Camden success in bidding for funding to improve London’s air quality
Camden Council has successfully bid to the Mayor of London, Transport for London and London Councils for new funding to help implement the switch to zero emission vehicles to tackle air quality problems in both the borough and London wide.
The ‘Neighbourhoods of the Future’ fund has awarded grants to Council’s that combine innovative green technology and other initiatives to tackle air quality emergency directly at a local level. This follows on from Camden's recent adoption of tougher World Health Organization standards on air pollution, the first borough in the country to do so.
Camden successfully bid for £359,500, which will be match funded, to help fund a School Low Emission Neighbourhood in the Frognal and Fitzjohns area. The proposal will see 8,500 pupils at 23 schools benefit from streets in the vicinity being restricted to electric vehicles and local access only, electric vehicle charging points in school car parks and points to power up at lamp posts close to home.
Concerns about air quality in this area are high on the agenda for residents, schools and the Council, which has been running a Clean Air for Camden campaign.
“Cleaning up our air is one of the major challenges of our era. Concerns about air quality in this area are high on the agenda for the council, residents and schools.
“This funding will allow us to install new electric vehicle charging points in the Fitzjohns and Frognal area of Hampstead, where a community-led air-monitoring project identified that there was a particular problem.
“The impact of the ‘school run’ is something residents across the borough have raised with us very forcefully. With this new funding, pupils will benefit from a range of measures, including streets in the local area being restricted to electric vehicles and local access only.”
The funding will allow the council to provide five, ‘fast’ charge points, and five ‘standard’ charging points at school car parks in the study area, helping to cater for a mix of demand from delivery vehicles and teaching staff.
The Council will also implement three ‘Healthy School Streets’ across the area, restricting traffic on those streets, at the start and end of the school day, except for essential access and electric vehicles.
The Council will also map where pupils travel from within Camden and provide additional ‘lamp column’ charging points at the ‘home’ end of the school run, whilst also undertake a feasibility study to investigate the potential for consolidating school deliveries across the area with the ‘last mile’ journeys being made by electric vehicles.
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