Cleaning up London’s toxic air

how can anyone argue with improving the air quality in central London,
Mr Khan deserves our thanks for taking the first of many steps to get the clean air we all deserve.

The air in London will be polluted considering it has approx 1/6th of the UK population living in it.

Encourage companies to relocate out of London and the population can spread out. Keep the concentration of jobs and you keep the pollution.

Also given the Heidelberg Institute research piece (summary http://www.lead.org.au/lanv3n2/lanv3n2-4.html), should we really be encouraging new vehicles over keeping existing ones running? Note the scale change for point 4 in the diagram.

Lots of nonsense about
"i have no choice but to drive"
"The government told us to buy diesel".
The government also told you not to smoke, drink to excess or eat junk food.The government also told you to exercise, clean up after your dog and pay your taxes

Do people follow that advice closely as well?

No didn't think so

These conversation are all inevitably going to be self interested. So by way of confession, my vehicle is a Euro6 complaint Diesel - triple filtered exhaust very low emissions, just some nitrogen and water. Very little NOx. So about as good as it gets, until I go electric next year. But then... where will the power be generated, and how? Coal power stations? Nuclear? Ideally wind and solar of course - but will it be? Meanwhile will central London be less congested? And how long before all black cabs are electric and buses too - as someone else says here they are the most common and most prolific polluters. And when I am safely back home, there can be no wood burning to keep warm, a good although sad development in my view. So it's down tp the gas powered central heating. How polluting is that? When will that be inspected?

My self interest is to help save the planet. As someone wittily pointed out, there is no planet B. So let's keep going. And put up with these bumps in the road.

Absolutely one dimensional solution to all problems -TAX TAX and TAX again!!! It does nothing at all for air quality and assumes that by pricing people off the road will clean up the air!!
At the same time it is deeply hypocritical when arguably the largest contributors of ALL diesel vehicles are TFL buses or local council vehicles including buses, dustcarts and other PSVs!!

The T-charge is all about milking the cash cow motorist even further, giving the London mayor (of whatever political persuasion) more money for his or her 'pet projects!! If there was '100% compliance and thus zero revenue raised from the T-charge' - I would bet my mortgage that the congestion charge general rate would rise to fill the revenue gap!!

The air in London will be polluted considering it has approx 1/6th of the UK population living in it.

Encourage companies to relocate out of London and the population can spread out. Keep the concentration of jobs and you keep the pollution.

Also given the Heidelberg Institute research piece (summary http://www.lead.org.au/lanv3n2/lanv3n2-4.html), should we really be encouraging new vehicles over keeping existing ones running? Note the scale change for point 4 in the diagram.

I am 70 have recently had a heart valve replaced and a Heart Bypass and have lived in the London Borough of Camden 5 minutes walk south of the EUSTON Rd to the right of the south side of Tavistock Square with my wife and daughter for just under 30years.
Tavistock Place east of Upper Woburn Place has become a one way place going east.This has made a great difference to the the air pollution in our area.
I wonder if the measures announced today will make a great difference to the polluted air we will breath today.
Sadly the hedges around the small public gardens and squares south of the Euston Rd. are,as they do each autumn, loosing their leaves.
North of the Euston Rd in the London Borough of Camden there are many many high and low hedges of Privet which is EVERGREEN INDESTRUCTIBLE and RESISTANCE TO POLLUTION.
There are other dense bushes used in such hedges but none used in the London Borough of Camden south of the Euston Rd.
All of this means that the small public gardens and squares south of the Euston Rd. are never free of polluted air throughout the Autumn Winter,Spring and early Summer months.
In fact many Local People south of the Euston Rd. call them "Tourist Hedges" as the leaves on the hedges return went the majority of
Tourists arrive to fill the surrounding Hotels and AirB&B rooms.
Please can we have proper hedges maintained in our area to help us breath less polluted air when we sit or walk about these small public open spaces.
Hopefully you will read and understand my comments.
Thank you so much for all the work and interest you are all showing in air pollution and homes.
All the best,yours aye john Morris
12C Peabody Buildings Herbrand Street WC1N 1JJ

A good first step. But please can we in the ‘burbs also breathe cleaner air? And evenings and weekends as well?

I agree that the only fair way to solve the problem is for everyone who uses polluting vehicles to pay something towards the damage they cause - whether car, taxi, van lorry or bus.

And please speed up the process - make the toxicity charge 24/7, double it each year, and bring the cutoff point forward each year. The sooner we breathe clean air the better, as far as I can work out.

Why not make higher standards for passing the MOT? Then we would remove the worst vehicles.

According to the BBC, about 50% of harmful particulates in the air are caused by illegal domestic wood burning. I remember when the Clean Air Act came in, and what it was like before. People think the air is polluted today, but they have not a clue how bad it was before.
What I don't understand is that it seems legal to sell logs in London, although it is illegal to burn them.
Surely, it should be illegal to sell them as well. We have houses near us, with logs piled up by the porch, clearly showing they are using them to burn. Surely the Environmental Health people should find a means of stopping this. For example, we have scores og Traffic Enforcement motor bikes riding round checking on parking violations, so why can't we get them to use their cameras to report those who are clearly in breach of the Clean Air Acts.

I can understand the T charge in central London, however it should apply to all the taxis and buses etc, who are the main culprits.
I drive a car which falls in the T charge category, I don't drive it in central London during the operating times (and if I absolutely have to, then I will pay the charge willingly), occasionally I will venture in at an evening to go for dinner or a show, which is fine.

We were encouraged to buy diesel for so many years, now we are being hit with this penalty.

My main worry is if the zone is extended to north/south circular as it seems likely in 2019, then millions of people in the suburbs like me will have cars which are absolutely worthless, who will compensate us? It is fine for some who might be able to scrap their cars for a new, shiny, compliant one, but what about those of us who can not?

It's a disgrace that you do this in the guise of helping pollution when you ignore all other ideas to help pollution stop. Charging the average working man who's taxed enough is another burden to these people...TFL and sadiq khan should be ashamed of yourselves . Taxing motorbikes too is joke you'd be better encouraging the use of bikes to get people out of cars! If only 10% of drivers switched to motorbikes then pollution would be reduced by 40% over night so why instead do you ignore that fact instead of wanting to charge them £12.50 a day? It's all about revenue isn't it....Disgraceful

Our car is an older one and would probably hit with the £10 toxicity charge. However we hardly drive it (1000 miles a year on average) and do not go into the congestion zone using our car so we are infact very low polluters as I usually cycle to work .
Having said that the vast majority of cars on the road in London are cabs and late at night there are traffic jams (raising pollution) which 99% consist of cabs. Often are also hybrid busses, but most of the time the electric engine does not work.

If the Mayor says he is serious to reduce pollution then he should take immediate action against black cabs that don’t meet the standard.
He seems to be afraid to make that decision!
As an observation I believe that the standard of both drivers and black cabs has deteriorated.
Drivers tend to spend most of their driving with earpieces in their ears chatting to mates whilst the ride in the older black cabs is uncomfortable.