With London sweltering under the summer sun, more people are aware of the filthy air which politicians and planners have allowed to develop over the past 50 years.

In just one London borough, Tower Hamlets, it is estimated that air pollution caused the early deaths of 100 people last year.

London Assembly member John Biggs is calling on Mayor Boris Johnson to take air pollution more seriously because it is a life and death issue, as well as degrading everyone’s quality of life.

Regular exposure to fine particles (PM2.5s) can cause people to die nine years prematurely. Children have stunted lungs and 690,000 Londoners suffer from asthma.

Particle pollution is responsible for 4,300 premature deaths in London each year at a cost of £2 billion. The main culprit of course is road transport which politicians have failed to confront for years. Other forms of pollution from cars include carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide.

The City of London has already breached air quality rules on more than 36 days in 2010.

“The greatest legal breaches occur in inner London and near the busiest roads,” said Simon Birkett, founder of the Campaign for Clean Air in London.

London Assembly member Mike Tuffrey said: “Because air pollution is largely invisible, Whitehall and the mayor have been able to dither and delay.”


Mr Tuffrey is calling for a clean air zone, policed by CCTV.

Mayor Johnson however is driving in the other direction, planning to dismantle the western extension of the congestion charge zone, which will result in a revenue loss of £70 million.

It is the “daftest” of the mayor’s “daft” transport policies, said the Campaign for Clean Air in London.

The campaign is urging people to make their feelings known at

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Campaigners say that if motorists are antisocial enough to drive cars into central London, they should at least pay for other Londoners to enjoy good public transport.

The congestion zone, introduced by former mayor Ken Livingstone, has been the only serious attempt to tackle air pollution in London for a generation.

Boris Johnson has also cancelled £3.7 billion worth of London Transport improvements, Central London trams, extension of the Docklands Light Railway to Dagenham, extension of the Croydon tram to Crystal Palace, a tram scheme for Oxford Street and plans for more pedestrian space on London’s major squares.

Britain has been given a second and final warning by the European Commission to clean up the capital’s air.

Campaign for Clean Air in London

European action