Councillor Ray Morgon, Leader of Havering Council said:
It is welcome news that the air quality of London is getting better.
However, I am disappointed and somewhat surprised though that for some reason we are unable to see any results broken down for Havering.
There is still concern by some residents about the viability of ULEZ and we really need to see that this has made a difference rather than being an extra tax for cash strapped residents.
The air quality of the borough has actually been on the upward trend anyway, so it would be good to see the evidence of how ULEZ has accelerated this.
When asked about why we can’t get the data, the response was unsatisfactory.
They state that this is due to the differences in each borough in the number of major and minor roads, which in turn affects the number of air quality monitoring stations and ANPR cameras.
This, and the differing geographical sizes of each of the boroughs, means that it is not possible to draw any meaningful data on traffic or air quality measurements for individual boroughs.
The robust method of measuring Central, Inner and Outer London zones reflects the respective iterations of the ULEZ.
At Havering, we don’t think this is good enough.
Air quality monitoring equipment can be installed to solve this problem.
People will invariably improve their vehicles so there needs to be proof that ULEZ is actually still making a difference and isn’t just another road pricing tax.
The Mayor’s office must do better.