Yes, I think the asking nicely rarely works and many schools now wash their hands of the parents and suggest you contact the council. It is understandable since if residents get verbal abuse and threats from asking parents to move while idling or parking over a driveway. The reaction to teachers or a patrol of kids would be similar as these people have a sense of entitlement. I don’t think closing streets for a short period of time will stop people driving their kids, they will arrive early or they will just drop them off on neighbouring streets.
I do agree with planting on main roads to reduce pollution but many of our schools are on residential roads and I think more emphasis should be put on removing the cars than putting in plants to remove the pollutants. Yes will work outside the school but what about when kids walk to school on the parts of these roads which are outside houses which in many case have no hedges just driveways.
I think it will not be long before only electric vehicles will be allowed in city areas
Planting hedges would just contain the pollution on the streets. Presumably drivers and passengers would then breathe more polluted air.
Some pollution can be “trapped” close to pedestrians by plants/trees, but greening up streets scrubs harmful gases from the air too (see page below), so overall probably beneficial?
Electric cars (and modern, efficiently-allocated public transport using hybrids/EVs - like Uber, for example) are the answer.
I’ve just switched to an electric car. It’s a game changer for driving pleasure, too. I’m delighted with it.
I’ve been in touch with an expert from the University of Birmingham who has been working with TFL on regreening. Some detailed guidelines are going to be published in a couple of weeks so I will share them here but in the meantime this is the factsheet they have produced:
Might you be able to write more about how you go about moving to electric-getting a charging point etc? And the cost benefit?
I’d love to change to an electric car (recently changed from horrible diesel to petrol with an eco boost feature which prevents idling, but we couldn’t afford electric). However, given the savings I could have made running an electric car, if I had got a loan it would probably be more cost effective in the long term.
I’m trying to encourage the local sainsburys to trial affordable loans for electric cars-imagine, people could charge them at the Sydenham sainsburys whilst doing their shopping which would improve bell green’s air.
Can anyone make it to the assembly meeting on 21st?
It was great to hear Cllr Louise Krupski talk about the good things Lewisham Council are doing to make the air cleaner in the borough and to reduce CO2 emissions.
The ULEZ is expected to reduce NOX by 30% north of south circular and 26% south of it as businesses change their fleets and car owners change their diesels (which are rapidly loosing value) to electric or petrol.
In previous years, London surpassed its air quality target for the whole year by 6th Jan. This year it hasn’t been announced yet-so things are improving, but they are still bad.
Lewisham benefits from the High level research done by kings and has won awards for the steps it is taking. These include:
-Education of parents through kids about reducing idling and cycling/walking to school
-Working with the construction industry to reduce CO2.
-Partnerships with businesses in north London to reduce freight use and create clean air villages.
-Liveable Neighbourhood grants to improve cycling and walking networks.
-Starting to increase electric charging points on street from currently 10 to 16 this year to ultimate goal of there being a point within a 10 minute walk of every resident.
But there is more that can be done if the community get behind these schemes and start our own schemes.
You can sign up to the clean air pledge on the council website to do something positive today.
Evidence from Birmingham university has calculated that hedges actually absorb Co2 and the NOX and small
Particles are deposited on their leaves and washed off by rainwater (becoming harmless) so they trap pollution in a good way. The best thing you can do to reduce pollution in your home is to plant a hedge outside.
Hedges in regreening schemes would be low so wouldn’t have the trapping effect of tree canopies which can overhang.
There are guidelines soon to be published about this.
Further info on the Climate Emergency Declaration at Lewisham Council-sounds scary but it’s a really positive step. It’s starts at 7.30, not 8.30 as previously posted (but the issue is expected to be heard around 8.30).
Yes there is evidence that some tree canopies which overhang can make NOX pollution worse because it traps the small particles which can’t fly up into atmosphere. But they absorb lots of CO2 so are excellent for combating climate change -don’t chop ‘em down! Some trees like field
Maple and silver birch are better at filtering not trapping pollutants.
If trees were combined with hedges the hedges could filter the pollution first before it has a chance to trap pollution.
If there are no trees on your road, hedges might be better at trapping NOX (but less effective at CO2) so I think the trick is to get both working.
I want to get some research done on this with Kings and I’m finding out if Street Trees for Living have already done some so watch this space.
Thanks @Hedgeways thats really interesting!
Back in the mists of time one of my undergraduate projects was about the street canyon effect and pollutant concentrations, we were looking at PM10 and PM2.5 as well as NOX if memory serves. I should see if I still have the results anywhere! Are there any pollution monitoring stations anywhere in forest hill?
Ooh how exciting! Please come to the meeting on 9th March to tell us more about it if you can.
I’m just a concerned Mum who’s been googling and emailing people-not an expert or scientist. Would be great to have you on board.
There are lots of “diffusion tubes” across London which feed live info into kings map so yes there are ones somewhere in forest hill-not sure what they look like. There is a monitoring station in new cross and we are soon to get one in honor oak which will do lots of research extra research.
It seems futile to make driving easier at the cost of public transport. More cars does not equal less pollution. Every bus that stops there seems to disgorge upwards of 10 people, I would imagine that equates to a significant number of cars off the road.
Surely a better approach is what support do people need to get out of their cars and onto those buses?
What would support you to leave your car behind and get on the bus?
Hi Mjohnstone, that was not what I was suggesting. It is not the fact that there are nearby bus stops, but rather the arrangement of the nearby bus stops and the junction that is the issue.
Glad you asked - a better bus service. The bus service for Forest Hill is noticeably poorer than elsewhere I have lived in London, despite the good road links. It is not the frequency of busses, but the routes they take. Very often the suggested public transport route to get to a destination in South London is via London Bridge rail station.
Everyone loves an example, so take Forest Hill station to Clapham South station. Leaving now, City Mapper suggests:
