Cars on the road biggest polluter at Heathrow

After receiving reports on the air quality around Heathrow at this week’s meeting of the Heathrow Airport Consultative Committee (HACC) Murad Qureshi AM feels the Mayor and BAA could do a lot more to improve air quality in the area and therefore the health of people living near to Heathrow in Hillingdon, Ealing & Hounslow, as well as those visiting the area.

Murad said:  “Preliminary findings from the air quality monitoring stations indicate pollution levels stayed high during five days in April when flights were suspended because of volcanic ash.  I’ve been concerned for some time that the Mayor and BAA are not doing enough to tackle the pollution from surface transport around Heathrow, but these latest figures give us an idea of the true scale of the problem.”

Murad added: “Most of the pollution problem around Heathrow comes from surface transport.  Between them, the Mayor and BAA have it in their power to make a huge difference to air quality and quality of life in an area that has the highest concentration of  traffic pollution after central London.  They can do this now, with pricing policies, for example, they just need to decide to act on the evidence under their noses, and the Mayor should make sure proper measures are enshrined in his revised air quality strategy.”

Ends.

Notes

Murad Qureshi is a Londonwide Labour Assembly Member and is the Assembly’s Labour Group Environment spokesperson.  He represents the London Assembly on the Heathrow Airport Consultative Committee (HACC)

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