14/05/2017 London News

Campaigners for cleaner air say London is in the grip

of a health emergency and are urging all political parties

Our Environment Correspondent, Tom Edwards, reports on how

the parties are reacting - realising it's an issue that

A community in Kennington demanding action on bad air.

My name is Aoife, I'm seven years old...

They want all parties to sign their Clean Air pledge.

I want to try and clean up the pollution in the air.

so when I get older I won't have lung disease or problems

There needs to be a Clean Air agenda.

We can't continue like this, this is a killer.

We are pretending it's not there because you can't see it,

ARCHIVE: Here is the main source of atmospheric pollution.

The last big political intervention on air quality

The Clean Air Act banned coal after the great smog,

There are now calls for new legislation to tackle

About 50% of nitrogen dioxide is due to road traffic.

The mayor says he can deal with about half of that

with his ultralow emission zone where the polluter pays,

but he'll need help from whoever is elected here to deal

Children here at the Royal Brompton see the impact of London's high

levels of pollution, especially nitrogen dioxide.

These doctors want action and this week,

took their message to Downing Street.

It is about removing the vehicle fleet,

removing the vehicles that are most polluting, particularly

In Kennington, the Women's Equality Party, the Greens,

the Liberal Democrats and Labour all pledge to clean up pollution.

We really do want to see a diesel scrappage scheme because we think

getting diesel cars off our roads is the most important thing we can

do to improve the air quality, particularly in London,

particularly in places like Kennington.

The running that Sadiq Khan has done in London with higher emission

zones and his toxicity charge have to now become national and that's

As we got rid of smog in the past, we need to do with this and it needs

We do need a diesel scrappage scheme, and you know who should pay?

The car-makers should pay because they are the ones

who cheated on the standards we established at a European level.

The Conservatives didn't attend this event, they say they would only

charge diesel drivers as a last resort.

The real public health issues are in areas of

our main cities where there are particular problems.

That's where we should be focusing our effort.

We don't want to see a national programme of penalising motorists.

Clean air campaigners say London is now in the grip of a health

emergency and say all parties should make tackling it a priority.

So Tom any difference in the ways the parties are handling it? I think

you can detect differences in how they'll get the behaviour change and

get people out of the older, more polluting Decemberles. Labour seem

to say they'll charge the older Decemberles to go into more polluted

area. Conservatives say they will only do that as a last resort. I

have to say campaigners are describing that approach as

ineffective. Another issue is the courts are involved in all of this

protest due to environmental lawyers taking the Government to court on a

number of occasions over this issue. Their founder said recently they are

going to have to oblige the Government to do things, not ask

them. It is feasible that the courts could create the pollution policy,

whoever wins this election. It will be interesting to see what

happens. In other news, a teenager has died

after a mass brawl in Enfield last night where he was stabbed. A man

was stabbed and killed also in daylight in east London, the latest

victim was 18. Two other teenagers were taken to hospital but their

injuries are believed not to be life threatening.

Tomorrow's weather and rain will spread in from

It'll die out a bit by the afternoon but it'll still be

cloudy with the temperature reaching 17 Celsius.

That's it from the BBC London weekend team.

Monday is looking damp not whet for most. Not as lovely as Sunday. This

picture sent in. Lovely conditions. This is where the weather is coming

from off the Atlantic and the will he pressure that swung in from quite

far south. This is where the air is coming from. It'll be quite warm

with the rain. The rain most of the time won't be heavy but across the

hills, particularly around western Britain it will be heavy. Here it

is, through the early hours of the morning, into the south-west, Wales,

moving into Northern Ireland, and western parts of Scotland. At this