A Defra report published on Monday confirms that the Mayor’s Air Quality strategies have failed miserably and have resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands on Londoners. More importantly this highlights the reasons that they have failed, which is because the strategies have been improper and unlawful and they have not been evidence based. There should be an immediate Public Inquiry to establish exactly why this improper conduct has been allowed to continue.
The report confirms that the technologies used to improve emissions from diesel vehicles do not work in an urban environment and that there has been no significant reduction in pollution caused by diesel vehicles in 20 years.
The Mayor and TFL have disregarded evidence about the failings of these technologies and chosen to waste millions of pounds in taxpayers money on projects which can at best be described as misguided and at worst blatantly corrupt.
An example of this is the London Taxi Age Limit, which was initiated by Tory MP Tim Yeo in 2009 at the Tory Party Conference , where he said we need to ‘get rid of these older polluting vehicles’. Boris Johnson then conducted an improper consultation, disregarding credible evidence that the Taxi Age Limit was improper, and introduced the scheme in January 2012.
It was then exposed that Tim Yeo, who initiated the scheme was also the Chairman of Eco City Vehicles, the company selling the new Mercedes Vito taxis that drivers were forced to buy at £43k. Mr Yeo resigned last year when this was exposed but no action was taken. In a letter to MP Andy Slaughter the Mayor denied that Eco City Vehicles had any involvement in the consultation process, even though TFLs minutes of the meetings confirm that they were involved. A similar consultation process which took place for a Taxi Age Limit in Newport, Wales was challenged by a Judicial Review and ruled to be unlawful.
The Defra report now confirms that the new Mercedes Vito taxis that drivers were forced to buy are actually creating MORE NO2 than the older taxis that they were forced to scrap. (see diagram 27)
Figure 27 NO2/NOx emissions from London taxis by year.
The Mercedes Vito is only marginally better for PMs than a taxi that is 20 years old, but the increase in NO2 from the new taxis makes the Taxi Age Limit completely improper and unlawful.
During the Mayoral election last year, Boris Johnson bragged that he ‘had the courage to implement a taxi age limit’. He had refused point blank to conduct any proper testing even though he was challenged to do so many times by London Assembly members. A Public body is required by law to make sure that its decisions are rational, proportional and evidence based.
It is outrageous that this corruption has taken place, but what makes it worse is that tens of thousands of Londoners are dying as a direct result of these corrupt and improper practices.
It does not end there. The Air Quality strategies have led to continued pollution which has cost the NHS Trusts in London £20 billion a year (accoriding to the Assembly Health and Environment Committee report of December 2012). This is at a time when the same NHS Trusts are closing A and E and Maternity wards
The Mayors response when challenged about the improper Taxi Age Limit consultation is a complete lie as demonstrated by the information below (including that from the TFL website clearly showing that Eco City Vehicles WERE INVOLVED IN THE AGE LIMIT CONSULTATION)
An imposed Taxi Age Limit in Newport was overturned by Judicial Review in the High Court for exactly the same reason; an improper and unlawful consultation.
Boris knows that the consultation conducted by TFL was unlawful which is why he has lied about the involvement of Eco City Vehicles.
I find it extremely difficult to understand why no further action has been taken on this issue.
The London Taxi Age Limit is unlawful and has caused thousands of drivers financial hardship. However it has also meant that absolutely nothing has been done to reduce emissions in London and the 4267 deaths every year from pollution have continued. That is 80 people each and every week dying in London and yet absolutely nothing is done to avoid those deaths. If it were a terrorist bomb going off every week killing 80 peoplke something would be done. If a bus or train crashed every single week killing 80 people then there would be an immediate investigation.
Why is there absolutely no accountability in relation to the unlawful conduct of Boris and TFL which is causing these deaths every week from pollution.