Ealing Transition Clean Air Strategy Created by the People of Ealing:

Sunday 30th October 2016

A BREATH OF FRESH AIR

Introduction

• The following pages reflect a summary of the ideas and opinions of the 150 people who attended the Ealing Transition event held on 3rd October 2016 at which Professor Frank Kelly presented the latest results of analyses into public health and air pollution.

Travel: Drive the Transition to Electric Vehicles

• More charging points – mandatory in car parks and garages

• Free parking and reserved spaces for electric vehicles / car clubs

• Council and large employers to set example with fleet buying, visibly (e.g. ‘I’m Electric’)

• Grant aid for private / shared charging points

• Lobby for a ‘clean corridor’ along the Uxbridge Road

• Consider the potential of trolleybuses (vs battery-based systems) along Uxbridge Road

Travel: Drive the Reduction of Diesel

• Create visible pollution monitoring & displays at local hot spots and outside schools

• Raise awareness of idling at key junctions / drop-off points

• Set a target – e.g. a diesel-free borough by 2025 – and publicise (along the lines of ‘Fossil Free’ divestment campaign)

• Lobby for diesel scrappage scheme, starting with taxis & minicabs

• Increase parking charges for diesel / more polluting vehicles

Travel: Reduce Miles Travelled in the Borough

• Require all delivery companies to pool resources to ensure reduction in total journeys

• Encourage uptake of grocery delivery (more efficient than customer car journeys) and local shopping on foot and by bike.

• Try to keep more of our waste in Ealing e.g. food waste converted to biogas / electricity. Work with supermarkets and local businesses on food waste.

Travel: Give Cycling a Real Boost

• Create safe cycling lanes

• Give cyclists priority in key areas

• Pilot and assess ‘mini-Holland’ schemes and car free days

• Incentives for council staff to cycle, extended to local employers

Travel: Manage and Mitigate

• Plant trees and hedges in hot spots

• Limit front garden conversion, require rainwater capture to be included in design

• Incremental parking charges for families with more than one car

• Raise awareness of Heathrow as pollution hot-spot due to both planes and cars – campaign against 3rd runway on the basis of public health concerns

• Lobby for frequent flyer tax (70% of flights taken by 15% of population)

• Develop a 3rd Runway mitigation plan, generating funds for clean public transport in Ealing

Business: Put Business to Work

• Integrate clean air standards into council procurement strategies – start demanding change.

• Integrate clean air objectives into major projects e.g. solar roofs onto Crossrail stations (see Blackfriars Bridge)

• Raise awareness of the issue / impact of toxic air among local employers (chambers of commerce etc)

• Local audits / accreditation along the lines of Fairtrade (could be called ‘Ealing Green’?) for businesses that adhere to a number of action standards e.g. buying power from a green electricity supplier, installing solar panels / green roofs, setting up cycle to work schemes, providing showers. Consider business rate rebates / incentives.

Business: Put Business to Work

• Identify key land owners / landlords to approach regarding renewable energy e.g. solar power on roofs

• London-wide lobbying of large fleet operators / leasing companies – supermarkets, taxi firms, post office, taxi firms, couriers to reduce use of diesel.

• Naming and shaming big local polluters

• Encouraging pension funds of local businesses to divesting fossil fuel investments

• Create a virtual hub of best-in-class business practice, from solar panels to recycling coffee grounds, and publicise through Around Ealing

• Ban outdoor gas burners in Ealing

Buildings: Get Serious About Energy Saving

• Enshrine pollution / energy reduction objectives in planning policy.

• Ensure stronger planning enforcement / demands of all new builds.

• Lobby central government for tighter standards (as opposed to recent watering down).

• Create a virtual or real knowledge hub / advice centre (again this could be called ‘Ealing Green’) for householders and builders, available through the Council’s website, detailing energy-saving eco improvements to the fabric of buildings.

• Point people to thermally efficient products (e.g. sash windows) that may be used in conservation zones.

• Create a database of best-practice case studies from around the Borough (e.g. South Ealing Passivhaus).

Buildings: Get Serious About Energy Saving

• Consider a home improvement ‘fair’ designed around Ealing’s housing stock.

• Explore where ‘whole-street’ solutions (e.g. external insulation) have been carried out in the UK.

• Lobby for support (data / literature, technology briefings) from central government. Organise expert briefing days for planning department.

Schools: Educate Children and Parents

• Raise awareness of air pollution with parents via newsletters, posters etc. Option of visits / talks by Ealing Transition and other environmental groups. Train parents as low carbon/clean air advocates.

• ‘Live’ monitors to provide air quality data as a constant reminder.

• Encourage parents to leave cars at home, co-operate to create walking buses etc, use cycle lanes. Engage with parents who drive their children to school

• Create a schools ‘hub’ to compare best practice.

• Build on Castlebar and Grange solar initiatives – a great educational tool.

• Improved defences – tree and hedge planting, green routes, green walls

• Encourage the Eco Schools award, create Eco committees comprising pupils and staff.

Get Involved

• www.londonair.org.uk

• www.healthyair.org.uk

• You can contribute to the Mayor's consultation on pollution at https://consultations.tfl.gov.uk/environment/air-quality-consultation-phase-2/?cid=airquality-consultation#Have your say

A Vision for Ealing 2030 (to be developed)

• By 2030 we will have reinstated Ealing as ‘the queen of the suburbs’.

• Ealing will once again be a beautiful place to live – and breathe.

• Diesel emissions will be a thing of the past. We will have driven the transition to electric cars and car pooling. This, coupled with the advent of driverless technology, will mean that owning your own vehicle is no longer an attractive proposition. Consequently, there will be fewer cars on our roads and fewer cars parked in our neighbourhoods.

• Fleets of electric vehicles will deliver groceries. Smaller deliveries will be made by drone

• Many Ealing Streets will be closed to traffic and cycling will be the preferred mode of transport for many residents.

• Commuters will travel into central London on Crossrail trains powered by renewable energy, some of it generated in Ealing

• All of the borough’s food waste will be recycled into biogas and electricity