The initiatives, announced on World Environmental Health Day, are part of the London Clean Air Fund financed by the Department for Transport at the Mayor’s request, which could reduce levels of PM₁₀ – a pollutant coming mostly from traffic emissions – by between 10 and 20 per cent where applied.

Air quality modelling shows that the vast majority of London already meets the European Commission limit value for annual average PM₁₀, but there are some local hot spots identified as being ‘at risk’ of exceeding limits. The European Commission recently confirmed to the UK government that the Mayor’s plans to reduce PM₁₀pollution by a third by 2015 – including the work of the Clean Air Fund – has reduced the threat of hefty fines.

The latest developments include:

• Expansion of green infrastructure programme – the unveiling of designs for a Green Wall at Edgware Road (Bakerloo line) Tube station, which is due to be in place by November, and plans for around 500 new street trees and shrubs will be planted in the next few months, subject to suitable planting conditions, including on Park Lane, Upper Thames Street, Western Avenue (A40), Old Kent Road (A2), Brixton Road (A23), Woolwich Flyover (rear of Tunnel Ave)
• Launch of business best practice guides – Transport for London (TfL) has called on business to cut their emissions following the launch of best practice guides – these will encourage walking and cycling especially within central London organisations and includes a Clean Air Fund financed trial of electric pool bikes designed to give staff extra pedal power and cut down on unnecessary car journeys;
• Dust suppressants trial will be expanded in October at Marylebone Road, Victoria Embankment and Park Lane.

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: “This is a great example of how we are trying to put the best of the village into the city and work together to create cleaner air for London, and with this latest set of innovations, our assault on pollution – especially near to the busiest roads – is continuing apace.

“Improving quality of life and greening the Capital go hand-in-hand, and these fantastic initiatives are vital steps in the right direction.”

Studies across Europe and the USA have shown the potential of vegetation, including trees and plants, to trap PM₁₀. TfL is currently introducing a range of green infrastructure measures to help improve local air pollution. This work involves the trial of green walls and screens in addition to the 50 6ft planted towers, tree and shrub planting at PM₁₀ hotspots. From early November a green wall is due to be installed at Edgware Road Tube station on the Bakerloo line, adjacent to Marylebone Road, around 180m² of vegetation will cover the wall. It will be planted with a mixture of evergreen and perennial plants which have been carefully selected to trap PM₁₀ and known to survive in a roadside environment. 

Ahead of launching its best practice guides, TfL has been working with around 120 businesses located within PM₁₀ hotspots including the National Union of Students and Cartwright Pickard Architects. The guides will provide further information on how businesses can encourage staff to walk and cycle more both as part of their commute but also travel to and from business meetings.  As part of this programme TfL has the use of 12 electric pool bikes provided by Trek, which are being trialled by selected businesses to provide an alternative means of travel for business meetings.  TfL is also working in partnership with the Central YMCA who are providing workplace activator training, which promotes walking by staff, helping organisations to help relieve congestion as well as improve air quality.

Robin Gargrave, Director of Innovation and Development at Central YMCA, said: “Central YMCA are delighted to be working with TfL to help get London’s workforce more active. Active transport in the form of walking will contribute to individual health, employee productivity and improved air quality. Driven by the belief that everyone has the right to access the health benefits of physical activity, I believe that the CYMCA ‘Workplace Activator’ model which trains a cohort of employees to support their colleagues to take up and make walking a habitual method of getting around London, in tandem with the Mayor’s clean air programme can support organisations in reducing their environmental impact.”

The Clean Air Fund measures will be used flexibly where PM₁₀ levels are highest, allowing for the fact that London’s pollution levels can be weather dependent and influenced by pollution from outside the Capital.

Garrett Emmerson, Chief Operating Officer at TfL, said: “Work to increase the green infrastructure will rapidly increase as planting for the green wall at Edgware Road Tube station and a number of trees and shrubs along PM₁₀ hotspots gets underway in November. Much work has also been done engaging with businesses to encourage them to consider more sustainable practices and provide support on introducing greener ways of working.

“We are beginning to implement a number of projects from the Clean Air Fund now and Londoners are likely to start noticing these. These are measures we can introduce to target local PM₁₀ hotspots and put in place fairly quickly and build on our continuing work to improve air quality across London.”

The Clean Air Fund will fund the following initiatives:

• A team of five eco-marshals will be visiting taxi ranks in pollution hot spots across the Capital to reduce engine idling time for taxis and minicabs whilst promoting eco-driving courses designed to reduce emissions, as well as save cabbies money through efficient driving techniques;
• A no-idling campaign to encourage drivers to switch off their engines when stationary;
• The expansion of a successful ‘dust suppressants’ trial;
• Trials of green walls and screens and additional tree and shrub planting;
• The installation of diesel particulate filters to buses on selected routes running through central London; and
• A programme of engagement with businesses to promote sustainable travel and reduce their air quality impact.

In addition, action is being taken to deliver a permanent legacy of cleaner air right across the Capital. This includes the first ever age limit for black cabs, tighter standards for the Low Emission Zone, cleaner buses, including the New Bus for London and an expanded bike hire scheme.

The innovative TfL pilot will be carried out on 18 buses that will have NO_x abatement systems called Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) fitted, half supplied by each manufacturer.

The abatement system reduces oxides of nitrogen (NO_x) to harmless nitrogen and water. The process involves the injection of urea into the exhaust pipe prior to a catalyst.  The urea decomposes and hydrolyses to ammonia (NH₃) which reacts with NO_x and reduces it to nitrogen and water. The pilot will be carried out over a year on three different marques of buses and the systems tested for their emissions performance and reliability. 

The Mayor’s Air Quality Strategy proposes that, subject to Government support, by 2015 all buses in London will meet the Euro IV standard for NO_x.  While the majority of the 8,500 buses in the Capital’s fleet are already compliant it is estimated that around 2,700 buses will need to be retrofitted this way to meet this standard, which will be a major step towards meeting EU air quality targets in London.

Mike Weston, London Buses Operations Director, said: “London continues to work hard to find ways to improve the emissions and environmental performance of the bus fleet.  Already operating one of the cleanest fleets in Europe, London leads the way by trialling new technology, introducing more environmentally friendly hybrid and hydrogen buses to meet tough EU targets which will protect the health of Londoners.”

TfL has taken considerable steps in the last ten years to reduce the environmental impact of its bus fleet.  All buses achieve Euro IV standard for particulate matter (PM) pollution and, as a result, emissions of particulate matter from the fleet have dropped from over 200 tonnes in 1997 to 14 tonnes in 2010.

This announcement comes in the same week that TfL announced more details on its targeted work to tackle particulate matter pollution in central London, including no-idling measures, green infrastructure and the expansion of an innovative dust suppressant trial.

The study, by researchers at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Centre for Outbreak Analysis and Modelling at Imperial College London, is published today in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters.

The findings come as the Government prepares to decide whether to license farmers to organise the widespread culling of badgers over areas of 150 square kilometres or more in western England.

Bovine TB is a major animal health problem in Britain. In 2009, one in every 10 cattle herds tested showed evidence of bovine TB, leading to 35,000 cattle being slaughtered. In the last decade, the slaughter of infected cattle has cost around £500 million to the taxpayer.

Efforts to control the disease have been hampered by the persistence of Mycobacterium bovis, the bacterium that causes bovine TB, in the wild badger population, and transmission of the disease between species.

The new analysis found that the presence of any reactive culling activity in the previous year within one kilometre of a herd more than doubled the risk of bovine TB, even after adjusting for the number of confirmed outbreaks nearby. The number of badgers culled in the vicinity of the herd was also associated with increased bovine TB risk.

“These findings add to the evidence that localised reactive badger culling has a detrimental effect on tuberculosis risk for cattle,” said Professor Christl Donnelly, from the MRC Centre for Outbreak Analysis and Modelling at Imperial College London, who led the study. “This may explain why culls in the past were ineffective at reducing the incidence of bovine TB.”

The findings may be linked to the observation that surviving badgers in a partly-culled group wander over a larger area, increasing their contact with neighbouring cattle. This is known as the ‘perturbation effect’.

Bovine tuberculosis led to the slaughter of 35,000 cattle in 2009.

The analysis was based on data from the Randomised Badger Culling Trial (RBCT), set up in 1998 by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to evaluate the impact of badger culling on bovine TB risk in cattle. In the RBCT, trial areas were randomly assigned to three strategies: repeated proactive culling across the whole area; reactive one-off localised culling on and around farms following outbreaks, and no culling.

The first analysis of trial data, published in 2003, found that localised badger culling increased the incidence of bovine TB in cattle, leading to reactive culling being suspended. However, some researchers questioned the way in which the results were interpreted.

The new analysis, using data from 1998 to 2007, considered only herds in the reactive culling areas. The researchers carried out a ‘case-control analysis’ of 604 pairs of herds, comparing herds with confirmed bovine TB outbreaks with herds that were tested but revealed no evidence of infection.

Londoners take it for granted that their streets get properly cleaned, but would feel considerably less safe and expect a rise in anti-social behaviour if the services were to be severely cut back, according to new research.

Local authorities in England spend £885 million a year on street cleansing, and in London alone the bill for street cleansing is £263 million. Due to government cut-backs, London Councils and Keep Britain Tidy wanted to find out if Londoners think the street cleansing service, which includes clearing litter and tackling issues such as fly-tipping, dog fouling and graffiti, is still a priority or whether they think it should be cut back in favour of other public services.

The research shows that, although Londoners are likely to report that other aspects of social spending should be prioritised over street cleansing, the majority agree that changes to current service delivery will cause a deep sense of dissatisfaction among service users.

London Councils and Keep Britain Tidy believe this is because residents take services that perform well – and under the radar – for granted.

A representative sample of London residents were asked what they thought would be the likely consequences of stopping street cleansing services in their local area. 59 per cent believe that stopping street cleansing services would lead to an increase in anti-social behaviour. 53 per cent believe property prices would fall and 51 per cent of Londoners think that residents would feel less safe in their local areas.

Chair of London Councils Transport and Environment Committee policy sub group, Councillor Nilgun Canver said:

“Despite government cutbacks, no local authority in London is advocating cutting street cleansing services completely. It is important to note that many Londoners continue to help out in the current economic climate.

“We can see that Londoners are happier living in their areas than people in other parts of the country and we want need their support to help things stay that way. By reporting environmental crimes like fly-tipping, fly-posting and dropping chewing gum or getting involved in litter-picking events, Londoners are doing their bit and this helps us to tackle enviro-crime”.

Keep Britain Tidy’s Insight Manager Sally Lewis comments:”In these times of austerity, it is increasingly important that we work to understand how people prioritise public services. However, we must be careful not to assume that this prioritisation correlates with an acceptance of any real changes in service delivery.

Street cleansing is an important aspect of what makes an area a great place to live, work and play. The Londoners we spoke to during the research were quick to recognise this when we talked about the implications of any cuts to the current level of service. “The good news for those with an interest in the Big Society a halt in street cleansing services would lead to residents taking more responsibility for their local areas.

The research also looks at how changing resident priorities on public sector spend impact on the ways in which Londoners would like authority bodies to address local environmental quality.

The research focuses on the results of five focus groups, conducted with residents from across Greater London. The findings are complemented by a short series of quantitative queries include on a regularly conducted London-wide online survey.

Residents were told they were in charge of the London budget for the next six months and were supplied with a budget to spend over ten service areas accordingly.

The services were prioritised as follows: education, health, policing, investments in the future, housing, transport, welfare, community safety, street cleansing and environmental services.