The next Forum meeting, on Wednesday, 13 December, 6:30–8pm at the Living Centre, is a workshop on air quality, where we are going to identify what could go in an air quality policy in the neighbourhood plan and what should be in the supporting text.
We know that the air quality in Somers Town is very polluted and that the closer you live to one of the surrounding A-roads the more polluted it is.
- What are the sources of pollution in Somers Town and is there any way we can clean them up?
- What conditions could we put on developers in the area to ensure that they don’t make matters worse during and post-construction?
- As residents, are we doing our bit? Could we change our behaviour to pollute less?
- What do we think of car clubs? Electric cars?
- We know the benefits of trees and other plants in terms of health and wellbeing, but what is their impact on air pollution? Should we be planting more and, if so, where?
- Could we direct funds from the Community Investment Levy (CIL) to improve Somers Town’s air quality? If so, what are our priorities? (The CIL is money that developers have to pay as a planning condition. 25% of CIL money is spent locally, and councillors should pay regard to priorities identified in a neighbourhood plan.)
The idea of the workshop is to respond to the huge concern shown at the recent Environmental Justice Inquiry by identifying clear actions that will influence how our neighbourhood develops.
The workshop will be facilitated by The Engineering Exchange at UCL, who are hoping to develop an air quality-improving toolkit that could be adapted for other community groups/areas.