Drivers urged to switch off engines to help improve air quality outside schools
Cllr Sophie McGeevor, Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport and Cllr Luke Sorba, Ward Councillor for Telegraph Hill, visited John Stainer Community Primary School – one of the schools where signage will be installed – to meet with Headteacher, Mrs Shermane Okorodudu, and pupils this week.
An idling car can produce up to twice as many exhaust fumes than a moving car, which contain harmful pollutants that significantly affect the local quality of air - putting people’s health at risk, affecting children’s development and contributing towards climate change.
As part of its work to address air pollution, the Council is installing signs urging drivers to switch their engines off when parked outside local schools across the borough, and reminding them of enforcement action that can be taken against them if they continue to engine idle. The Council introduced an £80 fine for engine idling in 2019 to deter drivers from leaving their engines running.
The Council is also working with the London-wide Idling Action initiative to deliver anti-idling and air quality workshops and events in local schools.
Initiatives that tackle engine idling will work alongside other environmental measures to improve air quality, as part of the Council’s new Air Quality Action Plan 2022-2027, which is set to be approved by Lewisham’s Mayor and Cabinet later this year.
This work will also go hand-in-hand with ongoing initiatives across the borough that are helping to create a greener Lewisham, including planting over 26,000 trees, including 700 new street trees; making Council buildings, adult learning centres and some schools more energy efficient; and introducing 45 School Streets outside local primary schools, which improve air quality and road safety by closing roads outside schools to through-traffic at the start and end of the school day.
The signs will be installed over the next few months outside local schools that are currently without School Streets – more School Streets will be introduced in the next school year.
Cllr Sophie McGeevor, Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport, said: “Air quality in Lewisham and London is improving as a result of School Streets, the Ultra Low Emission Zone and other measures to help people walk and cycle more. However, as an inner-city borough, we know that even more needs to be done to protect local children from toxic emissions and to encourage everyone to make small changes that will have a huge impact in the fight against air pollution.
“An idling car can produce up to twice as much exhaust emissions as a moving car, but many people don’t realise the risk that leaving engines switched on has on people’s health, children’s development and our environment. By reminding parents to turn their engines off whilst parked, we can help protect young lungs and create a cleaner, greener and healthier borough.”