targets in the upcoming Environment Bill to meet World Health Organization air quality guidelines by 2030.”

Mayor of Newham Rokhsana Fiaz said: “In Newham we have one of the youngest populations in the country coupled with some of the worst air quality. According to Public Health England, Newham has one of the highest rates for deaths attributable to air quality with seven out of every 100 linked to dirty air – that’s 96 people dying prematurely each year. We also have the highest number of children admitted to hospital due to asthma-related conditions. That is why it is absolutely critical that we work together to tackle the pollution that threatens all our lives, particularly our children.

“Working together with the Mayor of London we have identified some our most affected schools and I’m delighted that we have been able to make these crucial changes at Salisbury school. But it’s not just about mitigating the worst effects of poor air quality, here in Newham we are funding an ambitious project called Newham Climate Now which over the coming months and years will clean our environment and tackle climate change, so that our future generations can grow up in a safer, cleaner and greener borough.”

Headteacher at Salisbury Primary School, Andrea Choppy said: “For many years we have been very concerned over the impact of traffic pollution on the health of our children as their playground adjoined a very busy road.  Our Junior Travel Ambassadors (JTA) and our school council children have worked very hard towards campaigning for better air quality around our school.  They were delighted when our school was highlighted as one that would be receiving the start-up funding from the Mayor’s Air Quality Audit Programme. This along with match funding from Newham Authority and further funding from the Local Authority, enabled us to install green screening on our main fence, redesign the playground and implement the changes that we have today. Our JTA’s are still campaigning against idling cars on busy roads that are adjacent to our school and welcome the opportunity of working further with the Local Authority to perhaps implement a ‘Red Zone’ around our school.”

Envision Virgin Racing British race driver, Sam Bird said: “It’s been great to visit Salisbury Primary School today with the Mayor of London to raise awareness of both the championship and the future of electric vehicles. As a leading Formula E team, we’re working hard to engage with those affected worst by pollution - particularly in the cities we race in -  with our initiative the Race Against Climate Change. It was really inspiring to see that this topic is so important to the next generation too, with the children of Salisbury Primary working hard to make a change for the better.”

Salisbury Primary School will also benefit from tough new Low Emission Zone (LEZ) standards introduced across London for heavy vehicles in just 9 months (26 October 2020).The LEZ was set up to encourage the most polluting heavy diesel vehicles driving in the Capital to become cleaner. As a result of these measures and the expansion of the Ultra Low Emission Zone up to the North and South circular roads in 2021,we expect reductions in toxic road transport nitrogen oxide emissions of around 30 per cent across London in 2021.

ENDS 

Notes to editors:

·        The ABB FIA Formula E Championship will return to London for the 2019/20 season finale double-header on the 25th and 26th of July at ExCeL London in Newham.

·         Islington, Southwark, Westminster and Brent have committed to extending the air quality audits programme and principles in their boroughs:

o   Newham Council has committed to extend air quality audits to all primary and secondary schools as part of a long term air quality monitoring study (96 schools). The monitoring will help target clean air initiatives which currently includes a ‘Healthy School Streets’ programme and ‘Anti-idling’ campaigns

o   Islington Council have committed to all primary state run schools to be audited by April 2022 (47 primary schools in total) and audits are underway.

o   Southwark Council intends to start air pollution audits in schools later this year. It is anticipated that all primary and secondary schools maintained by the council that are over the NO2 legal limit (based on 2016 modelled data) will be audited as well as every school in the Old Kent opportunity area. Private schools will have the opportunity to conduct an audit too making it 72 schools in total. 

o   Westminster have committed to ensure every education establishment (with the age ranges of 5 to 18 years old) are provided an Air Quality Audit. They have also allocated £1m of funding over four years to help primary schools after they have completed an air quality audit and received the report. Local authority schools, free schools and academies can apply for up to £10,000 each, and private schools can apply for up to £5,000. The money can be spent on building and highway improvements outside school and green infrastructure. Further info https://www.westminster.gov.uk/schools-and-air-quality.

o   Brent Council have since developed the ‘Breathe clean’ project, which has helped to raise awareness of poor air quality at most infant and primary schools in the borough, including an air quality presentation and NO2 diffusion tubes. A report will be published soon to find out where the air quality hotspots are so the council can take targeted audits and interventions at those schools.

·         London’s first rapid charging hub opened for business in Newham in December 2019, taking the total number of rapid charging points to over 300 (226 delivered by TfL), up from just a handful in 2016. The Mayor, TfL and London Councils have invested £4 million across 29 boroughs to install 1,000 new electric vehicle charging points in residential areas. This will build on work that has already seen 1,500 charging points installed across the capital to help Londoners without access to off-street parking, using innovative solutions such as retrofitting lamp posts. Compared to the rest of the United Kingdom, London is currently leading in electric vehicle infrastructure – a quarter of all charge points in the UK can be found in the capital.