Forum Topic

Horn Lane pollution: meeting on Thursday 16th

At a recent cabinet meeting Ealing Council agreed to bid for £400,000 of funds from London Mayor’s Air Quality Fund.  The Council also pledged “to formally commit to take action to improve local air quality and become an air quality exemplar borough”. The report failed to even mention Horn Lane which is by far the worst pollution hot spot in the borough.  In order to challenge the council to explain its current understanding of this pollution and to explain its plans to reduce it the Conservative opposition on the council has “called in” this decision.  This means that it will be discussed in detail at a meeting of the council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee at 7.30pm on Thursday 16th May (Committe Room 3).  If you would like to speak at this meeting please contact Mr Keith Fraser (Fraserk@ealing.gov.uk or 0208 825 7497). If you don’t want to speak please come along to listen so that the council can understand the strength of feeling on this issue. Those of us going will let you know comes of this.

Vlod Barchuk ● 4876d39 Comments

No need to speak, the volume of people simply attending the public gallery to show concern will speak ........ errrrr, volumes!!!The Meeting is in Ealing Town Hall and starts at 7:00 pm next Thursday 16th May.

Rosco White ● 4875d

Anyone know if draconian security arrangements are routine for meetings at Ealing Town Hall ?The last time I was there (planning commitee on the Southall biofuel power station) there was a big contingent of security guards and no bags whatsoever were permitted. Admission only became possible when one protester offered to look after all the bags in a coffee shop next door while the rest of us were able to attend to hear the discussion and the unanimous rejection by the councillors.

Tim Henderson ● 4874d

Reminder .................................

Rosco White ● 4874d

Another Reminder ......................................

Rosco White ● 4873d

Thanks Vlod and Rosco.

Angela White ● 4873d

This graph compares the level of PM10 particulate matter in the air on Horn Lane with sites on the Western Avenue and the Hanger Lane Gyratory System since Monday 29th April.  It is clear that Horn Lane can be 3, 4 or 5 times more polluted than the busiest of roads in the Borough.  This pollution is largely driven by the industrial sites immediately adjacent to Acton Mainline Station.  I raised the Horn Lane pollution issue at cabinet on 23rd April by handing out a similar graph.  The minutes of the meeting recorded: “That Cabinet notes the tabled graph showing the PM10 Particulates (hourly means) for Horn Lane”.  On 29th April the Conservative opposition on the council “called in” the cabinet decision.  This means that the Horn Lane pollution issue will be discussed in detail at a meeting of the council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee at 7.30pm on Thursday 16th May.  This meeting is held in public and will allow residents to hear what the council has to say on this matter.  Since the cabinet meeting the leader of the council, Cllr Julian Bell, has invited representatives of West Acton Residents Association and me to meet with officers from the council’s regulatory side and him this afternoon at 5pm.  This meeting will be a useful preamble to the public meeting on Thursday.  Cllr Bell was due to meet with Acton, Chiswick and Ealing MP, Angie Bray, on Friday to discuss this issue but he cancelled that meeting and invited her last Friday lunchtime (12.33pm) to come tonight – not really possible if you are an MP on a three line whip (as Julian Bell, part-time Parliamentary researcher for Virendra Sharma, would have known full well).  Having raised this issue in Parliament, initiating an adjournment debate, Angie is very unhappy to be so obviously sidelined by Bell.  The message I will be giving Cllr Bell and the council tonight is that residents want to know what the council is going to do when to clean up Horn Lane.  The council has been monitoring this pollution for eight years and it is two and a half years since Angie raised it in Parliament.    The council is stirring.  If you want it to move faster and to give this matter the priority it deserves come to the Committee Room 3 at the Town Hall at 7.30pm on Thursday.

Phil Taylor ● 4872d

Rosco White ● 4872d

PM 10 levels from 1-14 May Graph.

Nikki Howard ● 4872d

What's going on?

Angela White ● 4871d

I see from http://www.londonair.org.uk/london/asp/publicstats.asp?region=0&site=EA8&Maptype=Google&mapview=PM10b&statyear=2013&la_id=&zoom=11&lat=51.50959718054336&lon=-0.27191162109375&laEdge=that the PM10 particulates statistics for Horn Lane monitor have it at the limit value of 35 days for 2013 (which I think is the worst monitor site in London for 2013).So we can't have an average over 50ug/m3 for another day until 1st Jan 2014 without breaking the law !

Tim Henderson ● 4871d

On Thursday night the council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee met to discuss the issue of pollution in Horn Lane.  The Labour transport and environment spokesman, Cllr Bassam Mahfouz, and a couple of the Labour committee members seemed to think that this was not a good use of their time but ten local residents turned up and three of them spoke very well about the poor air quality of their neighbourhood.  Coincidentally on Thursday King’s College London announced: On Wednesday 15th May 2013, the monitoring site on Horn Lane, Acton became the first location in London to breach the National Air Quality Strategy (NAQS) Objective for PM10 for the year. The NAQS objective allows a daily mean PM10 concentration of 50 ug m-3 on not more than 35 days per year. Provisional measurements indicate that PM10 on Horn Lane has been above this threshold for 36 days during 2013.The meeting heard from Cllr Mahfouz that in spite of his pique the council was proposing an Air Quality Summit for Horn Lane that brings together the council, the Environment Agency and Transport for London.  This was a new idea.  One not heard at cabinet on 23rd April.  One not heard when Cllr Bell arranged for West Acton Residents’ Association to meet officers on 14th May.  I think we can assume that the combination of the call in and residents concerns have galvanised Cllr Bell into action.  He has been in contact with his old boss Chris Smith, who is now chairman of the Environment Agency.  Good.  The officers speaking at the meeting were surprised when the committee disagreed with their view that the summit should be for officials only.  The committee recommended that representatives of residents and local councillors should be involved too.  A good night for residents I think.

Phil Taylor ● 4868d

I would heartily agree on the value of the meeting.Appendix C (the list of the 20 Air Focus Areas in Ealing) was brandished at the meeting with Horn Lane prominent at the top of the list - and it was claimed that it was intended to action all the problem areas. But it is not clear that Appendix C was any part of the original proposed bid for funding and para 3.9 says that the locations listed "not only exceed the EU annual mean limit for NO2 but are also locations with high levels of human exposure" and the bid funding distribution in para 4.2 allocates all the potential £400K to areas which do not explicitly include Horn Lane. I would argue that Horn Lane's problem is PM10 rather than NO2 and the health impacts of breaching the PM10 limit have hitherto been thought to be more serious and more directly linked to health issues than NO2.The Qualifying Criteria for funding (Appendix A) include1. Political Action ....the authority will have to pledge to take significant action to improve local air quality2. Taking Action ...taking decisive action to address air pollution especially where human exposure and vulnerability is highestNot having Horn Lane as a prioritised area would seem to me to be ignoring these criteria. One hopes that the proper raising of the inadequacy of the original paper and its escalation of the issue to higher levels of the Council, GLA and Environment Agency has not harmed the chances of more resources coming to Ealing to help the health of its residents.

Tim Henderson ● 4867d

There is a press report indicating that the decisions have been made on the Mayor's Air Quality Funding bids :http://www.london24.com/news/mayor_pledges_5m_to_tackle_air_pollution_in_london_1_2246572No mention of Ealing there - and I can't find the full press release on the Mayor's website.Here's hoping......

Tim Henderson ● 4833d

Even if Ealing Borough gets the funding the Council spoke at the C'tee meeting of planting more shrubs, applying more sticky stuff to the road surfaces, etc - oh, and spending (I recall) c£100,000+ on more consultancy on the problem!Shows just how completely out of touch they are.My suggestion on the night - spend the whole lot of the funding on hiring & training more Enforcement Officers and then Enforce the clear cut Regulations that are already in place and being broken daily.But that's far too commonsensical for Ealing Council.

Rosco White ● 4833d

The press article says :"Mayor of London Boris Johnson said: “This is all about helping local people to take forward projects that they know will help tackle the most polluted parts of their neighbourhoods. "LOCAL PEOPLE - PROJECTS - TACKLE MOST POLLUTED PARTS.... !!Enforcement of controls that are already in place seems sensible to me.

Tim Henderson ● 4833d

TfL have issued the release on the allocations from the Mayor's Air Quality Fund :http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/media/newscentre/28152.aspxEaling Ealing Air Quality Exemplar Borough(Scenario Development to inform Air Quality Action Planning) Green infrastructure 100,000 Package of air quality measures to complement the major transport scheme planned at Ealing Broadway and Haven Green. These include green infrastructure, walking and cycling initiatives, and extensive air quality monitoringComparing this with the funding bid as outlined at the Scrutiny Meeting, it isn't clear to me which bits Ealing is being funded to do. The whole bid was £400K over 3 years with £152K for 2013/2014 of which Boris has given £100K.But the situation gets more confused as Ealing also appears in a partnership bid : WestTrans: Ealing, Brent, Hammersmith & Fulham, Harrow, Hillingdon and Hounslow AQ impact assessment of West London Strategic Transport Corridors Green infrastructure, cycling, education 150,000 To assess the Air Quality impact of West Trans' Multi-Modal Studies and Implementation PlansMeanwhile the Hammersmith and Fulham priority is to tackle the waste transfer station in Scrubs Lane !!!:Hammersmith & Fulham Scrubs Lanes Dust Suppression Project Dust suppressant 100,000 Trial and monitoring of dust suppressant technology along Scrubs Lane and the nearby large waste transfer stations

Tim Henderson ● 4831d

You will find this link of interest re how London's pollution from roads is getting worse.... http://cleanairinlondon.org/sources/carcinogenic-diesel-exhaust-disclosed-for-every-significant-road-in-london/PS A40 is sometimes used to describe Oxford St and or Westway.

Iain Muir ● 4831d

Indeed it is interesting - but the link only reports on the emissions calculated by the London Atmospheric Emissions Inventory using their model of what comes out of exhaust pipes. The recent work published by Defra reporting on the real world emissions from vehicles as detected by remote sensing equipment positioned on the roadside (done in Ealing and the City of London) unfortunately shows that the models and the assumptions haven't been terribly good.http://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/reports/cat05/1305201434_130514_DefraRemoteSensingReport_Final.pdf The predictions that newer diesels would be much better has not come true as expected. To some extent this explains why London air quality has not improved at the rate needed to meet the EU legislation and further measures are going to be required. I guess it isn't the time to buy a new diesel car if you want to use it mainly around town !But all this hasn't much to do with Horn Lane's problem - Rosco's idea of proper enforcement of a stringent waste licence that does what it is supposed to seems good to me.

Tim Henderson ● 4831d

Today's Defra announcement "Environment Minister Dan Rogerson has announced the local authorities to receive new funding from the Air Quality Grant Programme"https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-projects-receive-1-million-to-improve-local-air-qualityincludes another dab in the fist to continue studying the Horn Lane problem........LB Ealing Coordinated approach to Horn Lane, incl. PM monitoring and source apportionment and LES for PM & NOx. £29,000

Tim Henderson ● 4673d

And rather than"LB Ealing Coordinated approach to Horn Lane, incl. PM monitoring and source apportionment and LES for PM & NOx. £29,000 "the Mayor of London's press release " Mayor secures more than £300,000 to boost air quality in the capital"https://www.london.gov.uk/media/mayor-press-releases/2013/11/mayor-secures-more-than-300000-to-boost-air-quality-in-thesays the grant is "Improved air quality monitoring and analysis at one of London’s most polluted industrial sites (Horn Lane) to help plan and deliver better solutions."Actually delivering a solution, eh ?

Tim Henderson ● 4673d

"Improved air quality monitoring and analysis" - Yep, the elapsed nine years monitoring & analysis isn't enough.No need to DO anything and STOP the pollution, just keep monitoring & analysing and producing lovely data for charts & graphs.

Rosco White ● 4672d

If you read the guidance from the Mayor on putting in bids, you will see that councils could only bid for money to be spent is specific areas. The Mayor did not include the Horn Lane site. I've no idea why not, but his clean air website is mostly about traffic pollution, whereas Horn Lane is largely an industrial problem.I guess that Vlod and Phil have not read that bit of the funding document. (see http://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/mayors_air_quality_fund_bidding_guidance.pdf appendix 1)

Pete Grist ● 4670d

I haven't read the guidance at all. As it's about traffic pollution, it's not relevant to the problems of Horn Lane, the solution to which is use of existing data to identify pollution sources and enforcement of existing powers.

Vlod Barchuk ● 4670d

But you were happy to make out at the start of this thread that the bid Ealing put in should have included Horn lane when it wasn't an option open to them.

Pete Grist ● 4670d

Peter,You are missing the point.  Or maybe just point scoring.  The council has not been proactive enough in tackling Horn Lane pollution.  The local Conservatives used the opportunity of air pollution being discussed at cabinet to highlight the Horn Lane issue and call the paper in to force additional discussion at Overview and Scrutiny.  Our objective was simply to keep the administration focused on Horn Lane pollution.  As a result the leader of the council got involved and wrote to the  Environment Agency which resulted in an inter-agency meting on Horn Lane.  As well as working through the mechanisms of the council MP Angie Bray has raised this issue twice in debates in Parliament.  Without this climate of political interest it is unlikely that Hanson would have troubled itself to submit its rebuilt plant to retrospective planning permission.  Angie Bray has persuaded the operators at Horn Lane to meet residents on a regular basis.  The next operator/resident consultation meeting is on 5th December on site.  There is a lot more work to be done to clean up Horn Lane.  Ignoring it and hoping it will go away is not the way forward.

Phil Taylor ● 4670d

PhilI can't see how mixing up the bid for some Boris money on road emissions with Horn Lane, helps the Horn Lane issue. You could have got clearer focus by putting forward a specific resolution oh Horn Lane.Horn Lane has obviously been polluting for a lot longer than the last three years, so no administration can claim the high ground. A joint effort to get the Environment Agency and Hanson to act would have been the right approach to take.

Pete Grist ● 4669d

Peter,Maybe you should stand as a councillor?  The fact is our approach worked.  A motion at council isn't a very good way of tackling a facts based issue.  By taking this to OSC we got it discussed in a rather more measured way and members of the public could take part.  We had some very good contributions from them.  Actions are being taken and it is due to the issue being kept at the front of people's minds.  For the same reason I am happy to keep this thread bouncing to the top of the forum too.

Phil Taylor ● 4669d

"A joint effort to get the Environment Agency and Hanson to act.........."    Ha, this is the real world!The EA will never "Act", they've had over 9 years of monitoring & proof gathering and meetings, so why start now? They much prefer to keep their cosy jobs for life by recording data endlessly.And Hanson will also never "Act" until forced to do so, and for that, read the foregoing.So, nothing much gets done to stop the Horn Lane Pollution.

Rosco White ● 4669d

Topic: Re:Mayor pledges £5m to tackle air pollutionPosted by: Rosco White      Date/Time: 22/06/13 10:48:00Even if Ealing Borough gets the funding the Council spoke at the C'tee meeting of planting more shrubs, applying more sticky stuff to the road surfaces, etc - oh, and spending (I recall) c£100,000+ on more consultancy on the problem!Shows just how completely out of touch they are.My suggestion on the night - spend the whole lot of the funding on hiring & training more Enforcement Officers and then Enforce the clear cut Regulations that are already in place and being broken daily.But that's far too commonsensical for Ealing Council.

Rosco White ● 4669d

Rosco, I think you've been misled by the Phil & Vlod posts conflating two separate things - traffic and industrial pollution. The funding bid was for traffic pollution related to specific areas dictated by Boris, unrelated to Horn Lane. The Mayor operates by inviting funding applications from Councils and has a specification  for the basis of such bids and the sort of work envisaged. Surely it is a good thing that the council bids to get such money?This doesn't reduce the importance of sorting out Horn Lane but it is not a case of one or the other.

Pete Grist ● 4667d

The Boris/TfL list of Air Quality Focus Areas was based on traffic modelling, primarily of NO2, and to some extent ignored the information from the monitor network that sheds light on other sources.However, considering the infamous condition of Horn Lane, it was disappointing that the Council document did not mention it as an issue until the ?late-addition of Appendix C.In the Boris press releases, he is quoted as saying “This is all about helping local people to take forward projects that they know will help tackle the most polluted parts of their neighbourhoods.“The more we work together to tackle air quality, the bigger the potential impact, and this funding will be used to make a real improvement.” Ignoring the local people identifying the most polluted parts of their neighbourhoods is not sensible at either local or London-wide levels.

Tim Henderson ● 4667d

Peter,No-one is misleading anyone.  Why don't you want to talk about the issue rather than trying to blacken Vlod and my names?  I don't accuse you of misleading people.  I have been totally transparent that the local Conservatives used the opportunity of the general topic of pollution being raised at cabinet to drag the administration to OSC and in doing so we got action from the council leader.  We don't know how effective that action has been yet.  We will see.The point you are arguing is irrelevant.  We used the mechanisms of the council to hold the administration to account.  That is our job.

Phil Taylor ● 4667d

Anyone know if there was anything positive to report ?Did all the operators show up this time ?

Tim Henderson ● 4663d

Tim,Hanson, Aggregate Industries and Gowing & Pursey were there.  A couple of people from the environment agency and a range of locals with people from SHLAP and WARA were there.  Vlod Barchuk (ex-councillor) of SHLAP chaired.  The council's pollution guy was there (officers failed to make the first meeting).  On the political front Angie Bray, the local MP, was there and I was there as opposition spokesman on Environment.  The leader of the council made it which compensated for the fact that neither his Environment spokesman nor any of the Acton councillors could make it. I will can give more detail when I have seen the minutes and  have more time.  The main point I think is that we can move from monitoring that tells us there is a problem to monitoring that identifies where the problem is coming from so that it can be reduced.  A lot!

Phil Taylor ● 4663d

There's a plethora of monitoring proposed to identify precisely where pollution is originating. We'll see; in the past it's proved impossible to do this.Gowing and Pursey confirmed they are looking to get off the site within six months. They have a site on the Park Royal estate (in Brent). What happens with their site is not clear; ideally not something that involves lots of vehicle movements. The Council's planning policy looks to retain the site for waste transfer, but that looks rather redundant now.

Vlod Barchuk ● 4662d

"The Council's planning policy looks to retain the site for waste transfer,.........."Marvellous foresight from our switched-on, forward thinking Council regarding best use of a site slap bang next door to the last Crossrail Station before Paddington.Genius, I don't know how they do it.

Rosco White ● 4662d

Or maybe not the last one - Boris seems to have a scheme to have a stop at Old Oak Common - at the intersection with HS2  - can't see how both can be justified

Sara Nathan ● 4662d

I see that Defra published the sexy-sounding "Air QualityAssessment Regime Review for the Ambient Air Quality Directive 2008/50/EC" on 17th December in the run up to Christmas.http://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/reports/cat09/1312171445_UK_Air_Quality_Assessment_Regime_Review_for_AQD.pdfIt includes the news that"As a result of the latest assessment, the following local authority managed stations are being proposed for affiliation to the network:England PM10: Horn Lane, Ealing, Greater London Urban Area.... "So from ?September 2015 the air quality results may get reported to Europe to assist in determining whether London pollution meets the health limits in the Directive.Is any more news from the December 5th meeting/ minutes available yet ?

Tim Henderson ● 4606d

Tim,This was mentioned by the Environment Agency guy who was there.  Maire Lowe volunteered to do the minutes.  I will chase her to find out where they are.

Phil Taylor ● 4604d