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Stop Killing Cyclists targets DfT in pollution protestStop Killing Cyclists protest at Bank (photo by Tom Kearney via Twitter)

Stop Killing Cyclists targets DfT in pollution protest

Campaign group says government is doing too little to reduce air pollution that kills 9,500 Londoners per year
by Laura Laker
Mon, Feb 29, 2016 16:16
3

Stop Killing Cyclists is staging a protest outside the Department for Transport (DfT) headquarters to highlight the more than 9,500 Londoners it says are “poisoned to death each year by transport pollution”.

The group, known for its die-ins, is calling supporters to meet on 27 April on Horseferry Road at 5pm to protest government policy it says is doing too little to tackle air pollution, while prioritising the least efficient private motor cars.

The group’s co-founder, Donnachadh McCarthy, has suggested a ban to private cars in London each time EU air quality levels are broken, with a total ban on diesel cars within five years and all fossil fuel engines within ten years.

Boardman: air pollution deaths should be treated as "full-blown crisis"

He says: “The [Stop Killing Cyclists] organising committee have decided we needed to stage a pollution protest on Wednesday April 27th, outside the Ministry for Transport on Horseferry Road, as over 9,500 Londoners are being poisoned to death each year by transport pollution.

“This includes about 3,800 bike owners, which dwarfs the 15 killed by traffic every year (up to introduction of latest truck safety measures).

“It is truly horrendous that London's traffic pollution is stunting the development children's lungs, thus disabling them for life!!”

“But we currently have no policy other than promoting cycling infrastructure and making cycling safer for everyone.”

He says the government is blocking progress on cutting pollution via measures such as increased taxes on greener cars while reducing taxes on more polluting vehicles, as well as lobbying the EU to relax pollution testing standards following the VW emissions scandal. McCarthy also criticised the banning of cameras to enforce parking restrictions, and government plans for London and other UK cities, including Birmingham and Leeds, to exceed EU pollution limits until 2030.

Stop Killing Cyclists
Air Pollution
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Department for Transport
Donnachadh McCarthy
Laura Laker

Laura Laker is a freelance journalist with more than a decade’s experience covering cycling, walking and wheeling (and other means of transport). Beginning her career with road.cc, Laura has also written for national and specialist titles of all stripes. One part of the popular Streets Ahead podcast, she sometimes appears as a talking head on TV and radio, and in real life at conferences and festivals. She is also the author of Potholes and Pavements: a Bumpy Ride on Britain’s National Cycle Network.

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ironmancole | 8 years ago
0 likes

This is superb, so so happy to read this and Clientearth are a superb group.  Goes to show the government can, will and should be challenged on their clear apathy towards issues where lives are lost.  I wonder how their pals in the motor industry are going to get round this one?!

 

Final legal warning gives government 10 days to act on air pollution

1 March 2016

ClientEarth has sent a final legal warning to the UK government which gives the Environment Secretary, Liz Truss, 10 days to act on air pollution or face action in the High Court.

Environmental law organisation ClientEarth, which won a Supreme Court judgment on air pollution against the government last April, issued the legal letter because Defra's plans to tackle illegal levels of pollution fall woefully short of what was ordered by the court.

An estimated 40,000 people die early due to air pollution in the UK every year. The government's current plans, which it was ordered to produce by the Supreme Court after losing to ClientEarth last year, do not envisage the UK to have legal levels of air pollution until 2025.

ClientEarth CEO James Thornton, said: "Despite an order from the UK's highest court, despite tens of thousands of premature deaths in this country every year and despite clear evidence to show that air pollution has a terrible effect on the health of vulnerable groups like children, the government has consistently ducked its responsibility to ensure our right to clean air.

"We have had to issue this legal warning to the government because of its failure to produce a plan that would bring air pollution down as soon as possible."

ClientEarth has asked the government to produce new plans with a list of measures that will bring air pollution within legal limits in the shortest time possible and put these plans out to public consultation.

If ClientEarth does not receive a satisfactory reply within 10 days, it will launch legal proceedings in the High Court.

 

Link here if you're interested in more -

http://www.clientearth.org/

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Christopher TR1 | 8 years ago
3 likes

Not just a London problem.

Lovely bright, crisp morning this morning... and then you wait at the lights, surrounded by cars belching out clouds of noxious smoke, made more obvious by the sub-zero temperature.

I just don't need it. Cars are for the disabled, full stop.

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Donnachadh McCarthy replied to Christopher TR1 | 8 years ago
2 likes

Christopher TR1 wrote:

Not just a London problem.

Lovely bright, crisp morning this morning... and then you wait at the lights, surrounded by cars belching out clouds of noxious smoke, made more obvious by the sub-zero temperature.

I just don't need it. Cars are for the disabled, full stop.

yes we agree this is a UK wide issue - hence our protest will be outside disgraceful Department of Transport willing to sacrifice thousands of British lives on the altar of the motoring lobby profits... and not outside London's TfL
Everybody welcome - no matter where they are from and whether they cycle or not.

 

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