Cllr Adam Harrison

• IN a ham-fisted Town-Hall manoeuvre in December, Conservative councillors demanded that Camden’s new air pollution plan be adopted by the council, incorporating solely their own amendments.

The Tories’ signed statement disregarded the need to consult the people of Camden, failing to recognise that cleaning up our dirty air needs the whole community behind it.

Fortunately, after the contrived delay, the draft plan went out to consultation this week, and only once we have collected in the views of residents, community groups, and businesses will the new action plan be agreed.

To pave the way to this point, last year we set up the Camden Clean Air Partnership, under UCL citizen science professor Muki Haklay and with the involvement of a wide range of groups and Camden citizens.

While transport remains an important source of air pollution, the draft plan the partnership helped devise contains an enhanced focus on pollution from construction and from buildings themselves.

Ideas include deploying the planning regime to enforce against polluting construction machinery like generators and bulldozers. We also need to ensure as many buildings as possible are retrofitted to reduce harmful emissions. I hope as many people as possible have their say.

You can find the full set of proposals at https://consultations.wearecamden.org

CLLR ADAM HARRISON
Cabinet Member for Improving Camden’s Environment