BOW EAST residents are unimpressed by the announcement that the London Mayor is giving Tower Hamlets Council £350,000 to spend on helping small businesses to improve air quality in the borough.
Air quality was one of the reasons why people living on Fish Island in the north-east of Tower Hamlets campaigned against a new road bridge being built. They feared that the bridge – known as H14 – would encourage more through traffic to pile into Fish Island’s narrow streets, drastically reducing air quality. Local representative Cllr Rachel Blake supported the residents’ campaign to stop the road bridge – as did Tower Hamlets Executive Mayor John Biggs. London Mayor Sadiq Khan took no notice and consented to the bridge going ahead.
All was forgiven – or at least forgotten – this week when Sadiq Khan visited Tower Hamlets to announce that he was giving the Council £350,000 for the Executive Mayor to spend on improving air quality. Cash-strapped Tower Hamlets Council has to throw in a matching £350,000. Deputy Mayor Cllr Rachel Blake – who represents Bow East ward, in which Fish Island is located, came out to welcome Sadiq to Tower Hamlets.
Tower Hamlets Council was one of the first Councils in the UK to declare a “climate emergency”. During the first year of the emergency, the Council concentrated on advising residents how to do their bit to improve air quality: for example, motorists were advised to turn off their engines rather than let them idle wherever possible. With all the extra drivers that Mayor Khan (and Poplar Harca) were encouraging into the borough, that was an ever-expanding audience.
Now, with the assistance of the London Mayor’s money – which amounts to just over £1 per head of the Borough’s resident population – the Council intends to help small businesses take measures to improve air quality. Over 2,000 local businesses employ fewer than ten people, and there are some 1,200 market traders in Tower Hamlets. The Council recognises that it is hard for these businesses to invest in measures – such as buying new vehicles which cause less pollution than older fleet. The Council intends to help businesses play their part by introducing schemes such as: •cargo bikes that can undertake local deliveries; •on-site storage for market traders who will then not have to move stock to and from their stalls each day; •travel grants for employees to use on more sustainable forms of transport, such as cycling; •more electric vehicle charging points, which businesses and residents can share.
These air quality improvement projects will be run in Chrisp Street, Whitechapel Road and other locations. If you are in these areas, watch out for more cyclists coughing their way past the increased volumes of through traffic which Mayor Khan and Poplar Harca have encouraged into Tower Hamlets as increased numbers of planes fly overhead to the newly expanding London City Airport.
Cllr Blake remained hopeful, saying, “we need everyone in Tower Hamlets to help us take action, and this funding boost will help us to provide tangible ways that local businesses can reduce vehicle emissions. This is just the latest in a number of local initiatives we’re running to improve air quality and tackle climate change.”
However, one local Bow East resident commented, “Sadiq Khan may be coughing up £350k, but Fish Island residents will be coughing up something much less pleasant when his bridge opens and traffic clogs up the area.”
•Read more about this story: Fish Island bridges: Biggs anti, Sadiq unmoved
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