Pair urge council to spend clean air camera money on other green measures

By Ben Lynch, Local Democracy Reporter

A west London council has been urged to redirect funding for cameras enforcing its clean air programme to alternative measures, such as more school streets and electric charging points.

Donald Grant, chairman of the Camera Traffic Consulting Group, and Lauren Clark, who runs Randall’s Butchers in Wandsworth Road, made the request at Monday night’s Hammersmith and Fulham cabinet meeting. Items including proposed council tax levels and the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) budget were voted on.

Cllr Rowan Ree, cabinet member for finance and reform, said the Clean Air Neighbourhoods (CANs) investment the pair were referring to did not include additional spending on cameras, but instead brought together funding for actions like improved drainage and new cycle paths.

The council’s CAN programme in South Fulham is intended to cut air pollution with sustainable drainage schemes, better walking and cycling infrastructure and initiatives like school streets.

Cameras are also deployed to discourage rat-running by out-of-borough drivers, who are fined if caught going through the zones.

Exemptions are provided for groups such as black cab drivers, carers and residents, with the council claiming the first permanent CAN – to the east of Wandsworth Bridge – has led to 8,000 fewer cars entering the area each day.

A second scheme – to the west of the bridge – is currently being trialled. A decision on whether to make it permanent is due later this year.

Some have questioned the council’s findings, calling them ‘selective’ and not representative of the impact on local businesses and residents.

A recent social media clip also raised concerns about women’s safety, after Uber drivers refused to drop passengers home if it meant them having to drive into the CAN zones.

At the cabinet meeting, Mr Grant said the council had yet to publish data on the current trial, leaving residents in the dark on its impact.

He added the local authority’s claim the permanent scheme has cut the number of vehicles by thousands does not detail whether those emissions have been moved elsewhere.

Mr Grant asked for any money designated for the CAN cameras to be spent on “solutions which benefit everyone, including those left behind”. He continued to give examples of one-way streets with speed controls, school streets and more electric charging points.

“This won’t go away until the cameras go away,” he concluded.

Cllr Ree said: “The line item in the appendix I think this refers to isn’t additional spending on cameras.

“This is bringing together the £2.8million of highway spending that we are looking at undertaking over the year, and that covers things like improved drainage, increasing the number of green spaces, planting new trees and providing additional cycle paths.”